The Liberals’ Zed Seselja has announced he’d make the Barry Drive bus lane a T2 if he gets elected.
“The Canberra Liberals will move to open this lane to T2 Traffic, that is all vehicles with two or more passengers on board. The infrastructure is there, but we don’t use it. It will cost nothing, and can instantly improve the drive to work for thousands of Canberrans.
“We led the way by pushing this idea on the ACT Labor government and succeeded in opening up Adelaide Avenue that had the same out of date restrictions. That has freed up that road enormously,” said Zed.
Shadow Transport Services Minister and local Belconnen Member Alistair Coe added, “The lane along Barry Drive is currently only open to buses and taxis, despite Barry Drive carrying up to 27,000 vehicles per day. Closing the third lane to nothing but busses – and busses that aren’t that frequent – is a massive waste and poor planning. Our idea opens Belconnen up just that bit more every day for all those travelling in by car.
Is a bus lane anywhere safe now?
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T2 lane will do little to encourage car pooling, it needs to be at least a T4 lane. A mother with a baby seat can use a T2 lane. A dedicated bus lane for buses can move far more passenger per day the cars with two passengers ever will.
http://youtu.be/UZl1N6bTp_M
What is Alistair Coe’s policy on Public transport he is quick to complain about the waste but how would he run it then Can you imagine?.
Yep, Barry Drive needs an overtaking lane. So many drivers sit on 80kmh along there and just hold up the traffic.
Very Busy said :
A Transit lane is not an over taking lane, you have to start and stay in that lane for its entire length as it is a solid white line.
“Busses that aren’t that frequent”
Really?
According to Action, there is a bus in the 300 series doing the intertown run every 5-8 minutes from 7am-7pm Monday-Friday. Just how much more frequent would the Liberals make the intertown busses?
Has my vote…..
Drive on there every day stuck in traffic with the other half cursing that the bus lane isn’t already a T2!
BicycleCanberra said :
Err–I think you need to turn the volume up on your sarcasm detector.
When is the govt going to start proof-reading press releases and release one without spelling or grammatical errors? Do they employ primary school kids to compose these? They can’t use the Mitchell fire excuse that it was 4am and the staff member was rushed and tired.
BicycleCanberra said :
Actually that’s not correct. From the Australian Road Rules (http://www.legislation.act.gov.au/ni/db_37271/default.asp):
tiliqua said :
davo101 said :
Err +1. but anyway, Mr BicycleCanberra, could you please explain to me how I can legally enter the northbound T2 lane on Adelaide Ave?
Zed’s idea is bad, but Coe’s supporting comments are worse:
“The lane along Barry Drive is currently only open to buses and taxis, despite Barry Drive carrying up to 27,000 vehicles per day. Closing the third lane to nothing but busses – and busses that aren’t that frequent – is a massive waste and poor planning. Our idea opens Belconnen up just that bit more every day for all those travelling in by car.
Firstly, the bus lane on Barry Drive isn’t a “third lane” that was closed to traffic. It was an additional lane constructed to prevent city-bound buses being wedged in traffic that banks up to the Macarthur Avenue exit. Secondly, if a bus travelling on that lane every 5-8 minutes isn’t considered frequent then I’d like to see the Liberals plans for ACTION services. Finally, Making the bus lane T2 will not improve traffic flow as the bottleneck still exists at the end of Barry Drive where the bus lane becomes a regular lane and then merges back to two lanes at North Oval.
Far as I can tell the only thing a T2 lane would do is futher delay bus services from Belconnen into the City during the morning peak hour, and that doesn’t benefit anybody.
nsn said :
i’d suspect that a seven or eight minute gap between buses would include a shed load of cars, even single occupant vehicles, that would have filled maybe twenty or so more buses. i’d like to see ‘frequent’ mean a bus as often as a taxi, almost… then we’d have accessible and useful public transport that would be used by canberrans and we’d see many many fewer cars on the road.
not that this will ever happen, of course.
Keijidosha said :
+1
It isn’t long enough to bother with a T2. T4 maybe. Taxis and motorcycles use it at the moment, and a modest increase wouldn’t be a problem, but T2 is too low a bar.
I was at the Barry Drive/Clunies Drive lights the other day, waiting for the pedestrian cross signal when an ambulance came screaming down the bus lane, hit the permanent 3-lane gridlock at Boldrewood St and forced through two lines of stationary traffic on to the other side of the road.
It is a real choke point in the morning. I’d be in favour of them extending the bus lane beyond the lights at ANU. All the third lane does is encourage lane-hopping and then a huge slowdown to merge again.
Please leave that bus lane alone. It has made a big difference in travel time on the bus I take into town. As other posters have also noted, there’s a bottleneck further along that route where some work wouldn’t go astray.
astrojax said :
Not sure I get your point, but if you’re saying there should be busses more frequently than every 5-8 minutes on this route, I don’t think that is necessary and I don’t think it should be Action’s (or the Government’s) priority.
There are a lot of valid things to complain about with Action busses. In my view, the frequency of intertown busses isn’t one of them.
Why not just set it up as a T2 for a trial and see how it goes. It can always be tightened up if it clogs the lane up or is being abused.
Although, just like Adelaide Avenue, I don’t really care what the Gov’t of the day does so long as the purpose and reason is clearly defined and consistent. If it is for environmental reasons then I don’t see why (for example) out of service buses, large inefficient motorbikes and single occupant Taxis are allowed in it. If it is for bus safety or to improve public transport times then why allow anything other than in service buses in that lane (and force them to stay in that lane only). If it is to speed up traffic flow then set a minimum speed limit for that lane. There’s probably plenty of other ideas/contradictions that people can suggest.
Innovation said :
A trial of a T3/T4 would be worthwhile IMO, however the Adelaide Avenue temporary T2 mess shows that the chances of it reverting to a bus lane would be slim to none.
aidan said :
That is already in the works as part of a wider-scale upgrade of the public transport corridor between Belconnen and Civic:
http://www.transport.act.gov.au/studies_projects/belconnen_city_transitway_study.html
With the exception of the strange stop-start transit lanes on Haydon Drive the plan looks quite good.
I really can’t see what this would achieve? That road is only ever busy in the morning peak, and all that turning the bus lane into a T2 would achieve would be to speed some people’s trip before hitting the lights at the ANU, where they will again come to a stand still. Woohoo, so while you’re stopped waiting for the lights and/or to merge after the lights, you’ll get to see the cars you passed pulling up behind you.
Unless the Liberal’s plan includes a way to sort out the shit fight of traffic lights and merging lanes at the end of Barry Drive, then this will achieve absolutely nothing at all.
#16 Keijidosha – Actually I think you will find that the T2 on Adelaide Avenue is still temporary while the Gov’t works out what the lane is supposed to be for.
Honestly, provided an idea is safe and doesn’t cost too much to implement, I don’t see what harm there is in setting up more trials which can then be tightened, relaxed or removed later. The recent 40km/h trials in main shopping areas seem to have worked well – perhaps there should be a few more.
Very Busy said :
You need to enter that lane just after the roundabout in Woden at the start of Yarra Glen then exit on Adelaide ave near Parliament House
BicycleCanberra said :
So what is it? In #3 you imply that the solid white line can’t be crossed and in #19 you say it can. You’ve lost me.
The bus stop at the end of the Barry Drive bus lane will be fun for spectators.
Very Busy said :
The Transit lane starts just after the roundabout in Woden and finishes on the next to parliament House. So you are not crossing the solid white line.
The rule in the Road rules is up to regional interpretations. When a transit lane is on the left like they are in Sydney you can enter that lane to turn left. This lane is on the right and the line is unbroken for its length.
BicycleCanberra said :
I think you’ll find that there is at least one broken section along Adelaide Avenue and Yarra Glen.
Re: northbound T2 lane on Adelaide Ave.
It is a solid line right from the start with the exception of a 50 metre section of broken line just past Hopetoun Cct. You can’t enter that lane without crossing a broken line until you get past Hopetoun Cct.
Google Earth will demonstrate this.
BicycleCanberra said :
So then where does it say in the ACT regulations that rule 147 (c) doesn’t apply here?
tiliqua said :
A lot of people in Canberra ignore these unbroken lines. It is really annoying when you obey the law and some doofus gets in the way because they don’t. On Commonwealth Avenue I wait until the line between lanes becomes broken before changing – to find I have to negotiate my way around some smart arse that thinks they are above the law. Small issue, but annoying.
bryansworld said :
Yep, just another one of our road rules that isn’t subject to enforcement because speeding is all that matters!!!!
The Lib’s Public Transport strategy is clear: (1) convert all Bus Lanes to T2 (2) convert all T2 lanes to regular traffic lanes (3) ACTION’s patronage decreases due to increased travel times on main routes, so slash funding to ACTION (4) ACTION’s patronage decreases further due to reduced services, so contract-out ACTION to private sector.
ML-585 said
ML-585 said :
The ACT Governments Transport strategy is:
- Build new roads but build at 50% of the size needed, decide to duplicate them at enormous cost and more inconvenience
- Make the ACTION bus network unworkable for anyone who works more than 2 interchanges away from their home (Home in Evatt to Woden Interchange in 65 minutes? I dont think so!)
- Penalise anyone who dares drive a car by making parking expensive then by increasing the cost by at least an additional $1-2 per year.
Need I go on?
tiliqua said :
Simplifying: you can’t cross an unbroken lane divider
UNLESS
c) you are allowed to straddle two lanes = Heavy vehicle (when needed)
d) its special – bus lane, T2, bike lane, etc and you are allowed to be there
note. you are allowed to enter a bike lane for ??m(more than the broken lines) to turn left/exit