One aspect of alan's commentary might look at the assumption that passenegres
will not change bus in the course of a journey, in the UK this is practically
enforced by the tradition of buying a ticket 'tied' to the bus on which it is
purchased, although with off-bus ticketing and the rapid take-off of post
09.30 day ticket fares in England (Edinburgh has had them for years), so that
most users will be happy with a change of bus, especially if there is minimal
waiting. In cities like Glasgow a huge amouint of delay and congestion occurs
because bus routes are all passing through just 2 North-South and 2 East-West
corridors, and the concept of simply looping through the outer cordon (set by
the M8 and river Clyde (South Bank)) with a very frequent fixed cross-city route
of walk-on walk-off buses probably free to use as in many US CBD's and thus
removing many vehicles used on journeys entirely within the CBD. For many
buses running with 20% or lower loading this will remove the inefficient use of
roadspace - but there is a also a detail which could dramatically affect the
traditional bus station.
York has in a small way put a toe in the water, where rural buses run to the
Park & Ride sites but instead of running part full into the city and
increasing the MVR/reducing service frequency, the passengers transfer to the P&R
service (which is very frequent and always has a bus on the stance at the P&R
site). This then runs in to town - a well loaded bus, the same type of vehicle
running on a standard service pattern (improving roadspace utilisation) and only
requiring 1 stand at the terminating point, so perhaps rather than looking at
how to fit all the services in to a central bus station, we should look at
working hubs with feeder services. DId someone say regulation ...?
Dave Holladay
Glasgow
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