Brisbane Bus Priority

[#Metro]

Bus priority is a simple, rapid and effective no-new infrastructure solution to bus congestion.

Perth

[OzGamer]

And every time we elect an LNP government or council it all gets ripped up. Even the new Kingsford Smith Drive and Wynnum Road upgrades have no bus priority on them at all.

It's astounding.

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/_QBIC/status/878041570619961345

==========================

Queensland Bus Industry Council Inc.

June 22, 2017

Media Release

More bus lanes needed to tackle congestion

Public transport authorities need to speed up the introduction of more bus lanes and busways in
Brisbane to address growing congestion problems, according to the Queensland Bus Industry Council
(QBIC).

Executive director David Tape says traffic is already choked in the CBD and major arterial roadways
and congestion will only worsen as the population increases, which will lead to a higher volume of
vehicles on the roads.

"A bus takes roughly 50 cars off the road, so it's logical that more buses on the road will equal fewer
cars on the roads," said Mr Tape.

"The benefits of fewer vehicles on roads include less wear and tear on road surfaces and less
pollution. "It's about moving people more efficiently and quicker."

Mr Tape said governments should use data available now to identify hotspots and congestion in and
around busy intersections to plan for the future.

"We need priority bus signalling at those hotspots so buses can get around easier and we can move
people to and from home and work quicker.

"Congestion is slowing down our economy. As soon as we build a road it fills up with cars and that's
not a good outcome.

"We want an efficient, integrated transport network that is accessible to everyone."

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/_QBIC/status/878037793863114752

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> Bus lanes or busways? Either way, Brisbane needs more

Brisbane needs more bus lanes and busways to tackle congestion, an industry group has argued.

The Queensland Bus Industry Council is calling for more bus lanes, busways and priority signalling at congestion hot spots.

"We need to move people through those congestion hot spots more efficiently and quicker," executive director David Tape said.

The idea has been welcomed by a public transport expert.

Bus lanes can be created by giving up a lane on an existing road, whereas busways are dedicated infrastructure separate from other vehicles, allowing quick travel largely avoiding traffic lights, for example the South East Busway linking the city to Eight Mile Plains.

Priority signalling allows buses to take off ahead of other vehicles at intersections.
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Mr Tape said traffic was already choked in the CBD and major arterial roads and congestion would worsen as the population increased. He said buses were part of the solution with other transport modes such as rail and active transport.

"A bus takes roughly 50 cars off the road, so it's logical that more buses on the road will equal fewer cars on the road," he said.

Mr Tape said the government should use data to identify congestion hot spots and suggested five bus lane sites could be trialled in Brisbane for 12 months.

A 2015 federal government report predicted the cost of metropolitan congestion could rise to about $30 billion by 2030.

Mr Tape said the answer was not always building new, but looking at current infrastructure and using it better.

"To build busways takes up some land ... That's a costly exercise. We already have our road lanes in place," he said.

"But are we serious about reducing the cost of congestion and the impact it's having now and into the future on our economy and on our productivity? Sooner or later we have to draw a line in the sand."

Griffith University Cities Research Institute Associate Professor Matthew Burke said he was a huge supporter of more bus lanes and busways, and said Brisbane's busways were an "outstanding success".

"In terms of congestion relief, the South East Busway now carries more people than the entire inbound lanes of the freeway at a faster pace, making an awful lot of people happier than if they were still in their cars," he said.

"The city just wouldn't function without them."

Dr Burke said extending the South East Busway to Logan would reduce congestion on the M1.

He also supported judicious use of P3 and P2 lanes where car-pooling drivers could share the lane with buses, with the potential to convert them to bus-only lanes.

But RACQ advocacy spokesman Paul Turner said dedicated busways were expensive and not flexible.

"Busways can cost hundreds of millions of dollars and can only ever be used by buses unless they're repurposed again at a high cost," Mr Turner said.

He said dedicated bus lanes - a much cheaper option - improved running times, which hopefully encouraged more people to use public transport.

Acting Premier and Transport Minister Jackie Trad said congestion-busting was a key government priority.

Ms Trad said the state government's Cross River Rail and the council's Brisbane Metro would enable major transformation of Brisbane's public transport network, including the busways.

Brisbane City Council Public and Active Transport chairman Councillor Adrian Schrinner said the council believed bus congestion would be best reduced with the extension of dedicated busways.

Cr Schrinner pointed to state government plans to extend busways to Carindale, Chermside and Springwood.

"Council is calling on the state government to prioritise this infrastructure, which will also allow for high-frequency Brisbane Metro services to be extended to the outer suburbs," he said.

"With off-board ticketing and high-capacity vehicles, the Brisbane Metro will deliver the most efficient use of our busway infrastructure with up to 50 per cent travel time savings for passengers, and reduce bus congestion in the inner-city."

[#Metro]

Just implement full bus reform. It's cost neutral and won't take that long.

In areas where buses run off busway, give them traffic light priority. Rationalise the stops to be at a decent distance apart.

It's not rocket science.

It's almost like they want it to be hard so that they can put off doing it.

[ozbob]

Gold Coast Bulletin --> The Gold Coast's trams are a success but research shows light rail is yet to make a dent on road congestion


The first track being laid at the intersection of Napper Rd and Smith St for stage two of light rail.

THE Gold Coast's trams are successfully attracting passengers but independent research shows they are yet to make a dent on road congestion.

The first stage of light rail from Parklands to Broadbeach has only switched regular public transport users from buses to trams.

Transport consultant Eric Keys, in a paper for the Australasian Transport Research Forum, wrote: "While the G: Link is enjoying healthy ridership the available evidence shows the project has failed to deliver the key outcome of increased regional public transport use."

Public transport lobbyists have told the Bulletin a poor system of bus transfers in stage one was the cause of the failure.

Mr Keys said investment in light rail was often controversial yet it could trigger urban renewal and was more affordable and popular than buses and heavy rail.

He said the $1.3 billion first stage of Coast light rail had "successfully delivered its outputs".

But the claim that "patronage continues to exceed expectations, with an average of more than 18,200 trips made on the G: each day" was at odds with original project estimates.

The Concept Design and Impact Management Plan had forecast a 59 per cent increase in daily regional public transport patronage from 124,500 to 197,750.

Department of Transport and Main Roads data reveals 6.18 million light rail passengers in the 2014-15 financial year — about 18,200 trips per day — but that was offset by a decline of 6.15 million bus users.

In 2008, TransLink forecast trams and the wider public transport network would remove 40,000 car trips.

"In practice it can be observed that there has been no material change in public transport use and so it seems unlikely any mode shift has occurred," Mr Keys said.

The stage two route to Helensvale due to be completed before Christmas would "provide some boost to patronage".

But whether it was a "cost effectiveTRAMS: solution" remained "a matter for conjecture".

RAIL Back on Track spokesman Robert Dow predicts that once all the tram routes are built "it will end up one of the great world light rail systems".

"You will have this hard core of light rail supported by buses. It will be attractive to people. What has to happen is buses have to be given road priority," Mr Dow said.

He said it was important to understand that it would be impossible to reduce the numbers of cars on the road "in an absolute sense".

Expanding the light rail system would reduce some of the anticipated increase in vehicles as population increased on the Coast.

"The bus network on the Gold Coast has been treated shabbily by TransLink. They have to increase the network, increase capacity and hours," Mr Dow said.

"I think with stage two in light rail there is an opportunity to increase bus networks. I think you will start to see significant gains in bus patronage.

"At the moment some bus routes stop at four in the afternoon. It's lunacy."

RAIL Back on Track's Robert Dow is a big supporter of Gold Coast light rail. Picture: Peter Cronin

[SurfRail]

I've read this paper previously - it is full of factual errors, and doesn't take any notice of the 2015-2016 patronage growth of nearly 20%.

It doesn't contain any kind of original research, it is just a restatement (and misinterpreted at that) of some DTMR figures.

It's also not solely about the GCLR, but light rail generally.

[Mr X]

To be honest, there's no point extending either the Eastern or the SE Busways until the core section is fixed (with the Metro). Those extra busses will just make the central gridlock worse.

[achiruel]

To be honest, there's no point extending either the Eastern or the SE Busways until the core section is fixed (with the Metro). Those extra busses will just make the central gridlock worse.

The buses already run anyway. They would just be in traffic congestion less if these busways were extended.

[verbatim9]

Bus priority approach can be good at some intersections. Not just induction loops that detect a bus and let them proceed prior general traffic. But give them a wave of priority green especially for late running buses.

Transit signal priority techniques can generally be classified as "active" or "passive". Active TSP techniques typically involve optimizing signal timing or coordinating successive signals to create a "green wave" for traffic along the transit line's route. Passive techniques require no specialized hardware (such as bus detectors and specialized traffic signal controllers) and rely on simply improving traffic for all vehicles along the transit vehicle's route.

Active TSP techniques rely on detecting transit vehicles as they approach an intersection and adjusting the signal timing dynamically to improve service for the transit vehicle. Unlike passive techniques, active TSP requires specialized hardware: the detection system typically involves a transmitter on the transit vehicle and one or more receivers (detectors), and the signal controller must be "TSP capable", i.e. sophisticated enough to perform the required timing adjustments. Active strategies include:

Green Extension: This strategy is used to extend the green interval by up to a preset maximum value if a transit vehicle is approaching. Detectors are located so that any transit vehicle that would just miss the green light ("just" meaning by no more than the specified maximum green extension time) extends the green and is able to clear the intersection rather than waiting through an entire red interval. Green Extension provides a benefit to a relatively small percentage of buses (only buses that arrive during a short window each cycle benefit), but the reduction in delay for those buses that do benefit is large (an entire red interval).Early Green (aka red truncation): This strategy is used to shorten the conflicting phases whenever a bus arrives at a red light in order to return to the bus's phase sooner. The conflicting phases are not ended immediately like they are for emergency vehicle preemption systems but are shortened by a predetermined amount. Early green benefits a large portion of buses (any bus that arrives at a red light) but provides a relatively modest benefit to those buses. Early green can be combined with green extension at the same intersection to increase the average benefits for transit.Early Red: If a transit vehicle is approaching during a green interval, but is far enough away that the light would change to red by the time it arrives, the green interval is ended early and the conflicting phases are served. The signal can then return to the transit vehicle's phase sooner than it otherwise would. Early red is largely theoretical and is not commonly used in practice.Phase Rotation: The order of phases at the intersection can be shuffled so that transit vehicles arrive during the phase they need. For example, it is common for traffic controllers to give protected left turn phases followed by the adjacent through phases ("leading lefts"); however, this order can be reversed so that the through phases are followed by protected lefts ("lagging lefts"). A signal with phase rotation enabled could switch from its normal leading left operation to a lagging left sequence if a left-turning bus is expected to arrive after the normally scheduled leading left phase would end.Actuated Transit Phase(s): These are phases that are only called if a transit vehicle is present. These might be seen along streetcar lines or on dedicated bus lanes. They could also be used where transit vehicles are allowed to make movements that general traffic is not ("No Left Turn Except Buses") or at the entrances and exits to transit hubs (e.g. bus stations). Transit signal faces often look different from a standard green/yellow/red face to avoid confusion with the signals for general traffic. For example, bus traffic signals may show a letter "B" while trams and Light Rail Vehicles may show a letter "T".Phase Insertion: This strategy allows a signal controller to return to a critical phase more than once in the same cycle if transit vehicles that use that phase are detected. For example, if a left-turning bus arrives at an intersection after the left turn phase has been served, the signal can insert a second left turn phase before proceeding to serve the side street.

^^The article is pertaining driving on the right, so left hand turns are replaced by right hand turns in Australia's case.

[Golliwog]

...or why not adapt some IT technology TMR developed for emergency vehicle priority to be used at some locations for buses?
https://www.tmr.qld.gov.au/Safety/Road-safety/Emergency-Vehicle-Priority.aspx

TMR won a bunch of international awards for it:

Awards received

    2013 National and Queensland iAward in the Service Domain – Government Category for its outstanding ICT innovation dedicated to delivering improved government service delivery to the community.
    Public Safety Business Agency and Department of Transport and Main Roads, won the People and Community Category of the Queensland Spatial Excellence Awards, recognising the innovative use of spatial information and tools behind delivering the EVP project: October 2014
    In November 2014, the EVP Project also won the ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) Australia Government category award for the successful Emergency Vehicle Priority implementation in Samford Road, Brisbane.
    In October 2015 at the International ITS Congress held in Bordeaux, France, the EVP system won the Hall of Fame award in the Local Government category.
    2016 Australian Road Safety Awards – State Government Initiatives, and Founder's award for Outstanding Achievement.

You would already have the GPS location data from the Real Time feed - though I think real time location only updates once per minute, EVP from memory updates something like once every 4 seconds. EVP is based on a dispatch system knowing exactly where the ambulance/fire truck is being sent - but a bus is following a route so just need to link a GPS location to a route number.

I think the issue would be the shear number of buses in some corridors - but could target some key locations, particularly if there's a bus jump lane.

[verbatim9]

...or why not adapt some IT technology TMR developed for emergency vehicle priority to be used at some locations for buses?
https://www.tmr.qld.gov.au/Safety/Road-safety/Emergency-Vehicle-Priority.aspx

TMR won a bunch of international awards for it:

Awards received

    2013 National and Queensland iAward in the Service Domain – Government Category for its outstanding ICT innovation dedicated to delivering improved government service delivery to the community.
    Public Safety Business Agency and Department of Transport and Main Roads, won the People and Community Category of the Queensland Spatial Excellence Awards, recognising the innovative use of spatial information and tools behind delivering the EVP project: October 2014
    In November 2014, the EVP Project also won the ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) Australia Government category award for the successful Emergency Vehicle Priority implementation in Samford Road, Brisbane.
    In October 2015 at the International ITS Congress held in Bordeaux, France, the EVP system won the Hall of Fame award in the Local Government category.
    2016 Australian Road Safety Awards – State Government Initiatives, and Founder's award for Outstanding Achievement.

You would already have the GPS location data from the Real Time feed - though I think real time location only updates once per minute, EVP from memory updates something like once every 4 seconds. EVP is based on a dispatch system knowing exactly where the ambulance/fire truck is being sent - but a bus is following a route so just need to link a GPS location to a route number.

I think the issue would be the shear number of buses in some corridors - but could target some key locations, particularly if there's a bus jump lane.

Great Idea! If people in cars see buses queue jumping and having priority approach at lights. It will make drivers of cars think again which is the preferred mode other than driving a car to work.

[verbatim9]

Auckland setting the example for bus priority ---> https://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=13306.msg280326#msg280326