The use of ‘Bus’ and ‘Bus only’ lanes
A number of major roads in Australian cities have ‘bus lanes’. First introduced on the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1992, the number of these dedicated lanes continues to increase. They are a proven method of relieving congestion in and around the city - where most cars can carry one driver and up to four passengers, a bus can carry up to fifty passengers. By keeping these lanes for buses a relatively clear run for commuters is ensured.
‘Bus lanes’ can be used by buses, taxis, public hire cars, motorcycles, bicycles and emergency vehicles. Other motorists can be fined for travelling in a bus lane unless it’s for a short distance (i.e. before you’re about to turn at an intersection or into a driveway) or crossing the lane from a side street or driveway.
Road users should be aware that there are also ‘bus only lanes’, such as those on the Liverpool to Parramatta T-way route in south western Sydney and the North-West T-way that operates between Parramatta and Rouse Hill. These are signposted accordingly.
Incorrect use of a ‘bus lane’ or ‘bus only lane’ will result in a fine and loss of demerit points. There are cameras in place and police regularly patrol these lanes. If you are caught driving in a ‘bus lane’, the fine is $238.00 and 3 demerit points.
Other rules for bus priority
The use of the B indicator at traffic lights is utilised by buses to allow the bus to move more freely around traffic and to give the bus right of way in order to keep to its timetable.
Another thing to be mindful of is the buses’ exception rule which allows buses to travel straight ahead from a turning lane. This rule also gives them the right of way when pulling away from a kerb after alighting or picking up passengers from a bus stop.
For more information and bus lane locations, visit the RTA website.
Are bus lanes a good idea? Have you been fined for using a bus lane? Should there be more in and around the CBD?
September 9th, 2008 at 10:48 am
Bus lanes are a poor use of road infrastructure. While a bus may be full at peak hour, many buses are empty at other times. Empty buses use the bus lane while the rest of the road is congested is a waste of road space and only adds to more congestion. Also outside peak times buses do not run as regularly and so the bus lanes are empty or under-utilised for a significant part of the day.
Bus lanes are a way of giving people priority use of the roads. But it has failed to work as reflected by our congested road ways and our underutilised bus system.
A better way to do this is by introducing a congestion charge. When the roads are congested (i.e. peak hour) the price for using the road will increase and when the road is free flowing there will be no charge. If such a system was to be introduced we would soon see people making efficient transport choices (including catching buses) because they will bear the true cost of congestion. The government could then use the money from congestion charges to build better roads and fund better trains and buses.
If people do not think this will work they should take a look at the cross city tunnel. Everday at peak hour Park Street in Sydney’s CBD (which has a dedicated bus lane) is congested. Meanwhile the Cross City Tunnel from East to West is free flowing. Why is this? The answer is because motorists have to pay a toll to use the cross city tunnel but not to use Park Street. And what about the bus lane on park street, well for most of the time it is empty as it is in the far left hand lane and most of the buses that come in from the East turn right at Elizabeth Street and therefore do not use the bus lane. The result is more congestion, wasted underutilised road space and a longer journey to work
Bus lanes are a form of central planning designed to limit choice in an effort to change people’s behaviour to achieve a given outcome. As we have seen with the socialist experiements in Russia, Eastern Europe, China and North Korea central planning does not work it simply leads to a waste of scarce resources and queying so that everyone is worse off. A better way to change peoples behavioiur is to let the price mechanism communicate to consumers and commuters the real value of the resources that they use. A case in point is that when petrol prices or parking fees increase more people start catching the bus or train as opposed to driving. This is the price mechanism working at its best. No central planner politician or bureaucrat can match the price mechanism for achieving efficient outcomes and the maximum use of scarce resources.
September 19th, 2008 at 9:03 am
Bus Lane T2/ T3 etc. Unless policed they are a waste of time. Even when policed they are so under used by public transport. Let’s get serious about having business stagger work hours to achieve something.
The centre bus lane along george street (near Haymarket) is so dangerous and will lead to a massive pile up including bystanders
September 19th, 2008 at 11:50 am
Great ideas bus lanes I can see them being utilised more when the price of petrol increases….one question can I go into a bus lane if I am turning left, its a little scary turning in front of a bus I feel like I am cutting the driver off!
September 20th, 2008 at 7:16 am
Its simple..
Busses are a {peak time transporter and opnly need extra help to het through the traffic in Peak hour times..
SO….
Bus lanes should be active from 6 am through to 9 am
then the lanes should be open to all traffic from 9 am till 4 pm
Then back to Bus lanes from 4 pm till 7 pm..
Then open to all traffic till the morning again…
It Aint That Hard!!!!!
Bob Rona
September 21st, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Bus lanes are fine (generally) if used as such but when buses avoid them in peak hour (Elizabeth Street as mentioned above is a prime example) due to cars turning left, taxis stopping frequently, service vehicles stopping illegally, cyclists, etc, they still clog up the remaining two lanes so that traffic moves even more slowly.
Buses should also have fines if straying from their exclusive lanes, except to move out to pass a turning car etc, but there is no excuse for them filling the third lane in order to race the other buses. Bus rage often ensues.
Don’t get me wrong - I ride the buses to work and don’t drive but am also a driver and feel that rules are fine if evenly applied. Some policing of the “don’t queue across intersections” rule at peak times in the city might also help - buses and other vehicles all seem to feel that they deserve to flout that one and if no-one enforces the rules, who can blame them?
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:16 pm
While the idea of bus lanes seems worthwhile, they appear to generate excessive congestion for non-buses, while doing little to speed up the buses. The reduction of Epping road to one lane plus a bus lane seems to me to be an attempt to make the “non-tollway” as congested as possible, in an effort to have more people to use the Lane Cove Tunnel.
Bus lanes during peak hour might encourage car drivers to take the bus, and so result in less car traffic, but I think only free and plentiful public tranport within a wide raduis of the CBD, combined with a total car ban, would reduce congestion, but this is unlikely to happen (and almost certainly impractical anyway).
September 24th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
As usual the boffins in the RTA have no clue what-so-ever about how to effectively manage our roads. Bus Lanes are another perfect example of how they think (or don’t think is more the case) that a complex problem can be solved simply by applying a simple punitive measure to it. Wrong!. What they need to do is work on ways to improve the traffic flow for all the vehicles on the road, not simply slowing down one or more lanes to a crawl in order to give the appearance that the buses are travelling faster. The real purpose of a Bus Lane should be to provide a dedicated area for loading & unloading of passengers in safety WITHOUT causing disruption to the flow of traffic. If buses do not need to stop to pick up or set down passengers then they should travel in the same lane as everyone else.
September 30th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
I was fine because on 2/Aug/08 I took the T-way lane at North West transitway at Blacktown, B/W Turner St & Vardys Rd.
I just want to around to the next block, I couldn’t see any signs at all, eather my wife, I never been in that part of Blacktown before, when suddenly I was inside the T way lane, is like I was trapped, I couldn’t go back would be dangerus, I have to drive one block on the T-way lane,
It was Saturday should be allowed to use this lane, They fine me with $243.00 and they took 3 points of my licence, I called them to appeal telling them that I did not put any one in danger, but they said you have to pay.
With everything so expensive this days our goberment should be more helpfull rather than greedy.
November 25th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
A quick note on Gavin Orr and Big Al’s posts above. Bus lanes actually reduce congestion rather than cause congestion. They carry more passengers than cars and thereby actually free up road space for motorists. For example, the bus lane on the Sydney Harbour bridge carries 30% more traffic than all the other lanes on the bridge combined. So if you took away the bus lane you would need more lanes on the bridge to move the same amount of people. Where buses use the same lanes as other cars, they have to travel more slowly, meaning that they can’t move as any people/hour, resulting in more congestion. So while it might be frustrating to have to sit in traffic and see buses moving along faster than you, just be thankful that the 60 people sitting on that bus aren’t sitting in 60 cars in front of you, contributing to even more congestion.
November 26th, 2008 at 11:20 am
The bus lane on the Harbour bridge carries *30% more people* (not cars, people - which is what we’re mainly trying to move from one place to another) than *all the other 7 lanes combined* as of 2005; by now it’s surely an even higher figure. (source: http://www.bridgeclimb.com/theBridge/traffic.htm).
Bus lanes are a great idea provided they’re used effectively (ie frequent bus services, so people use them and not cars). Bus lanes that are simply painted/signed with irregular or useless (ie circuitous) bus routes that no-one is going to use detract from the perceived utility of those that are effective and serve no useful purpose.
November 28th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Adam…. if you are going to quote figures get it right. The link says that during the AM peak carries 30% more people than the other traffic lanes.
This is great… but there are two problems. The AM peak only runs from 7am to 9am. What happens for the rest of the time? Also consider the overall statistics, in Sydney Newcastle and the Illawarra. 71.4% of all trips people are either a driver or a passenger in a car. Buses are used for only 5.2% of all trips. So assuming that only bases and cars use in the road, in the case of the Harbour Bridge we are taking 12.5% of the road space to serve 6.7% of the deamand. And whats more that 6.7% of the demand are not contributing go the costs of maintaining the infrastructure to meet the Demand.
Second, the Harbour Bridge has been and is paid for by tolls on motorists not by general taxes. So we have a bridge that was paid for by motorists and now the Government is saying that after paying for it they are not allowed to use 12.5% of it.
To put this into perspective. This is like the government saying that after you pay off your house you are not allowed to use one of the bedrooms because they are going to allow someone else to live there instead. Would you be happy such an outcome?… (I guess you would if you were the freerider living in the free room).
If Sydney’s bus lanes and bus services are so good why are they being utilised only 5.2% of the time. If Cars are so bad why are they being used 71.4% of the time. Could the statistics be telling us something here?
December 2nd, 2008 at 10:58 am
Your statistics have been manipulated to serve your cause here Jimmy. Just because the -overall- bus trip utilization rate is 5.2%, doesn’t mean that it’s that low on the Harbour bridge corridor. As many trips are CBD-bound it’s likely to be much higher than that (up to 90% of trips to the CBD are by public transport - the reverse is the case for cross-town journeys).
Thus, applying the 5.2% rate here is useless and misleading.
Cars being used “71.4% of the time” is often because people are forced into car dependency through lack of PT options - it’s not always a choice or that they’re inherently superior. They have their uses, but I’d rather see people on PT, freeing road space for commercial traffic, tradies etc.
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Roger please refer to the Journey to work statistics and the household travel survey compiled by the transport data centre. I must say that your explaination can’t be found in either of these two reports. In peak times 75% of commutes to the CBD are by public transport which includes buses trains and ferries.
If there is major use of public transport in peak times only this suggests that bus lanes should be time specific as opposed to 24 hours. This also suggests that out of peak times bus lanes and buses are under utilised and therefore bus lanes are not a good use of society’s scarce resources. Which was exactly my point.
At the moment policy is skewed towards public transport and cycling at the cost of all other modes. Wouldn’t a more sensible approach be to address the revealed preferences of the majority. That is people’s preference towards private travel by motor vehicles over the inefficient public transport system of Sydney’s buses, trains and ferries. There are two ways to do this is:
1. invest in a world class public transport system;
2. introduce system-wide congestion pricing and do away with fuel excise.