Bendy buses? Good, bad or abomination?

Sam Russell

cgcsb wrote: »

You can't rely on the driver to open the back door, you still have to battle your way to the front if you want to be sure not to miss your stop.

Why would you expect the rear doors to be opened on a bendy bus but not on a double decker? I notice that rear doors are opened much more these days than heretofore.

cgcsb

Let's see how Belfast pans out, there may be lessons to be learned.
Using Belfast as a test case may be taken with a pinch of salt though. Even the oldest parts of Belfast were built only 150 years ago with broad streets in mind. Dublin is much older and retains a lot of it's Viking and Norman era layout in central areas. Much of Belfast was bulldozed in the 1960s to let the road engineers turn very central areas into motorway junctions. Not to mention the frequent bombings that has resulted in much of central Belfast being a surface car park today.

On the plus side for comparative purposes Belfast has a much worse anti-social element. I see the Belfast Bike scheme has seen some bikes cut out of their stations with angle grinders and dumped in the Lagan. I wonder what will become of their ticket machines and fancy new bus stops after dark.

I've been to see the Belfast BRT layout, which is mostly complete at this stage. I have to say I'm not that impressed, the same pinch points. Bus lanes become left turning lanes at very busy junctions. I think they've under designed it somewhat. One thing that I found impressive was that there is already a camera system issuing fines to drivers using the bus lanes. we needed that in Dublin a decade ago.

cgcsb

Sam Russell wrote: »

Why would you expect the rear doors to be opened on a bendy bus but not on a double decker? I notice that rear doors are opened much more these days than heretofore.

Well I expect Dublin Bus to be bared from tendering for the operation of swiftway.

ncounties

In relation to the original question posed by this thread, bendy-buses that are supplementary and complimentary to good existing infrastructure are great, e.g. what they do (and I have experienced) in Vienna. You use the citys extensive U-Bahn network, and when you get to a suburban station (which is still underground - MN take heed!) and go up the escalator, there is a bendy-bus waiting for you, or arrives shortly there-after, and does a lap of the outer reaches of the area, therefore promoting modal shift towards public transport as opposed to those individuals ín the outer sphere of influence of the station deciding it´s too difficult to get to their nearest station, and use a car instead for their journey.

In contrast, using bendy-buses as the backbone of your infrastructure is ridiculous. Firstly, the space required on road will be as intrusive as an on-road tram network, secondly they would be just as susceptible to traffic incidents, as they are not totally separated and could lead to the network clogging up in an incident, thirdly, the modal shift from cars to buses is less than that, that would happen if an on road tram system was implemented, as trams have a better public perception, and fourth, although the initial investment would be less than that for a tram network, trams generally last longer than buses. Look at Vienna, Lisbon, Helsinki etc. etc. for examples of this.

Personally, I have always thought the over arching strategy for our public infrastructure should be:
1. Busiest routes/Major nodes in public transport/Most densely frequented areas (intercity railway stations/Dublin airport/central shopping districts/areas of concentrated employment) serviced by: underground rail.
2. Busiest bus routes: converted were/when financially and physically feasible to light rail (over time conversion occurring as and when funds are available.
3. Whilst point 2 is being rolled out, routes not yet serviced by light rail, are served by larger, higher capacity buses (including bendy ones!).
4. Standard buses and increased cycle infrastructure.

In an ideal world (or a forward thinking nation) having point 2 on a route would not prevent point 1 being implemented, nor would point 3 prevent point 2. Unfortunately I feel in Ireland, it would be the opposite.