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Old July 27th 03, 06:29 PM posted to uk.transport.london
Ian Jelf Ian Jelf is offline
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Default Epping-Ongar news?

In article , Clive D. W. Feather
writes
In article , Ian Jelf
writes
While I don't doubt the truth of what you say for a minute, Clive *and*
while being deeply sceptical of the advantages of guided buses [1], how
does the Cambridgeshire system actually increase a particular journey?


Crude map:

Snipped clear explanation
It seems likely that the presence of the busway will mean that all
routes around here are altered, and that the bus to Cambridge will be
diverted to it.

Thanks, Clive. I see what you mean.

[1] The only place I can see guided bus technology being of use is in
bus *stations*, to be honest, for ensuring flush boarding and coping
with often restricted areas.

I was in Adelaide in 2001 and rode the Guided busway, from the City
Centre to Tea Tree Plaza several times to see "how well it worked".
(As a Brummie, I have memories of our ill-fates "Tracline" guided busway
here in the 1980s.

The Adelaide one works better, principally because it's longer.

Apparently it works well in Adelaide because of the layout of things:

Adelaide: Cambridge:

Wide streets in central Narrow congested streets in
area, no busway centre

Ys, although Adelaide dies indeed suffer from central area congestion
which led to bunching on the Busway in the peak hours.

Congested suburbs bypassed Congested roads in suburbs
by busway

But the busway *did* miss some inner suburban housing areas on its way
to the further flung suburbs. Of course, this could be a Good Thing or
a Bad Thing, depending on where you lived!

Quiet roads in countryside Quiet countryside roads bypassed
by busway

The Adelaide Busway doesn't really get to anything I'd call
"countryside" (although it's certainly a beautiful green city). But
the idea of busways serving anything like English "countryside", as is
apparently suggested in Cambridge, seems to me to be bordering on
lunacy. In fact, it rather confirms to me a suspicion I've always had
about Busways: that they're a solution in search of a problem.

Is there an online map of the Cambridge proposals anywhere? And isn't
there something almost as rural running in the outer suburbs of Ipswich?

--
Ian Jelf, MITG, Birmingham, UK
Registered "Blue Badge" Tourist Guide for
London & the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk