Year in, year out, bus speeds deteriorate. Not by much, perhaps just by ½ mph per annum. But the cumulative affect is significant.
That’s why it was disappointing to see nothing on this within the DfT’s recent proposals for improving the bus journey experience. Plenty on driver & passenger conduct, anti-social behaviour including alcohol plus a raft of measures about de minimis rules, consulting on maximum fares, increasing the period local transport authorities get registration information ahead of the 56 day period, etc. The one thing that was missing that would improve the passenger experience more than anything else was measures to improve punctuality and bus speeds.
It’s not just general traffic volume that’s responsible. Inconsiderate parking also has an effect. A new scourge is the random parking we now tend to see next to banks & building society cash points. Banks are in sensitive town centre locations, often at cross roads, always in busy areas at a town or suburb’s very heart. Invariably, the double yellow lines outside are there for a purpose. What gives the motorist the right to abuse these traffic makings, just to use an automatic telling machine? It might seem like a quick transaction to the motorist but this could lose the bus up to two minutes’ time. Selfish motorists simply abandon their cars without realising the disruption caused to larger, longer vehicles. But the issue isn’t simply *one* motorist, it’s the constant stream pulling up to draw out.
The traffic commissioners take a view that dealing with punctuality falls squarely on operators. True enough but the cumulative effect of thoughtless parking and all other general traffic means that at some point, network managers need to redraft timetables. At some stage, they will reach the point where either an extra bus & associated drivers are required or they must trim frequency to ensure the service operates within the resources available to it. Both solutions are imperfect from a passenger and a revenue perspective.
The first adds cost that is rarely clawed back through the farebox, though longer term improvements in punctuality might achieve this. The second contains costs within existing resource but results in fewer passengers who see a drop in frequency.
Sunday, 21 March 2010
Bus Speeds
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Its not just parking on main roads near banks - There is a local bus service near where I live which goes past a school. This is a local service which goes through the
The bus lost a good 20 minutes at school leaving time while all the kids parents cars got out of the way on both sides of the road.
And some crew changes appear tardy, even if the arrival is late, so it's not all the public's fault.
Agreed on schools and bad parking.
Its not just in urban areas. We have long, long stretches of country road with 50 mph speed limits now. In the "good old days" an RE would nip along at 60 (and a bit more, probably!) on these roads. Now traffic is limited to 50 for miles.
Our route from the big city to my market town now only has one stretch of 60 mph road on an 18 mile trip. Add to that the expanded 30mph urban areas, the 40's which surround them and journey times are much extended. Don't even mention traffic calming!
City bus station to Market Town bus station used to take, in Regulated days, 50 minutes. Or about 42 in reality given the "traditional" late start, and a few minutes study of the newspaper at the mid-route town. Now it's scheduled to take 67 minutes, and they can't actually achieve it!
Its the same with coach travel when coaches could do 70mph now they are limited it adds time to journeys. How is public transport ever going to be desirable if it has so many setbacks and hurdles to jump. Increase the speed limits get more bus lanes that are for Buses/Coaches ONLY and bus lanes on motorway sections that always have congestion, eg the M6 around the Midlands like on the M4, we need to keep this country moving not sitting in traffic.
Post a Comment