Criteria to prioritise public transport routes

The City Council is taking another step toward introducing public transport-priority measures on some of the city’s busiest routes.

One of its committees has accepted the proposed criteria by which the citywide routes are to be selected.

The criteria, accepted by the Sustainable Transport and Utilities Committee at its regular meeting on 11 May, will identify which routes first receive public transport-priority treatment.

The criteria will be used to identify routes where: bus arrival times along the route are unreliable; bus delays relative to car trips put people off buses; they are served by a number of bus routes; there are high numbers of passengers on buses; providing public transport priority may provide additional benefits for other road users.

Other factors that must be taken into account are road safety, practicality, impact on adjacent land uses, and ongoing maintenance and operational liabilities.

Council transport planner, Robert Woods, says bus-priority measures would help provide a more reliable, faster and convenient public transport system citywide that would offer a real alternative to many car trips. Council long-term aims are to encourage people to use public transport while discouraging single-person car travel.

Public transport priority measures are part of a Council Citywide Public Transport Priority Plan to have at least three corridors with priority in place by June 2006. The plan will outline how buspriority corridors are to be developed, introduced and appropriately enforced.

The citywide plan should be presented for Council adoption in July, says Mr Woods, and part of this process will include consultation with community boards.

• For further information contact Robert Woods, City Council transport planner on 941-8060.