Sprucing up the shop window: improving the bus stop environment for passengers, pedestrians and property owners

Most public transport journeys begin at the local bus stop, yet this shop window of the passenger transport system has long been an unattractive, neglected and dirty one. Even the most detailed public transport textbooks contain little positive advice on the design of bus stops and shelters, other than their spacing. The threat to the health of old people imposed by requiring them to wait at poorly sheltered bus stops, for sporadic off peak services, attracts little attention. Nor is the possibility of integrating bus stops with traffic calming and pedestrian crossings often considered. The inappropriateness of internal-combustion engines for buses, given that heavy acceleration must occur near the bus stop, attracts little attention. Much time is also wasted in dealing with property owner objections, which largely derive from the substandard character of real world bus stops, and in finding safe locations for bus stops on roads without traffic calming. In this presentation, I will discuss North Shore City's experience with its bus shelter improvement programme and will also enlarge upon recent developments in electric bus transit and in the possibility of integrating bus stops with local pedestrian crossings and traffic calming, even on arterial roads. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E215472.