Buses and bus lanes

E

extopia

Registered User
Messages
3,136
(Split by moderator from Nationalise the LUAS discussion).

ubiquitous said:
Maybe some day, they will finally get around to building bus lanes in Dublin and other Irish cities.
Click to expand...

I agree - the current concept of setting aside a lane for buses, taxis, minibuses, cyclists, motorcyclists, horses and traps etc is a bit of a joke.

I especially object to taxis using these lanes. If you're going to allow a taxi with one passenger, why not allow any car with two or more people in it?
 
Re: Nationalise Luas.

extopia said:
I especially object to taxis using these lanes. If you're going to allow a taxi with one passenger, why not allow any car with two or more people in it?
Click to expand...
The lanes are for public transport and bikes, why should buses get their own lane (in fact why have bus lanes at all)?
 
Re: Nationalise Luas.

Purple said:
The lanes are for public transport and bikes, why should buses get their own lane (in fact why have bus lanes at all)?
Click to expand...

One of the key problems with the bus system is the irregularity of bus arrivals at any particular stop. Bus lanes help improve the predictability of bus scheduling. In many areas, it is now quicker to travel by bus than car during peak hours because of the presence of bus lanes.

Replacing a car with a bus lane can be seen as a sort of congestion tax or penalty on cars (only paid in time rather than money) travelling into the city during peak hours.
 
Re: Nationalise Luas.


On some routes I'm even finding buses better at rush hour than the DART - the bus journey is slightly slower but the buses are more frequent and more reliable.
 
Re: Nationalise Luas.

extopia said:
You're joking, I assume?
Click to expand...
I'm making the point that a taxi is a public transport vehicle as well so why exclude them. I would like to see a study showing if bus lanes actually move more (or even as many) people as private car lanes. If they don't then why are they there as they increase congestion?
I have no objection to bus lanes per se, I'm just throwing it out there; if they are no more than an attempt to reduce out carbon footprint then get rid of them, if they serve the general good (at the moment, not some time in the future when we are all using buses) then lets have more of them.
 
Re: Nationalise Luas.

I did a count one day of how many cars have more than 1 person in them during rush hour the answer is well over 60%.

A bus takes the same space on the road as a car.

A bus can take over a hundred people.

Its simple maths.

I believe our govt should give CIE lots more money to expand its fleet in order to get more people off the road and using public transport.

I think cars with 3 or more passengers should be allowed to use the bus lane.

I think the fines for using the bus lane when you are not supposed to should be increased drastically.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Re: Nationalise Luas.

S.L.F said:
I believe our govt should give CIE lots more money to expand its fleet in order to get more people off the road and using public transport.
Click to expand...

Our government doesn't have lots of money to give and bus passenger numbers are falling. In the next few years CIE will be reducing not increasing the size of its operational fleet.
 
Re: Nationalise Luas.

But what's the average number of people who pass along a bus lane and what's the average who pass along the car lane beside it?

Again, I'm not knocking bus lanes, just looking for the facts on volumes.
The other point, which is in favour of buses, is that people who use them don't take up car parking spaces. This reduces the infrastructural cost.
 
I am in favour of bus lanes, the old Stillorgan Dual Carriageway probably being the most successful of them all. I do think that in off peak times cars should be allowed to use them though.
 
IsleOfMan said:
I do think that in off peak times cars should be allowed to use them though.
Click to expand...

AFAIK, the stated reason for 24 hour bus lanes when buses don't run 24 hours per day, is that when the buses aren't running, the traffic volumes are light, i.e. allowing cars in the bus lanes off-peak wouldn't improve traffic, cos there's no issue for traffic in the rest of the road space.
 
room305 said:
Our government doesn't have lots of money to give and bus passenger numbers are falling. In the next few years CIE will be reducing not increasing the size of its operational fleet.
Click to expand...

Yes but the reason passenger numbers are falling is because more people are buying cars so if you make it easier to get buses and harder to drive then people might use buses more.

Purple said:
But what's the average number of people who pass along a bus lane and what's the average who pass along the car lane beside it?
Click to expand...

Damned if I know but I do know if you have a full bus beside a full car the difference is over a hundred people.

IsleOfMan said:
I am in favour of bus lanes, the old Stillorgan Dual Carriageway probably being the most successful of them all. I do think that in off peak times cars should be allowed to use them though.
Click to expand...

I'd think from the hours 7.00 to 10.00 then from 16.00 to 19.00.
 
S.L.F said:
Yes but the reason passenger numbers are falling is because more people are buying cars so if you make it easier to get buses and harder to drive then people might use buses more.
Click to expand...

The reason passenger numbers are down is because there are less people travelling to work. Overall traffic volumes are down as well, difficult as this may be to believe at times!
 
room305 said:
The reason passenger numbers are down is because there are less people travelling to work. Overall traffic volumes are down as well, difficult as this may be to believe at times!
Click to expand...


[broken link removed]
 
Re: Nationalise Luas.

Purple said:
I'm making the point that a taxi is a public transport vehicle as well so why exclude them.
Click to expand...

Taxi's may be public transport vehicles as you say but they are also private hire vehicles too and alot of them abuse the bus lane system as it stands at the moment.

Taxi's are currently permitted by Regulation 32(5)(b) of the 1997 Road Traffic Regulations to use bus lanes only if the vehicle is being used for business, ie; carrying passengers. They are not permitted to use them at any other time. Also, hackneys and limousines are not permitted to use bus lanes at any time. These are also technically public transport vehicles too, so why cant they use bus lanes? I know that the Taxi regulator is trying to get the regulations changed to allow them to use the lanes along with taxi's, buses, bicycles and so on.
 
Re: Nationalise Luas.

I was a minibus from St. Michael’s House in a bus lane the other day. That is most definitely not a public transport vehicle. Do you think that it’s OK for that bus to use the bus lanes?
 
as far as I know, minibuses fall under the term "omnibus" which covers buses in general. Omnibuses is the term used in the regulaation for Bus Lanes.
 
Re: Nationalise Luas.

The regulation in question refers to "taxi or a wheelchair accessible taxi which is being used in the course of business". If a driver is on the way to a pick-up (or claims to be on the way to a pick-up), is this considered to be use in the course of a business.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register