Around six months ago Auckland Transport announced the roll out of what is probably one of their most cost effective projects – rolling out much needed bus lanes to much more of the city. All up for $12-15 million they would implement out around 40km of new bus lanes over three years. There have already been some high profile results such as the extension of bus lanes on Fanshawe St and the introduction of one bus lanes on Symonds St up by Khyber Pass.
It’s pleasing to see that AT are also starting to publicly advertise the fact these improvements are happening to as seen in this poster from a reader.
https://twitter.com/seen_in_ak/status/594324456408887296
A complete list of the bus lanes planned is below.
2014-15
Under construction
- Onewa Road T3 lane.
- Khyber Pass Road bus lane.
- Wellesley Street bus pocket.
- Victoria Street bus lane.
- Totara Avenue intersection optimisation.
In consultation
- Park Road bus lane.
- Parnell Road bus lane.
Under investigation
- White Swan clearway / May Road bus lane.
- Esmonde Road / Eldon Street bus lane extension.
- Totara Avenue intersection optimisation.
- Great North Road (section 1) Stage 1 and 2 (multi-year).
- Manukau Road Stage 1 and 2 (multi-year).
Completed
- Fanshawe Street bus lane.
- Symonds Street bus lane.
- Main Highway bus lane (improvements).
- Inbound bus lane on Dominion Road (between Richardson Road and Denbigh Avenue).
- Bus efficiency improvements on Ellerslie Main Highway, Onewa Road and Bolton Street (Blockhouse Bay).
2015-16
- Point Chevalier Road bus lane
- Kirkbride Road bus lane.
- Pakuranga Road bus priority.
- Ellerslie-Panmure Highway bus priority.
- Mount Eden Road bus priority.
- Great North Road bus lane (collaborative AT/NZTA Project via Alliance).
- Phase 2 delivery of Minor Efficiency Projects.
- Great North Road section 2.
- Sandringham Road bus priority (multi-year).
- New North Road bus priority (multi-year).
2016-17
- Mount Albert Road bus lane.
- Great South Road bus lane.
- Rimu Road transit lane extension.
- Phase 3 delivery of Minor Efficiency Projects.
For those interested there was also this press release from AT last week on the issue
A programme to improve travel times and reliability for public transport continues to be rolled out across the region to support Auckland Transport’s frequent service network.
Brendon Main, Auckland Transport’s Bus Services Manager says the bus priority programme, which includes bus and transit lanes and traffic light phasing, will create a more efficient bus service for public transport users.
Mr Main says Auckland Transport is on target to add approximately 15 kilometres of bus lanes to key bus routes by June 2015, with another 25 kilometres planned in the following two financial years.
“We’ve had a great start to the year with the completion of a new city bound bus lane on Symonds Street in February, a new link in the Fanshawe Street city-bound bus lane at the Market Place and Fanshawe Street intersection, an inbound bus lane on Dominion Road (between Richardson Road and Denbigh Avenue) and other bus efficiency improvements on Ellerslie Main Highway, Onewa Road and Bolton Street in Blockhouse Bay.”
These measures have added 3.3 kilometres to the network, with further bus lane expansions planned to be underway by the end of March for Khyber Pass, Wellesley Street, Victoria Street, and Park Road in Parnell.
Mr Main says the bus priority programme will relieve congestion and bottle-necks by providing a clear demarcation on the road between public transport and other vehicles.
“These incremental and cost-effective improvements will benefit the whole network by managing competing interests for road space during peak times.
“A predictable and reliable public transport network with improved travel times is a real incentive for people to get out of their cars and on to public transport.”
Mr Main says that buses account for approximately 2.5% of vehicles in the city centre, but carry nearly a third of commuters into the city.
“They are key to using our road space more efficiently, providing more capacity and getting people to where they want to go faster.”
He points to early results on Symonds Street where travel savings of two minutes has been gained for peak morning commuters. This is an improvement of 50% on last year and will continue to grow as the bus lane is extended.
Mr Main says the bus priority programme offers a real transport alternative and is encouraged by recent figures showing that public transport patronage is at all-time high. Public transport patronage totalled 77 million passenger boardings for the 12 months to February 2015, an annual increase of 9.5%.
Monitoring of the recently extended Fanshawe Street bus lane will shortly get underway with Mr Main optimistic about the benefits for the thousands of bus passengers travelling along Auckland’s busiest road corridor.
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Surprising Ponsonby Rd isn’t on the list.
What about SH16 (NW Motorway) bus lanes that are in construction, some of the old ones coming back and some new afaik. Will make a considerable difference for most west motorway buses, not as much as a Busway due to the need to merge at each interchange but should still prune off a few precious minutes.
That’s NZTA not AT doing that. They really should be building a busway yes.
Oh true, I was just skimming and thought all of the lanes were being listed 😛
What is the difference between “bus priority” (e.g. Mount Eden Road bus priority) vs “bus lane” (e.g. Great North Road bus lane) ?
Bus priority is typically changing the traffic light phasing so buses get through quicker. A bus lane is a physical lane which may or may not included changes to the traffic lights. It’s temporal separation vs physical separation.
Is that the traffic light that has a B on it? I’ve been assuming that means Bike, and going through the intersection when that comes on…
Anybody who can be in the bus lane legally can go on the B. That includes bikes, so you are fine…
Oh I thought it meant anything starting with a B – bike, bus, bulldozer, bandits, BMWs, B*stards.
Note to self: next car needs to be a Bugatti, Buick, Bentley or Borgward.
Let’s hope these are all followed though with completely, unlike Sturdee Street bus lane which appears to have been left half finished (and not always being used, as per this photobomb…)
http://i.imgur.com/4U9aOl3.jpg
Why do you say it was left unfinished? Explain please?
Also, buses often ignore bus lanes when traffic is low, and why not? Just because it is a great way to get a bus moving faster when there’s congestion doesn’t mean it’s the best lane to use when the others aren’t busy. Just like a cycle lane or cycle path isn’t always the best place for a cyclist to be in (despite what some motorists may think 😉
On the left has been repainted green, on the right has not.
Cheaper to only paint part of it green than the whole lane.
Making it 100% green is not going to make those who willfully enter it enter it less. Better to spend that extra money on enforcement, or other projects.
And only marking sections is standard design in any case. I do note however that the “bus lane” text, which isn’t optional, still seemed to be missing.
The NEX buses carry on along Sturdee St to Britomart while the buses from the North Shore go around on to Quay St then go up Albert St. If no one is getting off the bus at that stop the NEX buses will move across the lanes so they can carry on their route while the other buses will move out of the bus lane and into what becomes the right hand lane so that when they get to Quay they can turn right on to Albert St
Would be great to see a commitment to greater enforcement too, having spent a lot of time in the mornings lately travelling down Khyber Pass and Mountain Road it would be fair to say that there is a lot of ‘misunderstanding’ about the use of bus lanes.
Yeah, big problem on Dominion Road after 8:30 with parked cars in the bus lane. They have a camera occasionally to catch people that drive past in the lane, but that doesn’t get people parked. They need an enforcement vehicle to drive in the lane and take pictures of anyone parked. Even better, get the busses to do that. Then send out infringement notices.
Cheaper to only paint part of it green than the whole lane.
To enforce the bus lanes an effective system is the one used in the UK …. There is a forward facing camera on the buses. Anyone parked in the way gets a ticket. No excuses.
I don’t think there’s any misunderstanding, vast majority I am guessing are taking a gamble, I’ve often see people pull slightly into the bus lane and look for the person with a camera and then if none’s visible to use the lane. Frequently happening on Symonds Street south bound, a lot of enforcement generally though which is good. The major flaw all over the city is that at intersections the bus lanes disappear leading to huge backups for buses, some days the supposed high quality central connector is backed up the entire length of Anzac Ave due to cars in the bus lane at the bottom, and cars merging at the top of Anzac Ave. The Park Rd bus lane connecting to Grafton Bridge is also a nightmare with left turning cars allowed in it. I sat through 8 light changes 2 days ago because left turning cars couldn’t get around the corner – in effect 3-4 buses in a queue so several hundred people delayed 10mins because of 4 people in a car by themselves.
More lanes are good but AT need to also improve the ones we have.
Why are they taking so long? $12-15million is small change in the total budget. They’ll probably pop that on one minor carriageway improvement/upgrade etc next summer. Are they frightened of something?
Cos first they have to consult with all the local shopkeepers and residents who think the sky will fall in if you can’t park outside.
It’s not (quite such) small fry in the *public transport budget* terms. And we still have a tendency (and in some cases, funding system requirements forcing us to) wall off our budgets from another. So even if the higher-ups decide to do more PT funding, they may not always be able to just shift it from roads – especially if it needs NZTA part-funding.
Good poster, AT.
How many of these are, roughly speaking, widening as aposed to losing parking space or general traffic lanes I wonder…
How would they fit bus lanes on Mt Albert Road? Recall the pushback over cycle lanes displacing on-street parking.
Something has to be done to Fred Thomas Drive to allow easy bus / car access to Akoranga Station. Not a big exercise in my opinion – a bit of paint to change the side that the bus lane is on and voila, all right turning traffic is freed up. Simple, simple stuff!!!! (might need to consult with the locals though – pukekos).
the mistake was to put routes like the 911 along Fred Thomas for its full length, prior to the changeover the 911 went up Barrys Point and dropped of several people, once the buses went to Fred T, these people no longer used the bus
with a bit of work making the Barrys Point intersection better, Fred Thomas/Des Swann/Barrys Point could provide better connectivity to this employment area/growth node
Fred Thomas cont’d ……And it makes it easier for car drivers -doesn’t even need to come from the PT budget -perfect! Don’t even need to sell it as a public transport project. We pull the wool over their eyes just like the government has pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes about the Steven Joyce memorial holiday highway being about getting to Whangerei.
Don’t you have to be dead to get a memorial highway named after you?
after the skycity mafioso style deal, politically he is dead.
The Pharaohs would start building pyramids before they died. same principle.
Wow, this is great news. both the bus lanes and the advertising. At last, a pretty good ad from AT.
I hope AT is putting a bus lane on Sunnybrae drive in Hillcrest. The T2 lanes on Akoranga Drive are a bit pointless as the traffic flows quite well there even at peak. The 945 bus always gets stuck in traffic on Sunnybrae Drive even before reaching Akoranga. That’s always the slowest leg of the journey as you’re stuck in a line of cars queueing up for the motorway.
Agree with the need for stronger enforcement of parked cars in clearways. A few contracts for tow truck companies should do the trick.
The one on Fanshawe street at the Sturdee street lights needs to be marked better. I had a car pull up in it the other day, Head straight across the junction, forcing me to swerve out of my lane, then cut diagonally across to Customs Street.
Adelaide, Liverpool, Bristol – some of cities around the world are scrapping bus lanes. This whole awful thing of wardens plonked there with cameras enforcing bus lanes is just one symptom of why they are a ridiculous way to try and solve a much broader problem. That and the vomitous green paint everywhere. Bus lanes turn civilised urban streets into bleak corridors. They shuffle the problem along the system. Hate ’em.
So what is your alternative, buses caught in congestion? The corridors with bus lanes have more people moving by bus than they do by car, removing the bus lanes would just make PT and congestion worse.
Well you can scrap bus lanes if you’ve built an alternative on a parallel route, BRT, LRT, a Metro. Or if you are prepared for the streets to collapse into gridlock, and general inefficiency.
No reason why Auckland should follow Adelaide which is struggling economically with poorly preforming Transit systems. Auckland is clearly way ahead. Don’t know enough about Bristol and Liverpool, but anyway, got any links to support this claim: ‘Adelaide, Liverpool, Bristol – some of cities around the world are scrapping bus lanes’
Yes to Liverpool (they were a 12 month trial) and Bristol (at least some sections):
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-merseyside-29754046
http://www.liverpoolexpress.co.uk/four-bus-lanes-back-operation-24-november/
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bristol-19840710
http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Stretch-bus-lane-removed-council/story-17039451-detail/story.html
However, I couldn’t find any reference to bus lanes being removed in Adelaide, only calls by motoring groups to do so. In fact this article from February 2015 talks about introducing even more:
http://indaily.com.au/news/2015/02/25/rundle-rd-to-close-under-new-o-bahn-plan/
Can you supply some evidence of Adelaide removing bus lanes?
Also, from all the articles I read, the lanes were removed because of public pressure, not because the lanes had been shown to have a negative effect. Fact is they are just wrong in their assertions and the removal is a political move, not a technical one based on evidence.
Many motorists think the lanes don’t do anything because they are not full all the time. But you only need a full bus every 10mins to match 40-50 cars.
And it seems removing bus lanes hasn’t been a great success in Liverpool – based on actual research not the emotional outbursts of motoring groups: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/removal-liverpool-bus-lanes-journeys-7977836
I assume you are a die hard motorist who would never use public transport. Bus lanes work and are the future for many commuters. Every time I am on a bus in a bus lane it is magic.
Liverpool of course has a pretty effective city and suburban rail network, underground in the centre, not unlike what Auckland will have post CRL, so therefore relies less on surface roads for busy Transit routes. Freeing up city streets for other users and uses is precisely one of the values of such an additional network:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merseyrail
East Coast Rd would be good. There’s a huge amount of space available along most of its length where it doesn’t have bus lanes, and with Long Bay and Silverdale getting more developed in the upcoming years it will be sorely needed.
Yes please; anything cost effective to get the buses flowing more freely. Auckland depends a lot on buses where a heavier transport network could be of use, so at least keeping the buses at a good speed helps. Would be good to get bus-lane priority phasing, in particular at the Panmure interchange.
One downside with bus lanes is often on the bus we get caught behind cyclists (either the bus catches up or they dash alongside at stops or lights), and the bus has to move at their speed the whole way (not saying it’s exactly their fault though; gutter on one side, traffic on the other, not many options). Could be an area to work on
Rather than sporadic calls for a bus lane, here, there; why not use empirical evidence to allocate lanes? For example anywhere a bus reduces its speed to less than say 15kph for more than 3 minutes on more than 40% of work days? Then subject to engineering requirements whack it in.
That is generally how they do it. If more than 50% of people are on a bus/T3/T2 the lane can go in.
Now sounds like the catch-22 NZ approach to PT & cycling: no one’s using it so we’re not going to provide for it. When we see it is popular, we will we invest in it.
And what about Queen St, CBD? It’s dreadful how long it currently takes buses to get from Britomart to K’Rd.