Monday, 11 September 2017
Today Austroads published a report documenting techniques and technologies in use to improve the efficiency of on-road public transport
Some of these techniques and technologies are explicitly documented in guidelines and design manuals used by the Australian and New Zealand road and transport authorities, and some have been applied in discrete projects but are not published or broadly available for others to replicate and use.
The report is based upon a literature review of guidelines and policy from roads and transport authorities in Australia, New Zealand and internationally which are used by practitioners in the development of on-road public transport priority schemes. It also considers the views of practitioners involved in bus and LRT (Light Rail Transit) priority in Australia and New Zealand.
Australia and New Zealand's populations are growing and becoming increasingly urbanised and are now some of the most highly urbanised populations in the world. The freight task, demand for movement and cost of congestion in our cities is growing
Public transport infrastructure is increasingly seen as a solution to these challenges, and this is reflected in an investment focus over the last quarter century.
Priority treatments examined in the report include:
- Bus road space allocation including dedicated busways, bus-only streets, bus only lane, bus lane, peak bus lane and queue jump
- LRT road space allocation including tramways, low vertical elements, high vertical elements, grade separation and kerb-side running
- Signal priority including passive and active signals, T-Lights and B-Lights for advanced green time, and extended green time
- Stop placement and design including kerb outstands, stop on intersection departure side, kerb access stops, centre island stops and trafficable platforms.
The report includes case-studies and commentary on common best practice in Australian and New Zealand, highlighting benefits to journey time reliability, travel time and other indicators.
It is expected that sharing knowledge on improvements to on-road public transport will lead to benefits for reliability and travel time, and in turn improved mobility and liveability.
Report link: Prioritising On-Road Public Transport
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