On Thu, 20 Nov 2008, Neil Williams wrote:

On Thu, 20 Nov 2008 06:45:53 -0800 (PST), Mizter T
wrote:

It is understandable, though, given the atrocious state of bus
infrastructure in Central London.

Would you care to expand on that point Neil?

Bus infrastructure in Central London needs to be improved to the
standard of other western European countries. Examples might be:-

1. Allowing the bus the option to overtake and turn at traffic lights
(this is one of the best features of Dutch and German bus lanes -
basically the bus gets its own signal so it can pass in the bus lane
then turn right (left) across traffic).

Their left, our right, i take it? This sounds like a rather good idea.

4. Moving bus lanes out of the gutter into the middle of the road, where
they're not going to be flying half an inch past trees and bumping down
potholes, and they aren't going to have other traffic turning left
across them.

Where do you put the bus stops? How does the bus get from the
middle-of-the-road lane to the stop?

6. Removing known-problem zebra crossings and replacing with signalised
crossings. In the height of the peak, you'd cut 5 minutes at least off
a journey on the 15 if that crossing at St Pauls was to be removed and
replaced with a proper crossing.

You have to weigh this against the negative impact on pedestrians, of
course.

7. Removing cyclists from bus lanes. This would be easiest done using
the "bus lanes up the middle of the road with stops at traffic lights"
approach, as you could have a cycle lane at the left, then a
general-traffic lane, then a bus lane. Cycles and buses are *very*
incompatible; one is very small, one very large, and one wants to move
quickly in between stops, whereas the other wants to continue at a
slower speed without stopping.

This one, predictably, i really disagree with. As a cyclist, i'm held up
by buses in bus lanes far more often than i hold up a bus. The difference
in speeds is actually sufficiently small - 5-10 mph - that the bus's
frequent stopping makes it effectively much slower.

8. Making bus lanes wide enough. There are many places in London where
you can't get a bus in the width of the bus lane.

Particularly if there's an overly wide, or badly driven, vehicle in an
adjacent lane. I see this quite a lot on my commute in various places
around Old Street.

9. Better enforcement - having a wheel in the bus lane should be
considered an offence, as that's normally enough to delay the bus.

Yup.

The general principle would be that infrastructure should be such that
the bus should always be kept moving at or near the speed limit except
when it wishes to stop, and when it wishes to stop that it should do so
without obstructing other traffic. This is how good it is in the
Netherlands and much of Germany,

I'm dubious about this. Is there enough distance between stops to get up
to full speed? Are the continental stops further apart than ours?

tom

--
Also, a 'dark future where there is only war!' ... have you seen the
news lately? -- applez