xpress Buses on Motorway Median Strips?
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IROUGHOUT North America the need to help public transport to sin its present efficiency is now lized. It is accepted that buses must wided with priorities especially in iours.!' These two important points made by Mr. Lloyd at the cona of his paper, which described in the transport studies now being I out in America.
Lloyd visited North America last ▪ see for himself what was being to reshape the public transport sys n face of competition from the a car. There is now one car for three people, and in some States car ship is even higher.
athe past 30 years, said the author, has been done to re-equip, far less d, the North American public ittirt system, whilst spectacular and motorway building programmes been carried out to accommodate -owing number of motorcars. Conto expectations, these developments lot improved transport facilities, and in the centre of North American have become so congested that there aeasure, or threat, of decay in city S.
the past few years there has been cal change of thinking, and realizalat private cars alone cannot handle rger movement to, from and within ;ntral areas of cities. As a result :se changes President Kennedy sent isportation message to Congress in 1962, which recommended many pproaches to the nation's transport ;mg. Senator Harrison A. Williams luced a three-year 500-million-dollar nistration Bill which specified that -nment grant would be contingent re development of a co-ordinated a of transport as part of the developof urban areas. In his introduction Bill, Senator Williams referred to nsatisfactory results which could from unco-ordinated planning, he said: " .... urban highway construction also sets in motion a chain of other costly social and economic events. It creates tremendous problems of family dislocation; it forces the widening of local street systems and the loss of trees. It encroaches on limited park and open space areas in the city, increases air pollution problems, diminishes local tax bases, increases traffic control costs, and creates a gigantic and expensive problem of finding places for all the cars to park."
It is against this background that many larger cities in North America have undertaken transportation studies. Mr. Lloyd then went on to describe at length the form that these discussions have taken with particular reference to the Chicago Area Transportation Study, Many existing organizations were brought into these discussions, such as city planning, city and state highways, business and industrial concerns, and public transport authorities, including road and rail.
In America there has been, and is, little control over land use, whilst for many years town and country planning powers have progressively increased in this country. On the other hand, the more rapid growth of the private car in America and lack of land planning has led to very comprehensive studies into transport problems, whilst a relatively. few small origin and destination studies have been undertaken in Britain. At present a London Traffic Survey is being carried out by a firm of American consultants for the London County Council and the Ministry of Transport.
In the author's view, public policy should not be overlooked or ignored in deciding the appropriate level of service to he provided by public transport. As the Chicago study says, there is need to consider the passenger demand, the level of fares charged, the costs of operation, practical operating requirements, and the public pressure—and to keep all these factors in balance.
A city has to plan future investment in buildings and in transport How much of this future investment should go into transport, and how much of this sum should he allocated to provide roads for private cars and to provide help to public transport, is a matter of judgment.
When planning for the future, it is necessary to have objectives and standards, and the proposals are usually a compromise between historical practices, the amount of money available, and the standards of comfort required. Only in relatively undeveloped areas is there much freedom of choice.
The Chicago study proposed a new system of motorways inside the urban part of the city, together with extensions to and improvements of the commuter rail facilities, and special facilities for buses. The need to make. peak period journeys by public transport is recognized: the longest peak-hour journeys by main-line railways; the next longest by underground or surface railways; the third longest journeys by express buses, and the short local journeys by bus_ One development is that the new motorways will have a " median reservation ". When the pressure on the motorway increases, express buses will use the central "median strip ", and finally it will be used by surface or underground railways. The Chicago study stresses the need to retain existing traffics on public transport and calls for superior roadlrail interchange.
This reflects the feeling of similar planning committees throughout North America. The National Capitol Transportation Agency for . Washington, for example, proposes to increase progressively the present 45 per cent of peakhour journeys by public transport to 60 per cent .by a combination of underground and surface trains and express buses on the motorways. An express. type of bus operation on the motorways with special facilities provided for these buses, such as reserved lanes, so that they may freely operate at all times, was also recommended by the Vancouver Highway Planning Report.