THE BUS AND CITY ROAD PLANNING
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Tt-E priorities which should be accorded c! buses, as compared with private cars, in planning city road schemes were the subject of the paper read to the Scottish Road Passenger Transport Association conference in Turnberry on Wednesday, by Mr. F. R. Dinnis, • city engineer, Edinburgh.
Large cities might be 10 miles or more across, so that travellers found the need for some form of mechanical transport to be imperative. The planner' was therefore faced with the basic problem of moving hundreds of thousands of people by mechanical means several times a day between points several miles apart. The planners' job was to forecast what would be the methods of mechanical movement of passengers in the distant future.
If they kept their feet on the ground and refused to be led astray by undisciplined advocates of unconventional methods of moving passengers (such as overhead moving belts, monorails, moving pavements) they had to concentrate on the private car and the bus.
The major question to which both road planning and road passenger operating authorities were seeking the right answer was the correct proportion between the two forms of transport. So far as Edinburgh was concerned, public transport carried 82m. fewer passengers in 1964 than in 1950, whereas over the same period cars carried 88m. more passengers. One could produce all kinds of calculations based on the current statistics which in some cases could give what might seem to be silly answers.
In Edinburgh in 1964 buses carried on an average 560,000 passengers a day and cars may have carried 342,000 passengers. It was a fair assumption that there was a daily movement between home and work of 100,000 people, of which possibly 10,000 walked to work. It was known from surveys that 18,000 of those people did the journey in 12,000 cars. Possibly more than 70,000 people travelled in and out each day by bus, which gave a figure of 140,000 passenger trips a day. The relatively small number of cars (about 12,000) was the main cause of congestion during peak hours on radial roads connecting the city with the suburbs.
In the future it was thought that the total road capacity during the li-hour peak period in Edinburgh would be only about 26,000 cars. On present assumptions this would mean that an increase of 42,000 car passenger trips per day could be expected, and if there were no increase in total passengers moving this would represent a subtraction from the present 140,000 bus passenger trips of approximately 30 per cent, which still left 98,000 passengers.
But this, of course, was related only to trips between suburbs and central areas in peak periods. Taking the daily total present bus passengers (560,000) this would represent a decrease of only 7.5 per cent. In other words, the main effect of future increased car passenger trips during the morning and evening peak periods would mean a relatively small decrease in the total of daily bus passenger trips.
It seemed, therefore, that the main problem to be faced by the city bus operators was of decreases in general passenger traffic throughout the day and throughout the city. What actions could be taken to counteract this trend?
The planners had to be realistic; it had to be accepted that during the next three decades the saturation level of 0.4 cars per head of population would be reached and probably passed. There was no escaping the conclusion that off-peak bus travel was bound to decline if the present type of bus continued to be offered and if additional bus routes on a very large scale were not introduced.
In the case of Edinburgh there were 300 miles of the total 620 miles of street mileage not covered by bus routes; on average, walking distance from home to bus stop was between 300 and 400 Yards. The private car was available from door to door. How could bus operators overcome this disadvantage?
One important aid to forward planning would be the information to be provided by land use/transport surveys in the United States. These should provide a forecast of future movements throughout the study area and the likely future means of transport. In the past year or so this type of survey had been started in the larger British cities and conurbations, and a preliminary study was now being studied for the Edinburgh area.
Future pattern
It seemed that the future pattern of passenger travel in large cities should take the shape of carefully planned and attractive bus services along the radial routes into the city centre, with other services gradually diminishing to a minimum consistent with car travel.
There was the thought that vast sums of money could be saved in the city if car ownership were frozen at its present level, and the great mass of passenger transport moved by bus. Some people even argued that free bus services were justified, the cost being set against the savings which would accrue by not having to spend £200 or £300m. on new roads and car parks.
If, however, planners accepted that the percentage of daily passenger travel by bus would continue to decline to a level not yet known, then they could proceed with plans concerning with the future general shape and extent of road networks in large cities.
Limited construction of special roads for buses only would be a practical proposition. These would need to be only single carriageways with two lanes each of 12 ft. width. They would not have any footpaths, so that the total width between road boundaries would not be more than 30 ft. These could be constructed in some sections as elevated roads or even as underground roads in congested areas. Traffic control would have to be very comprehensive with coloured light signals. Passing bays and lay-bys for buses would be incorporated. The finding of routes for these special roads would be difficult and costly, but possibly some of the existing radial railway lines might be suitable.
However, one very important requirement would be that the buses using these special routes would have to be limited to single
deckers because of restricted headroom.
Especially in large estates could these special bus roads be built. But even if these were not practical it should be possible to design roads which segregated pedestrian traffic, giving access to bus stops in lay-bys. One such development was at present being planned in Edinburgh.
Present-day problems
Dealing with present-day problems, Mr. Dinnis said that there were practical difficulties about reserved lanes for buses, although the idea was excellent. They were practical where built-up frontages did not exist. The use of right-hand turns for buses only seemed to be operating with success in London, but, as with reserve lanes, very adequate and positive signposting was needed. Allowing buses to run in the opposite direction to the normal traffic flow in one-way streets again required adequate sign and lane marking. The reservation of certain existing streets for buses only might be applicable in certain cases where there were two roads running parallel with each other and not far apart, and where one of them had sufficient capacity for all other traffic.
It was prudent to incorporate bus-stop bays in new road designs. There was a requirement to keep walking distances between homes and bus stops to a minimum-200 or 300 yards was not far off the mark. If smaller buses were used road designers could plan the widths of traffic lanes at only. say, 10 ft. and thus get four lanes between existing kerbs instead of three. They would also very much welcome vehicles of shorter wheelbase which had smaller turning circles.
There should also be provided on perimeters of central areas or even farther out a series of interchange points where users of private cars could switch to public transport. Although the average car driver wanted to hang on to his car as long as he could, the time would come when congestion was so bad that he would be willing to transfer to public transport in this manner.
There was a need for a careful study in each city of existing bus routes with a view to finding beneficial changes. Population movement, redevelopment schemes and so on made a difference and it might be that some routes which had been in use for years needed re-examination.
One of the most promising developments was that of area control of traffic signals hy the use of computers, said Mr. Dinnis. If the experiments in Glasgow and London were successful they might rapidly be adopted in other cities. There were also developments coming with automatic control of road vehicles electronically, using buried cables for transmitting signals.
The present system for a highway authority to make an order restricting kerbside parking was cumbersome and possibly a little bit too democratic. Everyone would welcome a more flexible and quicker procedure. Traffic capacity was seriously diminished by buses standing at stops. Lay-bys should be constructed wherever possible, even to the extent of building them into existing pavement spaces.
Discussion
TF THE discussion which followed the presentation of the paper required a title "Action this day" might be considered not inappropriate. Mr. Ronald Cox, general manager, Edinburgh Corporation transport department, opened the discussion by stating that Mr. Dinnis was "with it" when he talked of special lanes for buses; but operators wanted them now, not in the '70s.
Mr. T. W. H. Gailey (Tilling Group) emphasized the point by reminding the speaker that passenger transport operators had been asking for road improvements for years. "We are", he said, "no further forward than we were five years ago. Are we to spend all of our time planning for the distant future and never finding an answer to our immediate problem? I fear the patient will be dead before we find the cure".
Mr. T. Lord (Leeds) stressed the importance of planning liaison. "Only a few years ago the planners had not heard of public service vehicles. However, Leeds now has a planning liaison team and they made astonishing progress in the early stages by understanding each other's problems.
"This pattern could be copied throughout the country", Mr. Lord said, adding "that he was sure that in 20 years' time we would have reasonable cities; but, he asked, why not now?
Replanning old cities was very desirable in the opinion of A. Lindsay Stewart, Advocate, but he said acquisition of property in Scotland was a very complicated procedure and much had to be done before the physical planning could begin.
The conference was aware that while all of the proposals were desirable they were, nevertheless, costly. Mr. Cox felt that the £1.3m. allocated this week for road improvement was "chicken feed", but it was, however, pointed out that this sum was for one scheme only, and that comprised 24 miles for the Bellshill by-pass.
The motoring organizations were strongly criticized by Mr. W. M. Little (Scottish Omnibuses) when he stated that he felt that they were acting at times a little irresponsibly by constantly pleading for the motorist to be able to do what he wanted when he wanted and where he wanted.
Mr. Little's proposal to give consideration to marking road surfaces (rather than kerbs) with distinctive colouring to indicate the duration of parking times met with general approval.
Mr. Little agreed that the financial aspect could not be ignored. But he asked: "I wonder if we are getting proper grants, and if so are we assessing our priorities correctly and allocating our money correctly?"
Mr. W. L. Russell, the president, thanked Mr. Dinnis for his stimulating paper and thereafter the members of the SRPTA proceeded to their 44th annual general meeting where Mr. W. L. Sword was elected president for the year 1966/67 and Baillie D. McColl, of Glasgow, was elected vice-president.
The next conference of the association will take place at the same venue, April 25-28, 1967.