as long as the bus is going where you need to be going
... and when I need to be going!
Edited by movilogo on 31/12/2009 at 12:47
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Looking back at that, I don't think I expressed myself very clearly.
Try again. On a road with a bus lane, a large part of the available space on the road is not in use for a large proportion of the time. So is it being wasted? Could it be put to better use? A bus lane is empty for most of its life.
(I agree that this doesn't hold true in Central London and maybe other major city centres, but as the OP said, in many smaller towns they are possibly unecessary)
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I agree, they are pointless - a better idea would be to replace these lanes with emergency lanes for ambulances, fire engines and police cars. I strongly believe buses are evil - a true annoyance to every motorist. Getting in the way, pulling out and then I get stuck behind them as the horrible ancient diesel engine goes 20 mph slower than the speed limit and pukes out the most awful smelly black exhaust fumes. They are slow, smelly, noisy and uncomfortable. Most bus drivers, despite training, still cannot use air brakes properly. Whenever I have used a bus, I have hated the experience. The seats are uncomfortable and there isn't enough legroom - bearing in mind I am far from tall. The person behind, in front or sitting next to me always smell like they haven't showered in about 10 years. I could continue with my rant, but I think you get the idea. If I had it my way, every bus in existence would be nuked. Horrible things.
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Jcoventry
Wait 'til you're 60 and get a free bus pass. ;>)
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"Wait 'til you're 60 and get a free bus pass."
I'm 82 and I don't know how to get a free bus pass. I should get a petrol allowance in lieu.
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The bus company round these parts used to be called Badgerline - the local joke went that that was because they were smelly, noisy, full of parasites, and had a habit of jumping out in front of your car.
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I have seen what is effectively a bus lane marked as: 'No Car Lane'.
Opens it up to vans, trucks, motorbikes, taxis etc.
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Local authorities are very fashion conscious. When the latest craze comes along they hate to be left out. Bus lanes and roundabout traffic lights where there is no congestion, speed humps where there are no pedestrians and racial awareness workshops where there are no immigrants.
They are a sort of political baseball cap, utterly pointless in many cases but a must have if you want to be cool.
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Just read this, but the driver deserved it imo.
if it was badly marked, i'm certain that dozens, if not hundreds of motorists would have complained.
Having stated the above, even some permanent bus lanes are very poorly marked.
www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5hB...Q
Threads merged
Edited by Pugugly on 31/12/2009 at 15:08
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No enough info there to make any comment, I'd have thought!
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That seems to be a bus road rather than a bus lane though.
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I've found the people who moan about bus lanes the most are the ones that don't go in them when they are not in use. I love bus lanes, when all the twits in their BMW are stuck in traffic I can just whizz past them in my own lane.
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I might be the only poster here today who's just got off a bus.
Had to deliver a car into the city. Got the bus home, a bit hit and miss until I get a map of routes and numbers but it got me within walking distance and my bus pass saved me money.
Altogether not a bad experience.
Ted
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Very recently I've used the ones in Sheffield and they were clean, quick, frequent and reasonably priced and, conveniently, went where I wanted, just like most large cities, I used them all the time when I lived in Edinburgh... The flip side are the ones in my local small town, overpriced, not many around and don't go where I want... to the railway station!!
But thats the rub with all forms of "public" transport, you have to fit in with it, rather than it with you, and most people today seem to want everything straight away, something a timetable can't provide, but a personal car can... even if it means sitting in traffic jams...
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Very recently I've used the ones in Sheffield and they were clean quick frequent and reasonably priced...
*falls over* I live in Sheffield, and as you might have guessed from my earlier post, do not like buses. I have yet to see a clean one!
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*falls over* I live in Sheffield and as you might have guessed from my earlier post do not like buses. I have yet to see a clean one!
Can only speak as I find, I made 6 journeys over 3 seperate days over a 4 week perior and all were as I described.
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i used a bus once , and i was followed by 2 more as they played leap frog for 6 miles picking up about 12 people in all
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A lot of bus lanes only dedicated to buses during certain hours (peak hours) a lot of drivers dont realise and avoid them 24 hours.
I have no problem with buses, I use them when goping into town with the kids (park and ride) less hassle for me than driving in and cost for all of us is less than cost of a couple of hours in a car park.
Also buses are fine for kids, elderly and anyone who doesnt drive (abviouslY) or who doesnt want the expense of running a car. Puzzles me how people can preach how bad busses are then in next sentence say they never use them? If thats the case how do they know how good/bad they are.
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Unfortunately I am succumbed to using a bus whenever my car goes in for servicing - would be nice if I could take it to somewhere a lot more local.
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I imagine putting in bus lanes is simply the councils way of making government pleasing statistics - look at all this local promotion of public transport, now we've done our bit can we have some more money/subsidy/funding/recognition/awards. No doubt there's a budget available (extra wonga) for councils who agree to install cycle lanes and bus lanes as part of Britain's eco drive.
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I imagine putting in bus lanes is simply the councils way of making government pleasing statistics -
No, its because bus lanes allow busses to get between stops in a predictable time. When I use the P&R to go into town its great. The bus blasts past about 2 miles of queing traffic. If the bus had to sit in that traffic I might as well use my car, but with the bus having its own lane its actually quicker for me to get to the shops that way than to drive. Only snag is if you have to bring something big back, in which case I am forced to take the car, but that not often.
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theres a 2 mile queue cause theres a lane not being utilised fully
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The idea is simple you have a bus running in rush hour, buses are running every 5 minutes and have 80 passangers each on them. That is 960 passangers in an hour on just 12 vehicles. Those 960 passangers should have some kind of piririty.
The other reason is because buses stop frequently without bus lanes they would take far too long and people would drive, causing more traffic.
As most people know I am very pro public transport and to me a car enables me to use public transport far more efficiently. I currently can't drive and I miss driving a lot. Having to rely on buses is hard.
I really don't like buses because the system is stuck in the dark ages thanks to the 1980's Torie government. I much prefer trams and trains. I think they really need to get rid of the pay the driver system to speed bus travel up.
Buses are still essential though and like them or not, they do take a huge amount of traffic of the roads.
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@WorkshopTech: Very true, WT. It does of course make the timetable a bit more predictable, and I don't deny that a bus lane once installed does save time, but I just wonder how much is really due to passengers/bus companies complaining and the council doing something about it, or whether there's other incentives for providing such schemes other than the end result.
Edited by Devolution on 31/12/2009 at 18:19
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Pretty obvious. If the car is a bettr way than the bus to get from A to B and you can't improve the bus then you have to degrade the car. Mind you, in London public transport is the only thing that makes sense.
Edited by lotusexige on 01/01/2010 at 15:42
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In many areas taxis (but not private hire cars) are allowed in bus lanes. So if I want to go somewhere and call for a taxi, and then use the taxi for the return, there will be a total of 4 journeys for the taxi. If I use my own car, there will be just 2. So taxis are very green!
And a very strange anomaly. Only local buses are allowed in bus lanes (at least in Stockport), but not long distance ones or coaches. Now where is the logic in that!
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In reply to Pete Mansell,
The taxi will be zipping up and down there all day taking loads of other cars off the road as well.
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Taxis don't go from base customer a, base customer b, they go from base customer a then straight onto customer b who the radio controller will have ensured that customer a was dropped off where customer b wants to be picked up.
Taxis spend more time with punters in them than not.
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Taxis spend more time with punters in them than not.
A lot depends on the controller, and in busy urban firms on the controller's relations with the individual driver. Drivers who are rapid, efficient and predictable often get good strings of punters without too much empty time. Drivers who can't read maps and keep getting lost on the other side of town get ignored, and often end up feeling hard done by (a fellow minicabber in the seventies, a rat-like South Londoner who was functionally illiterate as a surprising number of young men are or were, once physically attacked a controller he thought was disrespecting him).
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Fully appreciate why we have bus lanes. What gets me is the way time restrictions are signed.
I am dyslexic and absorb written information maybe a bit slower than some. So I always avoid going in them. At the first sign I maybe get half of the information, at the second I get the second half, by the third I have worked out whether I can use it or not. By which time it has finished!
There is one near my daughters which reads (IIRC):
Mon - Sat
7:00 - 10:00
Mon - Sat
14:00 - 18:00
Saturday
10:00 - 14:00
It has caught my BIL out and he is used to driving in London.
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Fully appreciate why we have bus lanes. What gets me is the way time restrictions are signed. I am dyslexic and absorb written information maybe a bit slower than some. So I always avoid going in them. At the first sign I maybe get half of the information at the second I get the second half by the third I have worked out whether I can use it or not. By which time it has finished!
That's why they should be colour coded. e.g. red tarmac for 24 hours, green for peak hours only, etc.
The whole system should be simplified to make it easier for drivers to know just by looking at the lane what the time restrictions are without having to hunt for a tiny plate on a post hidden amongst the forest of roadside signage clutter we have these days.
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I've never really understood bus lanes. At pinch points you allow the buses through, dramatically reduce the flow of traffic in the meantime, which causes congestion further back... which affects the buses as well.
Then there's the bit where you allow taxis in the bus lanes. If you're providing a cheap and efficient solution for the masses to get about and in such a fashion that they have an advantage over the selfish car user (well that's the theory presumably), why allow one person who can afford it to jump all the queues in a taxi?...and why not allow motorcycles to use the bus lane?
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Think the whole point is to give them a clear run and thus encourage people to transfer to buses... yes you do get a back up of queues, but if the bus lanes are logical (not usually, though!), they go back far enough for that not to affect the buses.
I thought that most councils allowed motorcycles in them already? I know the one which made the headlines a few years ago was Bristol where preassure from bikers got them to see sense, but it makes no sense to try to ban them, after all they don't cause any congestion at all!
Personally I can't see how people can sit in rush hour queues for hours every day, would drive me nuts if I had to do it...
Edited by b308 on 03/01/2010 at 09:40
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