JUSTIFICATION FOR BUS LANES IN URBAN AREAS

This article summarises two studies in which theoretical models have been used to examine the economic justification of (I) with-flow and (II) contra-flow bus priority lanes. In each case, the benefits to priority traffic, in terms of savings in passengers' time and vehicle operating costs, were compared with the disbenefits to non-priority traffic which suffered some extra delay because of the priority scheme, and warrants were extracted which described the minimum flow of buses and bus passengers required to justify any particular scheme. In general, with-flow lanes only give considerable benefits when they are installed on the approaches of very congested intersections, while contra-flow lanes are more likely to be beneficial in situations where the available intersection capacity is not overloaded. It is important to design with-flow lanes in such a way as to minimise any capacity loss in the road system, and the extension of the priority treatment to other categories of vehicle, can in some cases, increase the net benefit obtained from the scheme. Contra-flow lanes can be justified by very low bus flows if they are installed in situations where the more complicated junction layouts required to cater for them do not delay the general traffic appreciably, but where the junctions are controlled by traffic lights the reserved lanes may require modification of the signal phasing in a way which reduces the junction capacity considerably. Where the junctions are controlled by roundabouts or channelisation, however, additional delay to non-priority traffic is likely to be slight.(a) /TRRL/

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/00410683
• Corporate Authors:

  Printerhall Limited

  29 Newmart Street
  London W1P 3PE,   England 
• Authors:
  • Bly, P H
  • Webster, F V
  • Oldfield, R H
• Publication Date: 1978-2

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 56-59
• Serial:
  • Traffic Engineering & Control
  • Volume: 19
  • Issue Number: 2
  • Publisher: Hemming Group, Limited
  • ISSN: 0041-0683
  • Serial URL: http://www.tecmagazine.com/

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Benefit cost analysis; Bus priority; Buses; Contraflow lanes; Costs; Economic efficiency; Highway capacity; Intersections; Layout; Mathematical models; Operating costs; Passengers; Reversible traffic lanes; Traffic delays; Traffic flow; Traffic lanes; Traffic signal preemption; Traffic signals; Travel time; Trip length; Urban areas; Vehicles
• ITRD Terms: 1057: Air transport network; 1272: Bus; 643: Capacity (road, footway); 8525: Conference; 224: Cost; 9010: Delay; 237: Economic efficiency; 697: Journey time; 455: Junction; 2885: Layout; 6473: Mathematical model; 221: Operating costs; 648: Priority (traffic); 607: Reversible lane; 671: Traffic flow; 2827: Traffic lane; 565: Traffic signal; 313: Urban area; 1715: Vehicle occupant
• Subject Areas: Economics; Finance; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Passenger Transportation; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; Society; Vehicles and Equipment; I71: Traffic Theory; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00178624
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport and Road Research Laboratory (TRRL)
• Files: ITRD, TRIS
• Created Date: Sep 27 1978 12:00AM