Ways to solve congestion by the BBC

SeaSide

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4044803.stm

daymobrew

Tital Lanes - I saw this on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The bridge is 6 lanes wide. They have these small (20 inches tall maybe) 'pegs' that stick vertically into the road. They can be moved across lanes to make one side wider.
See "Reversible Lanes" on http://www.goldengatebridge.org/trafficmanagement/index.html
I freqently saw a truck go along with a guy leaning out the back moving the pegs. The bridge would lose a lane during the change.
The pegs offer zero protection for a car that might cross them.

"Dedicated lanes" - I loved the carpool lanes when I lived in California. They were open to motorcyclists too (I was one back then, less the 'motor' now). In Ireland they would need to be enforced otherwise they'd get abused like bus lanes frequently are. Unfortunately I don't think we have many roads with enough lanes to make this work though maybe making bus lanes carpool lanes might work.

"Ramp Metering" - I am surprised that this has such a positive effect. The intervals between cars in California was only about 5 seconds. I guess this is what the NRA is planning for the M50. Err, I hope it's *only* this and not regular lights on the entrance ramps.

Capt'n Midnight

How about building the third lane of the M50 as a seperate carrageway that can be used by differing flows of traffic as needed. variable speed limits - excellent idea esp on the M50 , less chance of a pile up and traffic would move faster since no stop / start

Or for three lane roads (or wide two lane ones) you could have a bus lane in the MIDDLE - if two buses meet then one pulls into normal traffic to let the other through , depending on which has heavy traffic. you get two lanes in the same road space. Bus stops would be at traffic islands.

It's cheap - you just paint on the lanes , none of this blocking lanes while you add a lane at each side.

Unfortunatley the NTR contract can't be used to encourage or force them to provide lower tolls to multi-occupant vehicles.

GerardKeating

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

Or for three lane roads (or wide two lane ones) you could have a bus lane in the MIDDLE - if two buses meet then one pulls into normal traffic to let the other through , depending on which has heavy traffic. you get two lanes in the same road space. Bus stops would be at traffic islands.

Apart from visions of Bus playing chicken with each other, a bus lane in the middle of the road would be ok for express services, but it will have to fight back into the "normal" lane to get to Bus Stops.

This _Might_ work if the middle lane was one direction for the morning and the other for the evening.

But another problem is that this is completiced. Irish motorist seem to have problems with simple concept like stoping at red lights, the meaning of contineous white lines, yellow boxes and existing bus lanes, they would never cope with reversable lanes.


Gerard

Capt'n Midnight

GerardKeating wrote:

Apart from visions of Bus playing chicken with each other, a bus lane in the middle of the road would be ok for express services, but it will have to fight back into the "normal" lane to get to Bus Stops.

You put the stops on traffic islands - remember this is mainly for gridlocked Dublin traffic and a way to get buses to travel in both directions evening/morning with just one lane. Since most traffic jams are on one side of the road it should not be necessary to have both directions in use at the same time..

Irish motorist seem to have problems with simple concept

you missed Indiators - just paint BIG white lines on both sides.

antoinolachtnai

You would need a pretty wide stretch of road. You would need an island on both sides of the bus lane, so that people could board buses from either direction.

I think the 'chicken' game could get tricky. A bus could be meeting another bus 10 or so times on its route.

dowlingm

There is a tidal lane on Jarvis Street here in Toronto, no pegs, only overhead lights with a green arrow in the direction of traffic and a red X in the other direction.

Works well here.

Always thought the Lower Glanmire in Cork would be a candidate.

We also have Bus/HOV lanes. Cycle lanes are poor though, drivers ignore them and some resistance to them from locals who don't want to give up car space.

sliabh

Before the construction of the third bridge in Limerick the Sarsfield bridge used to operate on a tidal principle. There were 2 lanes into the city in the morning and one out. This reversed in the evenings. The lanes were seperated by traffic cones.

I think the system was discontinued when the new bridge opened in 1988. So this isn't new, even in Ireland.

loyatemu

i suggested tidal lanes on here a few months ago in the context of the blackrock qbc.

rather than permanently taking capacity away from cars in both directions (as has been done in donnybrook); have 1 bus lane plus 2 normal lanes inbound in the morning, with 1 normal lane outbound, and reverse it in the evening. Could work.