Suburbs 2 City Bus Tunnel Proposal

[O_128]

Now that the debate is quieting down we can make some alternative ideas.

While I see no issue with the southern side due to it being completely impractical to take road space from cars its the underground tunnel that has me confused....Why? It seems like a massive overkill to tunnel down adelaide street. why can't it just be buswayed? this proposal seems more about giving the city back to cars than pedestrians. So perhaps we may see adelaide street narrowed but its unlikely.

Also will the current CC remain? Or will Vic bridge be given to cars and QSBS buses turn right and go over he new bridge.

[#Metro]

It seems like a massive overkill to tunnel down adelaide street. why can't it just be buswayed?

Separation of traffic streams would be good for a full length cycle lane to go on the surface, also there is the property council to deal with (can't just say 'its a busway now' - this is what killed the LRT plan) there are trucks which need to get to shops, bins collected, deliveries etc. Then you have surface congestion with cars and pedestrians crossing adelaide street with lots of buses so the speed will be much higher in a tunnel (no pedestrians crossing inside that).

Being Class A row rather than Class D   ( I would put CBD streets with pedestrians and chaos et al into its own class) also means higher throughput and capacity.

[Golliwog]

I agree that the tunnel under the length of Adelaide St is what puts me off. Traffic lights are a problem though.

His 30 minute time saving promise though, would really only be for people heading to Fortitude Valley. And from my point of view, if theres enough people heading to the Valley from the SE busway to warrant a $2.5B tunnel, then theres enough to warrant an improved bus link from the SE Busway across the Story Bridge (ie: buslanes!)

[Gazza]

Re Trucks, why not just limit deliveries outside peak hour?

To be honest, I wouldn't care if they did a bus bridge if they (sigh) must preserve the Victoria bridge traffic lanes. A bridge would be $300 Mil (If Go Between is used as a benchmark). So still $2.2 Bil change from the full Buslink proposal, which can go towards other PT projects.

Arrrgh, whole situation sucks.

They built a busway as the sole 'mass transit line' for the entire SE quadrant of the city, fed it into a CBD with hundreds of thousands of square meters of floor space and the highest concentration of jobs in the city, and I'm supposed to accept that they could never have forseen at the time it would soon become oversaturated. 

[somebody]

Not the sole link.  There is the BNH & CVN lines + the GC line.

[Gazza]

[O_128]

Re Trucks, why not just limit deliveries outside peak hour?

this is the easiest thing to do. What happened when Queen street was shut down?

even just banning cars from the street and rationalising the stops would do wonders

[Golliwog]

Not the sole link.  There is the BNH & CVN lines + the GC line.

They don't really cover as much area as the bus routes do though, do they?

[Jonno]

Re Trucks, why not just limit deliveries outside peak hour?

To be honest, I wouldn't care if they did a bus bridge if they (sigh) must preserve the Victoria bridge traffic lanes. A bridge would be $300 Mil (If Go Between is used as a benchmark). So still $2.2 Bil change from the full Buslink proposal, which can go towards other PT projects.

Arrrgh, whole situation sucks.

They built a busway as the sole 'mass transit line' for the entire SE quadrant of the city, fed it into a CBD with hundreds of thousands of square meters of floor space and the highest concentration of jobs in the city, and I'm supposed to accept that they could never have forseen at the time it would soon become oversaturated. 

This is what happen when the approach to transport planning is based an artificially low mode share which is easily overwhelmed by demand.  Our transport and development planning needs to plan for 60-75% of trips by active and public transport and freight rail.  The remaining trips are for light vehicles and then cars.  The infrastructure needs to be built ahead of development occurring. Otherwise public and active transport is always in catch up mode or worse short-term decision made that require significant rebuilding.

[somebody]

I think the load carried by the trains from the south side is significant in peak hour.

[O_128]

Re Trucks, why not just limit deliveries outside peak hour?

To be honest, I wouldn't care if they did a bus bridge if they (sigh) must preserve the Victoria bridge traffic lanes. A bridge would be $300 Mil (If Go Between is used as a benchmark). So still $2.2 Bil change from the full Buslink proposal, which can go towards other PT projects.

Arrrgh, whole situation sucks.

They built a busway as the sole 'mass transit line' for the entire SE quadrant of the city, fed it into a CBD with hundreds of thousands of square meters of floor space and the highest concentration of jobs in the city, and I'm supposed to accept that they could never have forseen at the time it would soon become oversaturated. 

This is what happen when the approach to transport planning is based an artificially low mode share which is easily overwhelmed by demand.  Our transport and development planning needs to plan for 60-75% of trips by active and public transport and freight rail.  The remaining trips are for light vehicles and then cars.  The infrastructure needs to be built ahead of development occurring. Otherwise public and active transport is always in catch up mode or worse short-term decision made that require significant rebuilding.

whats saddens me the most is that some idiot within TMR must thing that as the SEB does 150k trips a day that there must be something like 7 million road trips a day as PT is only 7%

[#Metro]

Re Trucks, why not just limit deliveries outside peak hour?

Because there are more interests and stakeholders than our own Gavin.
When you force people to do something they don't want to do, they tend to organise and resist.

Property council shut down the LRT, they can shut down busway on Adelaide Street.

It is not suitable as a busway anyway, so many people jaywalk.

[Gazza]

Because there are more interests and stakeholders than our own Gavin.
When you force people to do something they don't want to do, they tend to organise and resist

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swanston_Street,_Melbourne

In the 1990s it was closed to daytime private through traffic between Flinders and La Trobe Streets, roughly half its length. This section is known as Swanston Street Walk. Swanston Street was redeveloped in 1992 with a number of public sculptures being established through the Percent for Art Program. The most famous of these statues is of a small bronze dog called Larry La Trobe by Melbourne artist, Pamela Irving. By the turn of the 21st century, the street carried nine tram routes, with the frequency of trams being the highest in Melbourne.

In November 2008, newly elected Lord Mayor of Melbourne Robert Doyle proposed to return private vehicle traffic to the street.[1] The move attracted opposition from the Public Transport Users Association, Australian Greens and Bicycle Victoria. This proposal was rejected and by January 2010, plans to make the entire length of Swanston Street in the city car free, were announced by the Lord Mayor himself, representing a complete backflip on the issue.[2]

Problem, BCC?

[somebody]

I think that the corridor - Caboolture to Ipswich must be the priority now for increased frequency.

I think this cannot be achieved without highlighting the stopping patterns, particularly on the Ipswich line.

RCH station needs feeder buses to work well, we could highlight that also.

[#Metro]

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/bus-crash-stalls-cbd-traffic-20111212-1or93.html

Bus crash stalls CBD traffic
Marissa Calligeros
December 12, 2011 - 6:00PM

A bus has rear-ended a car on George Street in Brisbane's CBD, causing delays during peak-hour traffic.

The near-full bus crashed into another vehicle as it turned from Adelaide Street onto George Street about 5.50pm.

The sound of the crash could be heard outside Brisbane Square, above the noise of the surrounding traffic, and some passengers were seen to be flung forward in the seats upon impact.
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Traffic has come to a halt on George Street, between Queen and Turbot streets, as a result of the collision.

More to come

Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/bus-crash-stalls-cbd-traffic-20111212-1or93.html#ixzz1gJDQOFjP

Class A ROW Please