SHOULD GOODS DISTRIBUTION TRAFFIC USE BUS LANES? AN ANALYSIS OF THE CONDITIONS OF AN EXPERIMENT

There are conflicting demands from different sources on land use in city centres. Bus traffic, taxis, distribution of goods, service cars, cyclists, pedestrians and private cars compete for the limited space that remains for traffic activities. In recent years increasing traffic in several urban central and half-central areas has led to increasing journey times for both public transport and commercial traffic. Municipalities have often given priority to public transport by building bus lanes. Many municipalities have also stated that priority shall be given to traffic for distribution of goods over private car traffic, but any real physical measures to improve conditions for vehicles distributing goods have seldom been implemented, if you except the marking of loading and unloading zones. The main idea behind this project was that most bus lanes, under normal conditions, have low traffic volumes and that it would be possible to achieve a better overall economy by letting certain commercial vehicles use these bus lanes. The idea was that the city, at the same time, should build a number of new bus lanes where there are severe problems with low travelling speeds today. To be able to analyse the possibilities of letting certain commercial vehicles use the bus lanes, a study of vehicle mix was undertaken and some analyses were done. Finally, the practical planning of the tests was carried out giving certain commercial vehicles permission to use the bus lanes. A range of problems, however, made it impossible to perform practical tests within this project. (TRRL)