On Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:18:56 +0000, Tom Anderson
wrote:

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.

Yep. It's incredibly common in both Germany and the Netherlands, and
saves no end of time. It's made easier there by the fact that they
can use tram signals for the bus (you can't here, so you need a bit
more infrastructure) but a small island and second set of lights would
do the job in most locations.

I've seen bus overtaking lanes installed in a few places, including in
Milton Keynes, bizarrely with one of them being installed where there
is no actual bus route! (Presumably for future expansion as the road
works were being done anyway). However I've not seen an
overtake-and-turn-right, despite there being *loads* of places in
London where this would be easy to implement and very useful.

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

You put the stops in the middle of the road as well. By having them
at (before) a signalised junction, you get several benefits in one:-
- The bus is using the time it might spend waiting at the lights to
load and unload passengers. When it's ready, it signals this and the
lights can then change in its favour.
- The bus doesn't have to leave the stop (can be difficult to get out)
then get caught in a queue at the lights.
- The passengers can also use the lights to cross to the bus stop.
- Plus all the other benefits of bus lanes in the middle of the road.

Again I've never seen this stop arrangement in London, even though
there are a number of locations (most of Oxford St, for instance)
where it would fit very well even without the middle-of-the-road bus
lanes.

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.

True, though I think they'd accept it given that most pedestrians in
central London are also public transport users, and also given that
the norm for pedestrian crossings in busy central London is lights,
and not zebras.

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.

And makes overtakes by the bus more dangerous for both you and them,
and causes delay at stops.

I cycle myself (not, admittedly, often in London), though I am a
regular bus passenger in Central London, and my observation is that
the speed and safety of both cyclists and buses would be increased by
going for that kind of layout.

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.

Common on the 59/68/168 around Holborn as well. Part of this is poor
signage, though; from one side of the junction you can't see the
extent of the bus lane on the other. The outcome of this is a delay
of 1-2 mins for the bus because there's a car in the bus lane, which
then has to move and can't.

I'm dubious about this. Is there enough distance between stops to get up
to full speed?

Perhaps not *full* speed, but a constant speed rather than the binary
acceleration-braking that London traffic otherwise causes.

Are the continental stops further apart than ours?

Generally, yes. This would also be worthy of consideration - the most
stupid example I've seen in London is Westferry station, where there
are two stops for the 135, one either side of the viaduct, no more
than about 20 metres apart if that. Ridiculous and wasteful.

I missed one, incidentally , in the form of taxis. Taxis should not
be allowed to stop in bus lanes, IMO, as they cause both danger and
delay by doing so. This is again a benefit of centre-of-the-road bus
lanes - the taxis can delay the other traffic instead - but you could
also go for the option of providing lay-bys for taxis that move them
out of the way of the bus.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.