3 August 2012

Magic Busway rolls on

| johnboy
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Roads ACT Director Tony Gill is letting us all know that the Belconnen to Civic Transitway is still rumbling along bollixing the roads around Civic as it goes:

“The Rimmer Street extension, located between the two new ANU student accommodation buildings, will become the City bound bus platform in the new City West Bus Station,” Mr Gill said.

“Rimmer Street will be active with high numbers of pedestrians and students utilising the bus platform and visiting its street frontage cafes and other commercial businesses.

“The next two portions of works to be completed will focus on Marcus Clarke Street and Kingsley Street. These stages are due for completion in September 2012 weather dependent,” Mr Gill said.

To facilitate these works Marcus Clarke Street will be closed, between Barry Drive and Alinga Street in the City, from 10 pm Friday 3 August 2012 to 6 am Monday 6 August 2012. Rudd Street will also be closed at Marcus Clarke Street for the duration of the same period.

The final portions of work are located on Barry Drive and Alinga Street. These are due for completion in late-2012.

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Keijidosha said :

As far as I can tell, this project will create a bus station for ANU not dissimilar to the new Westfield station in Belconnen. Given the volume of students that currently alight at Barry Drive and Marcus Clarke stops, having a dedicated bus platform within ANU is a really good idea in terms of safety, amenity and convenience.

If you have a look at the map you will see that this is not the case. The new stop is not going to move anyone away from the Barry Drive/Marcus Clarke Street stop. A quick look at the map will show why.

Keijidosha said :

As a bonus the new route will alleviate the current traffic issues caused by buses becoming obstacles for traffic at the city end of Barry Drive and Marcus Clarke Street bus stops.

What it will do is stop buses doing a crazy dash from the left hand lane on Barry Drive to the right. Though clearly the new lights where buses will turn right off Barry Drive into the ANU will be priority lights so maybe overall the whole traffic movement along Barry Drive won’t be better for either bus or car.

And that’s actually where I have an issue with this plan. In all the time I’ve lived in Canberra I have never thought the route from Belconnen to the City was an issue for buses. When I first moved here the time was 15 minutes, it is now 20 thanks to the (sensible) diversion along College Street and Haydon Drive. At the city end all seemed to flow pretty well anyway, so don’t see how the new bus road will drastic improve bus running times. The amenity of the new stop in the ANU is a bonus if you will but could have been acheived without the Barry Drive improvements. If anything making Barry Drive 3 lanes for EVERYONE would probably give the same 1 minute or so the buses will save to them and every other driver too.

watto23 said :

Seriously, this is not Bus Rapid Transit. Its a lane along a road with traffic lights and bus stops etc to slow buses down. True bus rapid transit, required dedicated busways seperate from the road.
We’ve had buslanes in canberra for ages and they might speed the buses up a fraction, but IMO usually at require twice the time a car takes.

I’m time poor not money poor, I’d be happy to pay for a system that works.

Maybe you could get yourself a nice motorbike or scooter – use the bus lane and get to your destination quicker. Free parking, and you’ll have more fun too. Win win win! 🙂

As far as I can tell, this project will create a bus station for ANU not dissimilar to the new Westfield station in Belconnen. Given the volume of students that currently alight at Barry Drive and Marcus Clarke stops, having a dedicated bus platform within ANU is a really good idea in terms of safety, amenity and convenience.

As a bonus the new route will alleviate the current traffic issues caused by buses becoming obstacles for traffic at the city end of Barry Drive and Marcus Clarke Street bus stops.

Seriously, this is not Bus Rapid Transit. Its a lane along a road with traffic lights and bus stops etc to slow buses down. True bus rapid transit, required dedicated busways seperate from the road.
We’ve had buslanes in canberra for ages and they might speed the buses up a fraction, but IMO usually at require twice the time a car takes.

I’m time poor not money poor, I’d be happy to pay for a system that works.

dtc said :

Really? All of this work is to create one new bus stop in Civic West?

Err, no.

dtc said :

I had assumed it was to stop buses at Civic West so they didn’t have to go into town, and make people walk the rest of the way.

Perhaps it might be better to stop assuming and do some research?

davo101 said :

dtc said :

What the intention with pedestrian traffic moving from the new platform into Civic?

They stay on the bus until it gets to the Civic Interchange.

Really? All of this work is to create one new bus stop in Civic West? I had assumed it was to stop buses at Civic West so they didnt have to go into town, and make people walk the rest of the way.

dtc said :

What the intention with pedestrian traffic moving from the new platform into Civic?

They stay on the bus until it gets to the Civic Interchange.

What the intention with pedestrian traffic moving from the new platform into Civic? The existing crossing of Marcus Clarke St (cnr of Barry Drive) is already pretty crowded during peak hour (including but not limited to a large number of cyclists) and there isnt much spare space. Adding a few 100 people to that mix ain’t gonna work very well.

There is another crossing at Alinga St, which might work a bit better, but its not a high volume crossing either.

I’m sure all those students (including Toad Hall) will be happy to have buses going past their windows and parking underneath with the engine running at all hours.

johnboy said :

I’m saying busways are an expensive way to achieve very little while narrowing the overall road, and causing huge inconvenience while doing it.

It’s costing $7.5 million which is a lot cheaper than the $150 million time travel busway and I guess would be cutting off about the same amount of travel time. It means that unless the traffic backs past Belconnen Way the buses will be able sail past all of the cars in the “carpark”.

johnboy said :

I’m saying busways are an expensive way to achieve very little while narrowing the overall road, and causing huge inconvenience while doing it.

Really? What are you basing that on? A quick look at the literature indicates that Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is more efficient and cost effective than *gulp* light rail.

For those interested, the consultation plan for the Civic end of the transitway is available here. (Whether this reflects the current plan of works is debatable.)

To clarify my previous comment, it looks as though Barry Drive will be widened to accomodate the bus lane and on-road cycle lane, which divorces near Sullivans Creek for a dedicated off-road cycle lane and bridge.

johnboy said :

I’m saying busways are an expensive way to achieve very little while narrowing the overall road, and causing huge inconvenience while doing it.

If the plans are accurate, the cycle lane on Barry Drive is being removed to accomodate the city-bound bus lane while maintaining the current two general traffic lanes. Cyclists are being accomodated by the construction of an adjacent dedicated off-road cycleway. Hardly seems like a bollixing of anything really – which is a suprising revelation considering other road “improvement” projects in Canberra. (What is completely unsurprising is the mind-melting idiocy of scheduling this project alongside the Parkes Way roadworks.)

However, some minor traffic congestion in the short-term seems like a small inconvenience to create longer-term improvements to city bus access, a reduction of congestion on Markus Clarke Street and increased safety for ANU bus users. I’m sure those commuting by car to the city will see it differently though.

johnboy said :

I’m saying busways are an expensive way to achieve very little while narrowing the overall road, and causing huge inconvenience while doing it.

Just curious, what are you basing the claim that the road will end up narrowed on? I’ve tried to find any actual plans of the works will look like when completed, and come up with zip, so can only make guesses based on the works I can see. I’d love to see something that shows how it’ll end up if it exists.

johnboy said :

Maybe stick to roadworks that will do something useful?

So you’re basically saying that no one who travels into Civic on bus along Barry Drive counts?

I’m saying busways are an expensive way to achieve very little while narrowing the overall road, and causing huge inconvenience while doing it.

So how do you propose to carry out roadworks without doing, umm, roadworks? Perhaps getting Scotty to beam them in?

Maybe stick to roadworks that will do something useful?

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