Limited Future for City Buses P
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THE acknowledgment that the private car cannot cope with urban passenger transport on its own, and therefore public transport services must be retained and developed, is the theme running through both the papers presented at the Municipal Passenger Transport Association conference in Edinburgh this week. Buses seemed to have very little future in the larger cities, except on feeder services to rapid transit rail lines, and operation of purely local services, according to the views of Mr. R. Hodgen, traffic engineer with Scott and Wilson, Kirkpatrick and Partners, consulting civil engineers, in a paper entitled "Urban Transport Planning ". Mr. F. J. Lloyd, operating manager (central buses) London Transport Board, discussed the efforts now being made across the Atlantic to redevelop puhlic transport in urban areas, in his paper "Transportation Studies in North America ". Express buses on new motorways had a part to play in these proposals.
Urban Transport Planning
DUBUC transport in urban areas may require subsidizing on the grounds of overall social welfare; an increasing quality of service is demanded by the increasingly affluent society; and a successful co-ordination of the total transport function, both public and private, could hest be achieved on a metropolitan or conurbation basis and by an agency with executive powers. These were conclusions reached by Mr. Hodgen in his paper on Urban Transport Planning.
The aim of the paper was to stress the close inter-relation between all means of transport, the consequent continuing impact of increasing car ownership on public transport, and the need both for closer co-ordination and for surveys and research into the nature of the interrelation on a much more expensive and extensive scale than is usually accepted in this country. Much of the data to which the paper refers was drawn from road transport and planning studies in Glasgow, and most of the suggestions are closely related to the Glasgow situation.
One of the conclusions from these studies is that it is impossible to contain road planning within the administrative area of Glasgow. Data must be collected from, and planning related to, a wider area containing roughly the total contiguous build-up area. A second conclusion is that the new motorways which would be needed would supplement and relieve the existing roads, rather than replace them. Furthermore, they would be developed on separate rights of way, and not along the line of existing roads.
The validity of this study is based on the assumption that car ownership will grow until it reaches the level of at least one car per family and, secondly, that cars will continue to be used to about the same extent as at present. A sharp increase in car ownership could bring about a fall in the use of public transport. The use of public transport in Glasgow
could fall from the present 70-80 per cent of total travel to about 30-40 per cent.
At the same time as car ownership increases, there is a growing tendency towards decreasing population densities, with overspill from large cities. Much of the suburban and semi-rural development in America is at such a low density that it is difficult to conceive any feasible form of public transport, and living is based on use of the private car. Even in this country the density of development is far from favourable to the maintenance of a satisfactory level of public transport service. Thus car ownership not only directly affects the service, it makes the provision of a satisfactory public service in competition with the private car all the more difficult in the lower density areas which it stimulates.
The effect on public transport will not be uniform. The railway, whether as a subway or suburban line has a unique advantage over bus services. It operates on its own right of way and is unaffected by traffic congestion. American experience indicates that railways have sometimes held their own where a bus service has gone to the wall. The number of passengers carried to the central business district of Chicago by train in 1959 was very much the same as in the 1920s, whilst bus services had dropped to about one seventh of the 1920s level. Furthermore, areas served by rail were associated with lower car ownership compared with areas of otherwise similar characteristics.
Obviously there is a complex interaction of factors, said Mr_ Hodgen, but it seems likely that the railway lines, particularly those serving dense central areas, will have a better chance than the bus of withstanding the private car. Nevertheless it should be emphasized that because of the rather specialized service provided by the railway the bus is likely to continue to provide the bulk of the public transport service. In central areas, where the density is very great (150.000 people are employed in the central square mile of Glasgow), it seems certain that the bulk of travel, and particularly peak period
travel„ will be by public transport. The total accommodation of the private car is not a practical possibility, since complete redevelopment of whole central areas would be necessary.
It is interesting to reflect, said the author, that the central areas of the older American cities, especially those served by railways systems, are still primarily dependent upon public transport. Thus, in Chicago, although only 25 per cent of all travel is by public services, almost exactly the opposite applies in the central square mile, where 75 per cent of all travel is by public transport, and during the peak hour this is increased to 87 per cent of the entry. The same general situation is true of New York, for example.
Further variation can be expected during the day. The cost of private motoring is increased during the peak hours, both by operating cost and the cost of all-day parking. Again the type of user is very significant. A very high proportion of bus operation in America is due to school services. The train passenger is typically of higher social status than the bus passenger and often runs and operates a car.
Mr. Hodgen then stressed the difficulties of maintaining sufficiently attractive. and economic bus services in the face of increasing car ownership and discussed ways in which the use of private cars might be controlled, if indeed it should be controlled. A more positive way to try and remedy the situation might be to make public transport a free service but not only would the cost be prohibitive, there was also some doubt as to how effective it would be. The extra cost of travel by private car must be measured against the speed, convenience and comfort given.
Therefore the only lasting way for public transport to remain competitive is by substantial improvements in the quality of service. The author quoted an experiment in which a Detroit coach setvice operating a 14-mile route from the suburbs to the city sentre was increased cent. The increase was maintained ;lit weeks. The overall increase in
e of the tine was only 3 per cent. mkdays, the increase was a mere ' cent, whilst at weekends travel ied from 6 to 8.7 per cent. Only cent of the increased travellers had ed buses before.
lies carried out in Washington by stational Capitol Transportation y resulted in proposals for rapid rail lines. Adequate relief could given by improved bus services le there was no example of a bus which was truly competitive.
author then dicussed the possibility isidizing bus services which should ained in high-density areas, or to le an alternative means of transport ate unable to drive. In fact public art must, he said, be regarded as a service. Subsidy was a dangerous ally, and should not be employed to maintain existing services regardless of changing conditions. in the author's view, subsidies directed towards capital improvements in service would be most profitable in terms of overall social benefit.
It was essential that town planning and transportation planning should be interrelated. An interesting study of urban transportation made under the auspices of the Yale bureau of highway traffic leant towards a metropolitan government to assume responsibility for those functions best met at this wider level. One department would be concerned with transport, and would be made up as shown in the table below.
Co-ordination is, of course, no new suggestion, said Mr. Hodgen. The whole Clydeside conurbation has been described "as the area which was under consideration in the plan for passenger transport in Glasgow ". The London Transport Board is a good example of a co-ordinated system of public transport. It is suggested, however, that such co-ordination should also include private transport and, consequently, roads and parking: one agency with executive powers to manage the total operation.