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Abus lane orbus-only lane is alane restricted tobuses, generally to speed uppublic transport that would be otherwise held up bytraffic congestion. The related termbusway describes a roadway completely dedicated for use by buses, whilstbus gate describes a short bus lane often used as a short cut for public transport. Bus lanes are a key component of a high-quality bus corridor (QBC) andbus rapid transit (BRT) network, improving bus travel speeds and reliability by reducing delay caused by other traffic.
A dedicated bus lane may occupy only part of a roadway which also has lanes serving general automotive traffic; in contrast to atransit mall which is apedestrianized roadway also served by transit.
The first bus lane is often erroneously attributed toChicago, where in 1939Sheridan Road was installed withreversible lanes north of Foster Avenue.[1][2] The setup consisted of three-lanes towards the peak direction (south in the morning; north in the evening), and onecontraflow lane. None of the lanes exclusively carried buses, but were designed to facilitate bus operations. In 1948, theEast Side Trolley Tunnel inProvidence, Rhode Island was converted to bus-only use and became the first dedicated busway in the United States, continuing to operate to this day. In 1956Nashville became the first city to implement on-street bus lanes. Later that year, Chicago implemented a bus lane in the center of Washington Street, a five lane one-way street downtown.[3][4]
The first bus lanes in Europe were established in 1963 in theGerman city ofHamburg, when thetram system was closed and the former dedicated tram tracks were converted for bus travel. Other large German cities soon followed, and the implementation of bus lanes was officially sanctioned in the German highway code in 1970. Many experts from other countries (Japan among the first) studied the German example and implemented similar solutions. On 15 January 1964 the first bus lane in France was designated along thequai du Louvre inParis and the firstcontraflow lane was established on the oldpont de l’Alma on 15 June 1966.[5]
On 26 February 1968 the first bus lane inLondon was put into service onVauxhall Bridge.[6] The first contraflow bus lane in the UK was introduced in King's Road,Reading as a temporary measure when the road was made one-way (eastwards to Cemetery Junction) on 16 June 1968. The initial reason was to save the expense of rerouting thetrolleybus, which was due to be scrapped on 3 November of that year. However the experiment proved so successful that it was made permanent for use by motor buses.[7] In October 1971Runcorn opened the world's firstbus rapid transitway. Upon opening, the 7-mile (11 km) busway featured specialized stations,signal priority,grade separation, and was expanded to 14 miles (23 km) by 1980.[4][8][9]
By 1972 there were over 140 kilometres (87 mi) of with-flow bus lanes in 100 cities withinOECD member countries, and the network grew substantially in the following decades.[10]
TheEl Monte Busway between El Monte and DowntownLos Angeles was the first dedicated busway in the US, constructed in 1974.[11]
Bus lanes may be located in different locations on a street, such as on the sides of a street near the curb, or down the center. They may be long, continuous networks, or short segments used to allow buses to bypass bottlenecks or reduce route complexity, such as in a contraflow bus lane.[12]
Bus lanes may be demarcated in several ways. Descriptive text such as "BUS LANE" may be marked prominently on the road surface, particularly at the beginning and end. Some cities use a diamond-shaped pavement marking to indicate an exclusive bus lane. The road surface may have a distinctive color, usually red, which has been shown to reduce prohibited vehicles from entering bus lanes.[13]Road signs may communicate when a bus lane is in effect.[14]
Bus lanes may also be physically separated from other traffic using bollards, curbs, or other raised elements.[15]
In some cities, such asThe Hague in the Netherlands, buses are allowed to use reservedtram tracks, usually laid in the middle of the road and marked with the text "Lijnbus".
In theUnited Kingdom bus gates are common in towns and cities. A bus gate consists of a short section of road that only buses, cycles and sometimes other vehicles (typically taxis) can pass through. They lack most of the signage of bus lanes and have the words "BUS GATE" on the carriageway instead of "BUS LANE".[16]
Until 1975, local authorities needed special permission from theMinistry of Transport for traffic signs relating to buses. Some local authorities avoided this, creating their own schemes which didn't need special traffic signs. Across short sections of carriageway they put a gate, which would open as a bus approached. The gate usually took the form of a red-and-white pole pivoted at one end. These are still used at some toll bridges (and in car parks) but not at bus gates.
Gates could be used, along with physical narrowing, to block the entire width of the road, or they could be placed across one lane which was for buses only. Where local authorities wanted to stop HGVs using a residential road which was also a bus route, they would impose a width restriction. Buses were the same width as HGVs, so next to the width-restricted lane, they created a separate lane for buses with a bus-operated gate across it.[17] Most of these take the form of a central two-way lane between width-restricted nearside lanes in each direction, but other configurations exist.[18] Where a bus-only route was the full width of the road, physical cues would be used such as narrowing at the entry point, along with psychological ones such as coloured road surface.[19]
Rising barriers were superseded by rising bollards from 1995.[20][21] Now all physical barriers have been removed, to be replaced byCCTV enforcement.[22] Many motorists are fined for going through bus gates.[23]
Bus lanes may have separate sets of dedicatedtraffic signals, to allowtransit signal priority at intersections.[24]
Peak-only bus lanes are enforced only at certain times of the day, usually duringrush hour, reverting to a general purpose or parking lane at other times. Peak-only bus lanes may be in effect only in the main direction of travel, such as towards a downtown during morning rush hour traffic, with the buses using general purpose lanes in the other direction.[25]
Entire streets can be designated as bus lanes (such asOxford Street in London,Princes Street in Edinburgh, orFulton Street inDowntown Brooklyn), allowing buses, taxis and delivery vehicles only, or a contra-flow bus lane can allow buses to travel in the opposite direction to other vehicles.[26]
Some locations allow bicyclists or taxis to use bus lanes, however where bus or bicycle volumes are high, mixed traffic operations may result in uncomfortable conditions or delays.[27] Certain other vehicles may also be permitted in bus lanes, such astaxis,high occupancy vehicles,motorcycles, orbicycles.Police,ambulance services andfire brigades can also use these lanes.[28]
In the Netherlands mixed bus/cycle lanes are uncommon. According to the Sustainable Safety guidelines they would violate the principle of homogeneity and put road users of very different masses and speed behaviour into the same lane, which is generally discouraged.[29]
Some locations have allowed access to bus lanes toelectric cars and/orhybrid cars.Oslo removed one such exception in 2017 following protests due to congestion in bus lanes. The large number of electric vehicles on Norwegian roads slowed buses, defeating the purpose of bus lanes.[30]
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Bus lanes can become ineffective if weak enforcement allows use by unauthorized vehicles[31] orillegal parking. Center-running bus lanes avoid the problem of private vehicles blocking the lane bydouble parking for loading of passengers or cargo.
Evidence from the operation of urban arterials inBrisbane shows that a properly enforced bus lane, operating as designed without interference, can increase passenger throughput. In 2009 and 2010 traffic surveys showed that in Brisbane on a number of urban arterials with bus and transit lanes, noncompliance rates were approaching 90%. Following enhanced enforcement of the lanes, noncompliance rates dropped and overall efficiency of the bus and transit lanes improved with an up to 12% increase in total passenger throughput in the lane. Average bus journey times dropped, in some cases, by up to 19%.[32]
Some cities, including San Francisco and New York, employ automated camera enforcement, using either stationary cameras adjacent to the bus lane, or cameras on the front of buses to automatically issue citations to vehicles obstructing the bus lane.[33][34]
Bus lanes give priority to buses, cutting down on journey times where roads are congested with other traffic and increasing the reliability of buses. The introduction of bus lanes can significantly assist in the reduction ofair pollution.[35]
Bus lanes marked with colored pavement have been shown to reduce intrusions into bus lanes, speeding travel time and increasing bus reliability.[36]
Some network lengths of bus lanes in major cities, listed by buses per km of bus lane):
| City | Country | Population (million) | Buses (#s) | Population per bus | Bus lanes (km) | Buses per 1 km of bus lane |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Helsinki | Finland | 0.6 | 470[37] | 1,238 | 44[38] | 11 |
| Sydney | Australia | 4.3 | 1,900 | 2,260 | 90+[39] | 21 |
| Santiago | Chile | 6.5 | 4,600 | 1,400 | 200[40] | 23 |
| London | England | 8.7 | 8,600 | 1,010 | 304[41] | 28 |
| Singapore | Singapore | 5.5 | 3,775 | 1,200 | 200 (23 km are 24-hour restricted bus lane)[42] | 29 |
| Seoul | South Korea | 10.4 | 8,910 | 1,167 | 282[43] | 32 |
| Madrid | Spain | 7 | 2,022[44] | 2,720 | 50[45] | 40 |
| Jakarta | Indonesia | 10.1 | 524 | 5,000 | 184.31[46] | 30 |
| Bogotá | Colombia | 6.7 | 1,080[47] | 6,200 | 84[47] | 13 |
| São Paulo | Brazil | 10.9 | 14,900[48] | 730 | 155[49] | 96 |
| Kunming | People's Republic of China | 5.7 | ~ | ~ | 42[50] | |
| Beijing | People's Republic of China | 19.6 | 26,000 | 754 | 294 | 88 |
| Hong Kong | Hong Kong | 6.8 | 19,768[51] | 666 | 22[52] | 899 |
| Vienna | Austria | 1.8 | 56[53] | |||
| New York | United States | 8.5 | 5,777 | 1,480 | 222.7[54] | 26 |
| Auckland | New Zealand | 1.6 | 1,360[55] | 1,176 | 128 (by the end of 2017)[56] | 11 |
| Country | Highway | Bus lanes (km) | Section |
|---|---|---|---|
| South Korea | Gyeongbu Expressway | 137.4 | Hannam IC (Seoul) ~ Sintanjin IC (Daejeon) |
| Hong Kong | Tuen Mun Road | 8.5[57] | So Kwun Wat ~ Sham Tseng |
The busiest bus lane in the United States is theLincoln Tunnel XBL (exclusive bus lane) along theLincoln Tunnel Approach and Helix inHudson County, New Jersey, which carries approximately 700 buses per hour during morning peak times an average of one bus every 5.1 seconds.[58] In contrast, theCross-Harbour Tunnel inHong Kong carries 14,500 buses per day,[59] or an average of about 605 an hour all day (not just peak times), but the bus lane must give way to all the other road users resulting in long queues of buses.[further explanation needed]
Some residents and observers criticize bus lane plans and implementations because they take space from other vehicles or require road widening,[60] which can require the use ofeminent domain.[61]
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