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Report n°6: Urban Public Transport

The Dijon exclusive right-of-way

In Dijon in 1978, progressive deterioration of the network's performance led the transport authorities to consider an exclusive right-of-way through the city centre. Several lines use the route, with short headway between buses during the rush hour since the Dijon network boasts high frequency. The results were particularly obvious: the number of trips per inhabitant per year, which previously stagnated at around 90 to 100, increased to 136 in 1979, and by progressive improvements culminated at 167 in 1983, when the effects of the reorganisation of the network begun in 1978 were at their peak. As regards operations, the number of trips per kilometre travelled gives an idea of the impact of the reorganisation based on the exclusive right-of-way, but also affects all aspects of the transport offer: it declined regularly until the network's reorganisation based on the exclusive right-of-way in 1978, which was the time period when deterioration ceased and the situation improved again to reach the levels prevailing 3 or 4 years before that. The number of kilometres travelled by crews showed the same trend, but this did not continue because of the growth in automobile traffic which affects the part of the network away from the right-of-way. Finally, the right-of-way did manage to halt the slow deterioration that had been going on for years and to stabilise use at a level which the network had not witnessed in many years.

Table 6. Effect of the bus-based exclusive right-of-way in Dijon (1978) on the network as a whole

 

1974

1976

1978

1980

1982

1984

Trips/inhabitants 92 98 121 149 162 162
Km/crews 23 21 20 22 21 21
Trips/km travelled 5,1 4,6 4,2 4,3 4,6 4,7