Safe Speed Forums

Why not indeed! Why should 100 buses spread out over a day cause massive disruption (even if it's only perceived) to tens of thousands of morning peak commuters?
Especially as the passengers on those 100 buses are mostly from the airport, and so for whom a few minutes saved on their journey time is unlikely to be of any consequence.



I understand that there's a contractual obligation in place for this - so that athletes and officials can get around speedily. How effective this will prove to be is beside the point.

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Only when ideology, prejudice and dogma are set aside does the truth emerge - Kepler

We've discussed this, they don't. The lane was going to be closed anyway.




Wow, just, wow.

Yes, it's part of the special Olympic "Zil lanes"

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

So why throw that in?

Did you read my previous post, BTW?

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Only when ideology, prejudice and dogma are set aside does the truth emerge - Kepler

It is logical that such a scheme should yield an overall benefit, assuming traffic is slowed to significantly less than free-flow speeds. Giving HOVs (High Occupancy Vehicles) priority over Low OVs is a logical way of reducing overall waiting times.

However,

As Adam highlighted, identifying and remedying the cause the bottle necks would be a far better use of resources as it would yield far lower waiting times - especially for vehicles not using the bus lanes (those using the bus lane may experience a slight dis-benefit, but that is totally swamped by the level and comparatively greater scale of benefit for those other road users).

So weepej is conditionally correct: only where traffic is mismanaged or somehow impeded. However, this scheme is potentially a lazy solution and doing it risks neglect of an genuinely effective solution.

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Views expressed are personal opinions and are not necessarily shared by the Safe Speed campaign

Since its introduction I think I have only used that M4 section once (when it was empty).

However I do remember that during my commute there were daily traffic reports for weeks after that had traffic backing up onto the M25 (which it was implied they didn't before introduction). This slowly improved but I think it was most likely because people changed routes or modes of transport.

When claiming the improved benefit I doubt they compared the traffic volume (at least in the report) - just the overall travel times in the section. This is not comparing like for like unless you think the missing traffic is now on the train/bus - which it could be claimed to be a success. The possible effects on nearby minor roads (and the A3/A40) will not have been reported.

The opposite approach to claim the perceived benefit in Central London. Ken regularly proclaimed the greatly reduced volumes of traffic - which there no doubt was as there just wasn't the road space any more due to the huge number of new bus lanes. My experience of driving through a few times outside the charge period has been that it is slower - perhaps I'm just unlucky.

The main purposes of it was to extend the two lane section back to junction three of the M4 so people could see the back of any queue and peel off, I often do this.

So which is it? It either improves things or it doesn't. Make up your mind.

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Only when ideology, prejudice and dogma are set aside does the truth emerge - Kepler

It does improve things, the evidence is clear and the reasoning sound, why would my previous post suggest it didn't.

For a start, would you rather join 2,000 cars trying to squish from three lanes to two, or 2,000 cars filtering along in two lanes?

Note that in the first instance you don't get to see the back of the queue and peel off, but in the second you do.

Aren't you neglecting a third possibility

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown