Provision of quality bus corridors must ultimately deliver a real alternative mode to the private car and therefore encourage significant modal shift. Significant modal shift is only likely to occur if quality bus corridors (QBCs), and associated complementary initiatives, provide real benefits to the public that are clearly visible and demonstrable. There is a risk that technical solutions are put forward as part of QBCs for their technical sake only, rather than to provide clearly visible benefits. FaberMaunsell are currently working and have worked recently on a large number of QBCs in both the UK and Ireland including Route 43 in London, flagship routes as part of the London Bus Initiative, the SEMMMS QBCs in Manchester, 8 corridors in Glasgow and in Birmingham. The paper uses results obtained from these and other QBC studies undertaken recently to illustrate the difficulties in demonstrating real benefits from quality bus corridors and puts forward recommendations for the development and use of a robust method to assist both designers and policy/decision makers. For the covering abstract see ITRD E126595.
Abstract