Andrew:“How does the Council decide which roads should have bus lanes?”We look at stretches of road where there are high numbers of buses, significant delays to buses, and enough space to potentially implement a bus lane.“Why is this bus lane 24 hrs? Why not relieve congestion in the afternoons by restricting the hours of operation from 7 to 11 i.e. the busiest period in the morning.”I mentioned earlier in this thread that bus priority schemes are designed to reduce travel times for bus passengers and to make bus arrival and journey times more reliable in the face of varying levels of traffic congestion. While delays are usually worst in the peak direction in the peak periods (inwards in the morning, outwards in the evening), there are often contrapeak delays as well, caused by high use of the road network. Even in the interpeak and in the evenings and weekends there can be severe delays, caused by road works, accidents, special events etc, and this is where bus priority is particularly useful in helping to keep the buses to timetable, saving intending passengers further downstream from the frustration and uncertainty of wondering when their bus will arrive and avoiding the need to cancel services because the bus is still stuck on its previous trip.Also, if the general traffic lane can cope with the traffic in the peak, it can cope in the off-peak, so reassigning the bus lane back to general traffic use outside of peak hours is of relatively little benefit to other road users. Indeed, most London motorists are now accustomed to staying out of bus lanes at all times, and having a part-time bus lane is often an invitation to a small percentage of motorists to use the bus lane (outside of bus lane hours) to undertake some high speed “under-taking”, which often leads to conflict when the bus lane ends or when a driver in the general traffic lane tries to turn left. And, bus lanes give space for cyclists, who of course are not just about in peak hours.“Will the queue of traffic going towards Brentford centre be longer with the introduction of this lane?”We are not proposing removing a traffic lane, just adding a bus lane. This will allow buses to come to the front of the queue at the approach to Brentford Bridge, so there should be no increase in the general queue length, as at any given time there is currently likely to be a bus somewhere in the queue, if not at the front. Ultimately, if more people use the buses and fewer use cars, queues should reduce.“How has this bus lane been assessed regarding its effect on local air pollution levels? Pinching the traffic at the already busy Commerce Road junction must make the pollution problem worse? I know the arguments in terms of encouraging bus use giving an overall improvement but is this at the expense of those directly awaken to the bus lane.”For the reasons given above, I don’t believe there is any net effect on local air pollution but hopefully a gradual move to more sustainable travel will ultimately lead to cleaner air.
Chris Calvi-Freeman ● 6806d