Most articles about passenger transport contain the same themes: electric buses, bus priority, and rapid transit. Yes, the race is on for Net Zero. But as an operator or Authority, before spending millions on such schemes, ‘tweak’ your existing infrastructure.
Unfortunately, many smaller towns are introducing bus priority but are disappointed with only limited improvement in journey times.
Having driven buses in such towns, traffic is indeed a problem, and yes, a bus priority scheme for even a mile would certainly help, but then what? On my trips of a few miles, I’d be constantly fighting to keep to the timetable. Not because of traffic, but because of badly designed stops.
These included kerbside stops with cars parked on either side – now creating an inefficient layby stop. Stops unlit or with adverts on the facing panel, so you had to slow down to see if there was a passenger waiting. Badly positioned lamp posts, shelters and boarders so the passengers weren’t waiting where you had to pull in and straighten up; and a timetable that you couldn’t keep to even if you were driving a car faster than the speed limit.
Badly designed stops populate the suburbs of most towns and are ‘legacy’ stops, installed in the 1960s or 70s. Sure, you’ve installed new flags, maybe even lighting and Real Time Passenger Information (RTPI), but the road space, layout and configuration haven’t changed. But your buses have. They’re longer and wider than those sixty years ago and now this affects running times and operating speed. Luckily they are easy to fix.
Such stops are costly to both the operator and local authority. They waste fuel, time and effort, which in turn affects punctuality, efficiency, funding and the ultimate goal - patronage.
Put simply, having to wiggle a 12m bus around to dock it properly at a stop, loses a few seconds. After a few similar stops, these seconds add up. The bus becomes late. Passengers become disgruntled. Drivers become stressed. That essential driver-passenger relationship is lost; patronage suffers. Even 10 badly designed stops on an hourly headway, adding just 10 seconds per stop, can waste nearly 30 mins per day. Every day.
So the Authority spends millions on a bus priority scheme. Now the bus races out of town, only to lose the time it’s saved by trying to dock quickly at those badly designed stops. The millions spent on the bus priority scheme seem wasted as the route still loses time, money and passengers.
So the Authority’s knee-jerk solution is to ‘drive faster’. This increases driver stress and decreases comfort and safety. They can revise the timetable, but still want that route that takes 62 minutes – even when driven by ‘The Stig’, to be scheduled ‘hourly’.
You’ve all seen this scenario! The bus is late, the driver’s stressed and needs to pick up someone with limited mobility - not a wheelchair or elderly person, but a mother with a pushchair loaded with shopping and two screaming kids At the ‘scheduled operating speed’ dictated by the timetable, all the driver can do is throw the bus two feet from the kerb leaving the bus’s rear stuck out in the traffic lane. Even with the platform lowered it is still too high. The mother has to push the buggy onto the road, then tip and lever it up onto the platform, then lift her kids on board, and then clamber aboard herself. If a truck collides with a badly positioned bus, someone will be seriously injured. “Why can’t you get nearer the kerb?” the mother yells. The driver is unsympathetic. The late passengers check their watches. The driver starts off before she’s seated, roars through an amber light as it turns red, and uses his vehicle weight to force his way out from a turning. She’s not taking this bus again!
The solutions are simple and cheap! Adjust the timetable so it reflects the time the journey actually takes instead of the time the authority would like it to take. Fix the stop so drivers can enter it and dock nearer the route’s ‘operating speed’. Adjust the entry taper fractionally so the bus can enter the stop faster; move that lamp post back a foot or two so they can get the swing on; move the shelter away from the kerb so they can approach without fear of clipping their mirror on it; and please! Stop cars parking on the approach or exit so the tail swing isn’t a concern.
It will cost a few days and a few thousand pounds (or in the case of stopping parked cars, a tin of yellow paint). It’s still a fraction of the cost of your new bus priority scheme. But it gains you time, unstressed drivers and easier boarding for passengers, which means their whole journey experience is better.
This time the mother glides the pushchair across the four-inch, level gap, securely holding each child, waves a card at the ticket machine, and is aboard. It’s on time, unhurried, the driver is pleasant and relaxed. As the bus eases back into the traffic the passengers smile. They’ll come back!
I am all for reaching Net Zero, but the answer is not always new-fangled schemes and technology. Authorities can improve operating speeds by implementing ‘slight adjustments’ on existing stops, saving fuel, and time and increasing safety, all of which save money and contribute towards a cleaner environment.
Chris Lee, Director Delta Bus Consultancy