• Urban Ecology Australia

• Topics

• Public Transport

• Bus Lanes

See also:

• Bus Rapid Transit

Bus Lanes

Discussion

Road lanes that give priority to buses over other vehicles allow buses free movement when they would otherwise be caught up in traffic congestion. They allow buses to increase their average speed, especially during peak hours, and so attract passengers away from car travel.

Creating bus lanes can be controversial when it means taking away road space from other road users. There can also be problems when trying to fit bus lanes, other motor-vehicle lanes, and bike lanes on the same road.

Bus lanes can make a significant difference to the quality of urban centres based on main roads during peak hours by immediately reducing the traffic passing through a centre.

Taking a lane away from car use on a busy main road should be accompanied by other measures to ration the remaining road to car users, such as variable road tolls that are raised until traffic drops back to a reasonable level. Using congestion to discourage car users would result in lines of fume-emitting cars crawling through an urban centre which would reduce the centre's quality of place.

Library

Bus Lane. Wikipedia.

Bus Lane, Not Bike Lane. Runnin' Scared. Village Voice. New York.

2007.7.16