A bus lane study in Adelaide

In recent times the concept of giving priority to urban transport, and buses in particular, has become a popular method of improving the efficiency and operation of public transport facilities. Whilst there are many ways of granting priority to buses, the use of flow bus lanes has become common both within Australia and overseas. The paper presents the results of a bus lane before and study on a major arterial road which serves the growing north eastern suburbs of Adelaide. The study was conducted on north east road as this was the first major arterial road in Adelaide to be installed with bus lanes and it was considered highly desirable to evaluate their effects on overall traffic patterns and importantly, the attitudes of the motoring public to the reservation of road space for certain classes of vehicles. The study showed relatively minor changes in traffic operation after the installation of the bus lanes. Perhaps this was not surprising because the bus lane was provided in lieu of a parking lane and did not reduce the number of through lanes for the use of other vehicles. An unexpected result was that the majority of road users including those excluded from using the bus lanes favoured the retention of the bus lanes on north east road.