Integrated Public Transport - The Cobweb Approach

[Derwan]

I assume that something like this has been thought of before - perhaps even the same name given to it.  But as I was walking home from the station the other day (the CPTF still fresh in my mind), I thought we needed a more planned and integrated approach to Public Transport in Brisbane.  I came up with the idea of the cobweb approach.

See my horrible diagram of a cobweb below:



The black lines represent train lines, busways and other major bus routes.  The red lines represent general buses.  These buses don't go into the city.  The act as feeder and cross-suburb buses.  They would run both ways around the radius.

Under this approach, more people could catch Public Transport (end-to-end) with perhaps a little Active Transport from their home to the nearest bus stop.

The major lines would require the capacity to take everyone in and out of the city, rather than having every local bus go into the city.

The need for so many to travel in and out of the city to get anywhere would be reduced.  You could zigzag your way across a couple of suburbs.

If there was a problem with one of the major lines (e.g. track fault on a train line), people would simply jump on a cross-suburb bus that would take them to the next major line, reducing the immediate requirement for replacement buses.  (Granted it would take a while!)

As you go further out, you may need some major branches (like a tree) that feed into the major lines to reduce the distance travelled by the cross-suburb buses between the major lines/branches.

Obviously for Brisbane the river is a major obstacle to complete the full radial effect.  Some buses may need to only do half the circle (windscreen wiper effect).

What do you think?  Yes - this is an idea I dreamt up.  Should it stay a dream - or does it have merit?  (Has it been thought of before?)

[#Metro]

Yes it has been though of before. Actually, if you look at the freeway systems in many cities both here and overseas, they also form more or less the same shape- freeways to the centre and a number of orbital routes.

So even roads depend on transfers!

It's called a tunk & transfer or "transfer based network" which leads to something called the network effect and is discussed extensively by the doyen of this kind of system, Dr Paul Mees. You would have smaller buses and minor local routes feed the trunk lines.

http://books.google.com.au/books?id=D3K0FMVhcjsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Transport+for+Suburbia&hl=en&ei=0CqXTIi4C4bqvQO69vmZDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

It also works with grids.

[#Metro]

Obviously for Brisbane the river is a major obstacle to complete the full radial effect.  Some buses may need to only do half the circle (windscreen wiper effect).

Some more green bridges are needed in the inner city, and they should carry buses or light rail too.