Action for Public Transport (N.S.W.)

Improving public transport

As stated above, Sydney's buses run in traffic conditions which are generally congested and are nearly always subject to delays due to traffic signals etc. Obviously, this delays those buses. It is important to realise that there is an additional adverse affect of these random delays which shows as poor adherence to timetables. Unfortunately, when buses run irregularly, they tend to aggregate into clusters when whichever bus is at the head of a cluster is prevented from breaking out of it because it collects the heaviest patronage at its stops. This effect causes an increase in the average time which passengers have to spend waiting for their buses; it has been shown that it causes a significant loss of patronage. Thus, it is vital to ensure that on-road public transport keep to fixed timetables. This can only be done properly if

The driver does not have to sell tickets, which tends to delay restarting at stops when large numbers of passengers join the service

and

The vehicle receives absolute priority over all other non-emergency traffic at all points of conflict, including all intersections.

Unfortunately, political pressures make it very difficult to grant these privileges to buses, so building separate off-road routes for public transport is necessary in busy areas.

In order to raise public transport's share of the metropolitan transport task, it is also necessary to change the city into one which is public-transport friendly. The way to do this is shown by the Four Cs of town planning:

Dense Centres of development, each surrounded by its own region.

Corridors connecting the centres, carrying high-speed rail lines.

City-wide traffic Calming.

Use of beneficiary Contributions to fund the public transport, collected from the developers permitted to build the urban centres.

Although it is essential that the public transport be user-friendly in every way, one must not lose sight of the objective of attracting the greatest possible number of passengers. The service should be aimed at the ordinary citizen.

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