roryer said:
Curitiba in Brazil was a typical third world disaster in the 1970's with horrendous traffic jams clogging the city. They invested in a network of bus lanes that despite the city trebling in population handles 70% of all traffic.
IMO we should Ban Cars in cities, but in teh short term if they come into bus lanes, confiscate and crush them and take away the offenders driving license, permanantly. No appeals no second chance. Parking fines should be abolished and replaced by just crushing the cars.
I think you're in danger of confusing johnnymarrsbars with the facts here (and those others, like Cobbles, who start from the premise that Buses Are Bad, then work very, very hard to only consider anything that supports their premise.
Thus, an empty lane down the side of a road is Bad, because it could be full of cars, despite the fact that, although a bus may only travel along it every 10 minutes, it's carrying the occupants of more than 50 such cars. Or the fact that a more guaranteed headway will make people more likely to get out of their cars and get on the bus in the first place. But, since Buses Are Bad, that is a Bad Thing anyway: just build more roads and there'd be room for cars!
I think your approach is a bit draconian, though! It's important, with any of these schemes, to make sure there's a carrot AND a stick - ie. that people like JMB and Cobbles (ok, maybe people slightly less lunatic-fringe than them) can see a benefit to themselves of switching to non-car-transport. People will, generally, make some sacrifices in the name of improving things, but if there isn't SOME kind of self-interest, it gets a lot harder to persuade them.
Personally, I'd be selling the whole integrated/fully functioning/cheap public transport thing on the basis that it's cheaper, more relaxing, and possibly (eventually) even quicker to get where you're going using it. For that to happen, though, I think we need to look long and hard at the way our existing public transport systems are working, financed, structured, and integrated into each other before we start hitting people with sticks. To my mind, that would mean reversing all the fragmentation peddled by the Thatcher government and perpetuated since, and grouping local public transport (road, rail, the lot) under local passenger transport executives. People who can make sure that the train doesn't leave 5 minutes before the bus arrives, that bus routes go where they're needed (rather than where is most profitable), and that fares are set in such a way as to make it financially feasible for people to use public transport rather than cars. That may well involve them not making a cash profit - so be it, this is about priming pumps and deriving non-cash benefits to the local communities and to the environment in general.
