David Hansen wrote:
On 5 Dec 2008 14:21:32 GMT someone who may be Adrian
wrote this:-

(Motor) traffic is stopped by many things. The greatest cause of delays
to traffic is motorists in cars.
ITYM "traffic"

I meant what I typed, motor traffic. Cyclists and their vehicles are
less encumbered by motor vehicle constipation.

The second way works in the long term. Transfer some of the trips to
walking, cycling and public transport. One of the ways to do this is to
make buses more attractive. One of the ways of making buses more
attractive is by filling in laybys and installing better stops and bus
boarders in the space the layby used to take up.
Deliberately introducing delays to traffic benefits buses, how?

Your point relies on a false premise, contained in the first five
words, which I explained before.

However, given that motorists cause most of the delays to motorised
traffic (a term which, for the avoidance of doubt, includes buses)
by the sheer volume of motorists there are things which can be done.
One of these things is to encourage motorists out of their little
metal prisons by making alternatives more attractive. Another thing
is to relocate the congestion to places where it is easier for
public transport vehicles to have priority (and thus encourage
further modal shift). Bus lanes and virtual bus lanes are examples
of this approach. One place where this has been done is the A90 from
the Forth Road Bridge into Edinburgh. As I recall the results, as
well as speeding up priority vehicles by something like 20 minutes
it also speeded up motorists by a minute or two.


And if you've no wish to go to Edinburgh?

--
Moving things in still pictures!