NI: Bus lanes on motorways

[odlum]

According to this bus lanes are being put on sections of the M1 and M2.

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news ... 71031.html


What do you think of putting bus lanes on motorways?

[odlum]

Sorry, thread posted twice for some reason!

[AndyB]

Duplicate post is gone!

We've had them for years, in fairness. All on the hard shoulders, approach to M2 J4 city bound and off and on via the slip roads, and between the M1 services and J3 and J2 to J1.

They work, and the existing scheme has a lot of extra emergency phones with the full length monitored by CCTV with prism signs so that buses can be directed back into normal traffic in the event of a stuck vehicle.

[Bryn666]

Weren't these in place prior to the "mainland" introducing hard shoulder running? What sort of park and ride options exist, as Sprucefield seems an ideal place to have a multi-storey and transfer people onto buses direct into Belfast city centre.

[AndyB]

Park and ride is available at M1 J8, M1 J3 for local traffic, and more recently, M2 J5. The bus lanes predate all P&R except M1 J3 because the traffic has been atrocious for years.

M1 J3 is an oddity, because it is entirely for local traffic. The bus service just goes straight onto the motorway, but traffic wishing to use a P&R have to either go to J2 and double back and similarly to go home or go to J8.

[wallmeerkat]

Were the bus lanes originally ran during the Westlink upgrade, then kept on as popular with bus-going commuters?

Sprucefield could also do with a better system than locking barriers at 7pm sharp and weekends. I appreciate they want to stop the abuse of the land when not in use, but could they not for example close the entry barrier at 5pm and have an exit-only barrier? Or perhaps produce a bus ticket to exit? And run on Saturdays at least?

[AndyB]

Wouldn't work - electrical barriers would be vandalised, and they'd just drive in the exit gates. The site's unmanned so nobody to check tickets.

The M1/Westlink bus lanes were introduced long before the upgrade. The M1 layout was pretty much exactly the same as it is now - hard shoulder M1 bus lane went onto the Donegall Road roundabout, then across the Broadway roundabout to become lane 3 of the Westlink and turning right at Roden Street. The busway replaced the offside bus lane.

[c2R]

On the M1 earlier in the week, I noticed that cones and signs are out for the extension of the M1 bus lane: http://www.wesleyjohnston.com/roads/m1m ... s2017.html

[AndyB]

Indeed - they’re building one on the M2 foreshore as well, running via the Fortwilliam sliproads. The 50mph limit is consistently ignored, which makes it a very dangerous place if you don’t want to chance an unmarked police car pulling you over.

For the same reason, getting from the J2 onslip to the M3 lanes can also be very hairy. Unfortunately I have to do that five evenings a week.

[c2R]

Yeah, the compliance on the M1 was also somewhat non-existent - in fact everyone I'd overtaken who was doing 60 through the VSL section of the M1 when it was 70 continued to do 60 and overtook me again as I slowed to 50 through the roadworks...

[AndyB]

Compliance with VSL and road works speed limits can be directly correlated with enforcement, ie there isn’t any

[c2R]

Yeah, the SPECS enforcement of roadworks on English motorways has definitely improved compliance considerably from my recollections of driving in the 80s and 90s

[AndyB]

I've seen extended buffer zones used for talivans on the A8, but that's it. There would have been space in the A26 works too, but I don't remember seeing one.

[c2R]

M1 Belfast bus lane extension is operational from Monday

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-53684008

[AndyB]

And has met with the usual whining about bus lanes, even though, like all motorway bus lanes in NI, it has nothing other than a positive impact on normal traffic: if a bus can go along the bus lane at 40mph, it's out of the general traffic flow stopping and starting at far less, and therefore easing congestion. Buses don't use it when traffic is flowing freely at more than 40 as there's no benefit to it and no negative impact from not using it.

[c2R]

And has met with the usual whining about bus lanes, even though, like all motorway bus lanes in NI, it has nothing other than a positive impact on normal traffic: if a bus can go along the bus lane at 40mph, it's out of the general traffic flow stopping and starting at far less, and therefore easing congestion. Buses don't use it when traffic is flowing freely at more than 40 as there's no benefit to it and no negative impact from not using it.

Also, and obviously , if it can encourage some regular users to stop at Sprucefield and get on a bus into Belfast, there will be fewer cars on the road and an even greater positive impact on traffic. That said, I'm still not keen on hard shoulder running in any circumstances - but at least having a few trained bus drivers using it is preferential to general hard shoulder running...

[AndyB]

Advisory speed limit of 40, and NI designs it to be festooned with cameras which are actually monitored and prism signs which close the HS to buses as soon as something is detected. Given the sightlines on a motorway, the mitigation is really good.

[c2R]

Oh I know, absolutely - I've just been on too many hard shoulders of motorways waiting for recovery for one reason or another over the years (see AA thread!). The double blow out I had last year on the smartified M6 (Birmingham) was difficult to get recovered and necessitated motorway closure, so the thought of being rear ended by a bus if you were broken down on a dark, foggy morning isn't one I'd relish!

[Chris Bertram]

And has met with the usual whining about bus lanes, even though, like all motorway bus lanes in NI, it has nothing other than a positive impact on normal traffic: if a bus can go along the bus lane at 40mph, it's out of the general traffic flow stopping and starting at far less, and therefore easing congestion. Buses don't use it when traffic is flowing freely at more than 40 as there's no benefit to it and no negative impact from not using it.

Also, and obviously , if it can encourage some regular users to stop at Sprucefield and get on a bus into Belfast, there will be fewer cars on the road and an even greater positive impact on traffic. That said, I'm still not keen on hard shoulder running in any circumstances - but at least having a few trained bus drivers using it is preferential to general hard shoulder running...

Then you have to persuade people that changing their mode of transport midway through a journey is no big deal, when it's eminently possible to complete the trip by car. We already know that many people won't travel by train if they have to change at some point. It's in human nature to try to keep things simple, and a single end-to-end journey will always look more appealing than any alternative.

[Bryn666]

Guaranteed parking at Sprucefield vs driving around for 90 minutes finding a cheap space in a city centre should do the trick.