Why bus lanes are so important

A couple of my posts in recent days have illustrated my frustration, and to an extent outright anger, at possible changes to the Northern Busway and the Dominion Road bus lanes. Changes that would erode the “bus priority” that currently exists on both those routes. The level of frustration and anger that I feel about these two changes actually surprised me to some extent, but when I think about it in a bit more detail perhaps it’s not so surprising after all. And that’s because bus lanes (or bus prioritisation in general) are utterly critical to improving our public transport – for many reasons, but generally those which cut to the core of making public transport more into something that people will want to use. In short, they make public transport faster, more convenient, more reliable and for the operator – more cost effective.

To get a bit more off my chest before I move onto explaining in a bit more detail why bus lanes are so critical, I think what really annoys me about the possible Northern Busway and Dominion Road changes is the hypocrisy of it. Both Auckland City Council and NZTA go on about the need to “improve public transport” in airy-fairy documents and statements (particularly Auckland City Mayor John Banks who sells himself as a ‘born again public transport supporter’), and yet we see both these organisations doing pretty much the worst thing possible for public transport, by taking away the very priority measures that have made these two routes probably the two most successful and popular bus routes in Auckland. It is decisions like these by which we should judge NZTA and (perhaps more particularly) Auckland City Council’s opinion towards public transport – not the grand statements of support for projects like the CBD rail tunnel.

So why is it so utterly critical that we don’t lose the Dominion Road bus lanes, and why we can’t allow HOVs to clog up the Northern Busway? Ultimately, it is because these changes would cut to the heart of the very steps that make these two routes unusually successful and popular in Auckland. As I have explained before, people are logical in their transport decisions: they will choose the option that is fastest, most affordable, most convenient and (I haven’t said it before but I think it’s also extremely important) most reliable. Bus lanes/priority helps all four of those aspects, which is somewhat unusual when it comes to public transport improvements, especially when it can be done so cheaply!

• Makes buses faster: This is perhaps the most obvious benefit of bus lanes, as they are able to bypass traffic congestion and provides the potential for buses to pass the same route faster than someone can drive it. This compares to a bus in general traffic which, almost by definition, cannot possibly be faster than someone driving the same route – because the bus has to stop and pick up passengers. If we are to get more people using public transport (which we do because of its social, economic and environmental benefits) then we have to ensure that it’s a logical choice for them: and a huge part of that is making it faster (or at worst, not hugely slower) than driving.
• Improves affordability: Because bus lanes allow buses to travel faster from point A to point B than would be the case if they were stuck in traffic, the resource dedicated to operating that service can be used more efficiently. If you are to operate a service at 10 minute frequencies, for example, the faster you can get your buses from end to end along that route, the fewer buses and drivers you need in order to make it work. One thing that I’m not quite sure ARTA has yet appreciated is that if the buses they run along Dominion Road and the Northern Busway are slowed down considerably by the introduction of other vehicles into the bus lanes, then they will either need to use more vehicles and drivers to maintain the current timetables, or they’ll have to cut back on frequencies. As we end up paying for the provision of public transport, through fares, rates or NZTA funds – the more efficiently the services can run the more affordable they are for all people: road users included. So bus lanes improve public transport affordability.
• Improves convenience: One of the critical aspects of public transport being convenient is frequency. How long you have to wait between buses plays a huge factor in the “ease of use” of the system. Nobody likes waiting around for a bus for very long, and having bus lanes should lead to better frequencies being possible with the same resource (because speeds are higher). Bus lanes are also very useful “guides” in telling people where bus routes are, and also generally are an indicator that the route is going to be a “fairly decent one”, because otherwise why would there be bus lanes.
• Improved reliability: I was talking to someone “in the know” the other day and they mentioned to me that the Northern Busway is far and away the most reliable bus route in Auckland, in the measure of how frequently it arrives when it should. Reliability is important because fundamentally people need to know when they’re going to get where they’re going. If you need to be at work by 9am, then you’re not going to use a transportation mode that has a 50% chance of getting you there by 9am, or even one that has an 80% chance of doing so. You’re going to use something that will get you there on time 90% or more of the time, which means that you’re either going to avoid using an unreliable service or you’re going to build in a “buffer” to your travel time, which in ‘transport economics world’ should be added to travel time. The more reliable the service, the less buffer time that’s needed, and the more attractive it is – hence the wild success of the Northern Busway.

Sticking with reliability for a minute, theoretically public transport within its own right of way has the ability to provide a level of travel time reliability that simply cannot be matched in a car. Vehicle congestion varies tremendously, according to the weather, if it’s school holidays, if there was an accident three hours ago, or even just randomly for no reason at all. Public transport, with its own right of way (whether in the form of a railway line, a busway or even just a bus lane) shouldn’t have that variability (theoretically at least). For example, there’s no real reason why our trains shouldn’t run on time to the second (Japan manages it), but even thinking about running cars on-time to the second is absurd – or buses in general traffic is even more absurd.

In the end, providing bus lanes benefits the core reasons why people are likely to choose public transport over driving: in that the bus becomes faster, more convenient, more reliable and (in the longer run) potentially more affordable. Ruining bus lanes destroys all those benefits, and is probably the most effective way of reducing public transport patronage one could think of. And as the economic benefits of attracting every new public transport passenger are very significant (and therefore the economic costs of losing patronage are also significant), the implications of ruining the Northern Busway and the Dominion Road bus lanes might be immense.

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