[sustran] Re: Busway Operation

[Walter Hook]

Your interpretation is correct. 

Of course, it depends...

Many of the capacity constraint issues do not become problems until you are
trying to reach capacity levels that developed country cities will rarely
need to reach.  Low floor buses tend to hold fewer passengers because the
wheel wells occupy a lot of space inside the bus.  The buses also tend to be
more expensive.  These issues are not so important in first world cities
like Ottawa.  What is the capacity in Ottawa?

You can have pre-paid curb-side boarding stations like in Curitiba, and low
platforms meeting low floor buses, but that means you need two stations
instead of one for each station stop, which generally consumes more right of
way or ends up with very narrow stations, and hence more difficulties in
finding the right of way to put in a passing lane.  The lower platform
height constitutes less of a barrier to illegal entry to the station.  It is
only marginally more expensive to put doors on both sides of the bus, and
the operational advantages of having the bus stop in the central median
shared by both directions of traffic generally justify the additional bus
expense, but of course there will be exceptions, like if the buses operate
in mixed traffic only on one way streets, or conformity with ADA regs is an
issue, etc. 


 
-----Original Message-----
From: sustran-discuss-bounces+whook=itdp.org at list.jca.apc.org
[mailto:sustran-discuss-bounces+whook=itdp.org at list.jca.apc.org] On Behalf
Of Alan Howes
Sent: Monday, September 11, 2006 10:59 AM
To: Global 'South' Sustainable Transport
Cc: Transit-Prof at yahoogroups.com; Peter Lutman
Subject: [sustran] Re: Busway Operation

Must have a look at that website, Walter - 

But is your statement that "it requires a bus with doors on both sides
of the bus" based on the premise that buses captive to the system will
have high floors and platform-level loading on the off-side, while the
"intruders" will have low-level boarding on the nearside?  This is one
way of doing it, but not the only way.  All buses could have low floors
and nearside boarding - the Ottawa Transitway is not closed, and AFAIK
the buses have doors on one side only.  (Not sure it has any captive
buses though, and you may not consider it BRT.)

In general, I see what you are driving at and agree - but one of the
merits of BRT is that it is a flexible concept, not "one size fits all".
If you want max capacity then you need mega-buses that will have
problems on ordinary roads - but if you are prepared to sacrifice some
capacity then a mix of bus sizes is fine.

>From my [armchair] experience, I have concluded that the main constraint
on capacity is actually the stations, particularly in a CBD or the like
where large proportions of the pax on a bus are getting on or off.

Alan


--
Alan Howes
Associate Transport Planner
Colin Buchanan 
4 St Colme Street
Edinburgh      EH3 6AA
Scotland
email:  alan.howes at cbuchanan.co.uk
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-----Original Message-----
From:
sustran-discuss-bounces+alan.howes=cbuchanan.co.uk at list.jca.apc.org
[mailto:sustran-discuss-bounces+alan.howes=cbuchanan.co.uk at list.jca.apc.
org] On Behalf Of Walter Hook
Sent: 11 September 2006 15:27
To: 'Global 'South' Sustainable Transport'
Subject: [sustran] Re: Busway Operation

Dear Jonathan,

It is quite possible to design a busway with buses entering and leaving
the busway which has as high a capacity as a closed busway.  However, it
requires a bus with doors on both sides of the bus, it requires still
having off board ticket collection along the corridor, (which implies
some duplication of ticketing systems) and platform level boarding.  It
also requires that the streets where the normal buses operate can handle
larger buses (if they are required).  The problem is that this requires
replacing a very large bus fleet, which is very expensive.  By the way,
no system like this has yet been designed, to my knowledge, but we are
working on just such
a system in Guangzhou.   

However, it is important that the system is 'closed' in the sense that
not any bus can use the system, only buses conforming to a required
technical specification and under a specific management authority.  By
this definition, this is still a 'closed' system, even if the routes
involve some that operate both on trunk lines and some in mixed traffic.


If you need to see the details for calculating capacity, you can for now
go to a non-linked part of the itdp web site, and check the to
operations chapters, at www.itdp.org/brt_guide.html.  I hope to have the
fully formatted new version up in a few weeks, but this will probably
have the information you need. 

Walter 

-----Original Message-----
From: sustran-discuss-bounces+whook=itdp.org at list.jca.apc.org
[mailto:sustran-discuss-bounces+whook=itdp.org at list.jca.apc.org] On
Behalf Of Jonathan E. D. Richmond
Sent: Sunday, September 10, 2006 3:32 AM
To: Sustran List
Subject: [sustran] Busway Operation


If anyone is an expert in busway implementation and operation and can
help with the following question, could they please be in touch with me.
The specific question I am trying to answer is "What is the difference
in capacity and operational viability and efficiency of an open as
against a closed busway." On an open busway, buses may enter and leave
at various points. With a closed busway, buses are isolated on the
busway itself, and do not enter or leave for distribution at teh
residential or city centre end. Thanks! --Jonathan!


-----
Jonathan Richmond
Transport Adviser to the Government of Mauritius Ministry of Public
Infrastructure, Land Transport and Shipping Level 4 New Government
Centre Port Louis Mauritius

1 (617) 395-4360 (for voicemail)

e-mail: richmond at alum.mit.edu
http://the-tech.mit.edu/~richmond/
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