Originally posted by brotherchen1982:
[b]The issue of
space
Pilot project in Jalan Eunos will allow LTA to study the impact of
linear bus stops
Letter from NALEEZA EBRAHIM
Deputy Director, Media Relations
Land Transport Authority
I refer to the recent letters on bus bays versus linear bus stops.
It is important to put this issue in perspective.
Most major cities such as Tokyo, London and Hong Kong, do not have
bus bays (also called bus lay-bys) along main roads because they
take up considerable space.
Similarly, in Singapore, only one third of the bus stops have bus
bays as providing them requires additional land that is not always
available. Bus bays are usually put in when there is enough road
reserve.
With increasing vehicle usage, the trade off between widening roads
and retaining bus bays will have to be studied in land-scarce
Singapore. The pilot project in Jalan Eunos seeks to do this.
LTA is widening the road at Jalan Eunos because traffic growth
there has led to increased congestion. In doing so, the existing
bus bays will have to be removed. This presents LTA with the
opportunity to conduct a one-year trial to study the impact of
linear bus stops and weigh the improvement in bus travel speed
against the impact on other traffic.
In this case, by adding a lane to each side of the road, all road
users will be better off. Putting in linear bus stops will improve
the journey times for buses along this stretch of road and will
ensure that buses share in the gains from this project.
Many who have given feedback have suggested keeping bus bays and
making it mandatory for motorists to give way to buses exiting bus
bays.
We agree that this is a possible solution for situations where bus
bays are still feasible. So far, LTA has been working with the
public transport operators over the last three years to encourage
motorists to do this without mandating it as a rule.
We have placed "Give-way-to-buses-exiting" traffic signs at some
bus stops with bus bays, and collaborated with the Traffic Police
to include the message "Give way to buses exiting" in the Road
Courtesy Campaign.
LTA is reviewing the progress of this programme to determine if
more needs to be done, taking into account public feedback.
[/b]
A follow up comment
here.