The next BUZ route is...

[#Metro]

Vote for which route should be BUZzed for 2010.


Poll will expire on the 8th January 2010!

[Jon Bryant]

All buz routes must run in a dedicated bus lane

[somebody]

All buz routes must run in a dedicated bus lane

A little strong.  Sydney has pretty much stopped all new transit lanes.  All new priority measures are 24 hour bus lanes with camera enforcement.  I think  Brisbane should follow suit.  A few places that this should be done are: Mains Rd, Gympie/Lutwyche Rd, Milton Rd (well, would probably require a widenning to 6 lanes)

Regarding the poll, I'm not too familiar with any of those routes, so I might stay out of this one.

[Jon Bryant]

Why is it little strong!  Why provide a frequent bus service if it is going to sit in peak hour congestion.  How inefficient.  The rest of your comment seems to support it though.  We should be giving priority to the vehicle that is 40 times more efficent at moving people.   

[somebody]

Why is it little strong!  Why provide a frequent bus service if it is going to sit in peak hour congestion.  How inefficient.  The rest of your comment seems to support it though.  We should be giving priority to the vehicle that is 40 times more efficent at moving people.   

Don't some of these routes run on two lane roads for some of their length?  The very end of the 444 for example.  To fit in the Bus lane would require a widenning of the road which seems to be overkill.  Roads with many routes (like Lutwyche Rd, Coro, Mains Rd) it is justifyable.

I'd prefer that we get all the roads which are supporting more than 4 buses an hour done first.

[Jon Bryant]

My approach is that all major roads should have a Bus Lane and a BUZ route or two or three on it.  The theory is that if you walk to a major road a bus is going to turn up in 5-10 minutes and take you to the nearest shops, commerical area, a railway station, park, playing fields, etc.

Thus I agree the starting point should be

all the roads which are supporting more than 4 buses an hour done first

and

to start with roads with many routes (like Lutwyche Rd, Coro, Mains Rd).

The next is to look at areas where buses get stuck in traffic and then add a bus lane to the road (or even exclude passenegr vehicle traffic - I know this goes against the 1st commandment of the car oriented city) instead of widening to two general traffic lanes as is the normal approach.

Converting an existing lane to a bus lane to our major roads is a quick and simple prioritisation of bus based public transport.  It would mean the fleet is far more efficient at moving people as they are not stuck in general traffic and far more relaible .  It seems such a quick win but alas we can not prioritise public transport over the passeneger car could we.  Never!!!!

[#Metro]

I'm trying to remember what the minimum density for a bus route is.
I think the absolute minimum is 7 dwellings per hectare, while 15 dwellings per hectare is the sustainable level.
Corridors for urban development should be preserved well in advance and anything adjacent to that should be minimum 10 dwellings per hectare with small lot/unit housing encouraged closer to the corridor.

A bit further away (1km) and they can do whatever they want.

References
1. http://www.translink.com.au/mediarelease.php?id=41
2. http://download.translink.com.au/networkplan/chapter2.pdf.

[longboi]

I voted 230 because it seems to always get consistantly good loadings and there is growth potential out that way. The 110 would probably be more likely though.

[#Metro]

Ms Nolan is on record as saying that the 301 000 new seats will be delivered by July this year.
Now is the time to start banging the spoons!

Time to get more BUZ in Brisbane.

230 Bulimba/Balmoral BUZ
450 Centenary BUZ
110 Inala BUZ

[stephenk]

Why is it little strong!  Why provide a frequent bus service if it is going to sit in peak hour congestion.  How inefficient.  The rest of your comment seems to support it though.  We should be giving priority to the vehicle that is 40 times more efficent at moving people.   

Which is more inefficient, a bus lane carrying 1 bus every 15mins, or a mixed lane carrying 500 cars every 15mins? The car lobby would win that argument easily.

Whilst I'm all for bus lanes, they are only efficient if the frequency of buses is very high (i.e. multiple routes and very frequent buses).

[Jon Bryant]

That assumes the traffic is flowing.  In peak hour traffic the figure could be 50 cars in 15 minutes. That is just over a bus.  I have always supported bus frequencies at 10 min or less frequencies in bus lanes.

The true argument should be I have 100 people to move.  This is 2 buses using x space on the road and x fuel, etc. or 75 cars using 40 times x space and 40+ times fuel, etc.  Motor cars are one of the least efficient modes over moving people. 

[somebody]

That assumes the traffic is flowing.  In peak hour traffic the figure could be 50 cars in 15 minutes.

Not in the real world.  That's a headway of 18 seconds.  If you take off 2s for gaps between the cars, a car is travelling it's length (~5m) in 16 seconds or about 1km/h.  Even LA isn't that bad.

Even routes with 8 buses/hour it's hard to justify on that kind of logic, I'm afraid.  The Coronation Drive bus lane was actually one of the easiest bus lanes in all of Brisbane to justify, with 411/412/417/425/430/433/435/444/453/454/460/457/458/459 all using it.  And that was the one they killed, go figure.

[#Metro]

Perhaps they thought that the lane would not be required once Northern Link opens, it will vacuum up all that traffic and rush it to the interchange at the ICB (causing traffic chaos at the interchange).

[Jon Bryant]

As I said

The true argument should be I have 100 people to move.  This is 2 buses using x space on the road and x fuel, etc. or 75 cars using 40 times x space and 40+ times fuel, etc.  Motor cars are one of the least efficient modes over moving people. 

[#Metro]

The residents of West End did something similar to the photo below, I can't seem to find it so I posted the original (from Germany).

http://www.carectomy.com/images/image/MuensterFull.jpg

[#Metro]

Right! I managed to find it; it used to be hosted on the stopthehalestbridge.org site, which has now been taken down.
There is a big version somewhere, but here it is:



Click for enlargement

I can only imagine how well route 199 is doing its job!

PS: Imagine what the photo would look like with a train! We would need a freeway to stage that one... or QR carpark full of cars adjacent to a station.