BusConnects Dublin - Bus Network Changes Discussion

Simple stuff that would speed up the network

A.I at O'Connell bridge with cameras pointing west along the north quays (count number of buses waiting to turn south )



Cameras also pointing down D'Olier St ( count number of buses waiting at fleet street junction ) -

Work quickly to come up with algorithm that prioritizes clearing D'Olier St as it holds far more than LUAS (balance against cameras counting on Rosie Hackett/Hawkins St to ensure they get some as w ell )

Make LUAS track on College Green (the old 15 terminus) usable by buses as well, end the lunacy of that space being dedicated to trams it should have dived under trinity not around

Muahahaha wrote: »

I havent seen the new plans but read that the NTA are saying that something like there will be 40% less trees cut down under them.

Anyone know what this means in real terms, is there concrete examples where under the old plans there was an uninterrupted bus lane but now the bus will have to join the main line of car traffic? Disaster if so, BC has to be about speeding up journey times to get people to switch to public transport.

Its 40% less mature trees - there's cases, e.g. around Liffey Valley, where hundreds of scrubby trees planted after road widening in 2010/1 will be cut down and replaced, with the figures actually increased from previous estimates. They're not the huge London Planes that everyone got worked up over

Most of the changes involve removing more car space instead although there's a few capitulations.

trellheim wrote: »

Simple stuff that would speed up the network

A.I at O'Connell bridge with cameras pointing west along the north quays (count number of buses waiting to turn south )



Cameras also pointing down D'Olier St ( count number of buses waiting at fleet street junction ) -

Work quickly to come up with algorithm that prioritizes clearing D'Olier St as it holds far more than LUAS (balance against cameras counting on Rosie Hackett/Hawkins St to ensure they get some as w ell )

Make LUAS track on College Green (the old 15 terminus) usable by buses as well, end the lunacy of that space being dedicated to trams it should have dived under trinity not around

Amen to that Trinners bit.

From memory,I recall some conversations relating to a Tunnell under the Campus.

Was it from a consortium offering a build & operate scenario ?

I think TCD's senior people had a coronary at the very thought of machines burrowing neath their hallowed halls etc,which,of course,would immediately collapse into the chasm.

Once that fear had been instilled,it was game over.

Looking at the current College Green codology,it is hard to accept that it is the result of several years of professional planning and design across a broad swathe of disciplines.

Some Senior Engineer actually signed-off on this mess....Inspected,Assessed Reviewed and Approved a setup largely unsuitable for purpose,and in many areas significantly increasing the risk profile for users.

A class of Senior Infants,issued with a foolscap page and some crayons,would find it difficult to any worse.

With the same group of 'Professionals' remaining at the Irish Administrative Helm,we can expect the good ship BusConnects to maintain it's new course through the Iceberg field.

whatever about bus gates, I'm skeptical about the idea of "bus priority signals". I assume the idea is that the signal will detect a bus arriving and give it a green light. IIRC a similar system was installed in the 80s or 90s and quickly fell out of use; even if it is properly maintained, what use is a green light if the shared lane ahead is already blocked with cars?

Peregrine wrote: »

See the signal controlled priority section on page 5 of each corridor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdHdZLsG0UA

yeah looks great, but what if that single lane is already bumper-to-bumper, which in many places it will be.
(Bus gates are different as they're effectively cul-de-sacs for non-bus traffic and the cars are turning off onto a different road.)

loyatemu wrote: »

whatever about bus gates, I'm skeptical about the idea of "bus priority signals". I assume the idea is that the signal will detect a bus arriving and give it a green light. IIRC a similar system was installed in the 80s or 90s and quickly fell out of use; even if it is properly maintained, what use is a green light if the shared lane ahead is already blocked with cars?

We had these circa 2002 under the cityswift plan. It was switched off because, although it improved bus journey times, it delayed motorists. We have the bus gate on bachelors walk now with bus only signals but typically this lane is tailed back 1km with cars ignoring the bus lane.

cgcsb wrote: »

We had these circa 2002 under the cityswift plan. It was switched off because, although it improved bus journey times, it delayed motorists. We have the bus gate on bachelors walk now with bus only signals but typically this lane is tailed back 1km with cars ignoring the bus lane.

It's only effective when combined with anpr enforcement of the bus lane and yellow boxes imo. I also wish they'd get rid of the taxis from those bus lanes as they tend to duck and dive between whichever lane they think they'll get through first.

Oh I have to tell you. I am loving these new videos on BusConnects CBC's. Here is another one on the Bus Gate simulation.

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

Also, are we ever going to get taxis out of bus lanes? That needs to happen.

But that would involve putting the public interest ahead of a vested interest...

A commute by bus for me has gone from about 40mins on average to just over 20mins with the outbreak of COVID 19. So that's an approximate 50% reduction in journey time as a result of near empty buses, every other stop being served and no traffic.

The Core Bus Corridor that I'm on is said to have journeys that take as long as 75mins today, reduced to 25-30mins post Bus Connects.

If conditions today are arguably better than what Bus Connects will provide, how realistic are these future journey times? Obviously Bus Connects is about other things like reliability and cycling, but I'd be interested to see the basis for these estimates.

https://twitter.com/Costellop/status/1243147503861628930

An update from the
@BusConnects
team - due to Covid restrictions another public consultation will be run later this year.

The current consultation will still continue so dont worry if you have already made a submission, and there will be full engagement again later this year!

Absolute shambles.

All submissions are in writing though. The meetings are material to the consultation, there's no new information at the meetings that isn't already in the booklets and questions can still be answered electronically. When this crisis is over and people have to go back to crushing themselves onto PT after a period of chilled home working there'll be a lot of anger at the inaction. We're 2 years into this project, not even a planning application completed.

Are people really suggesting they plough on here and have a public consultation?