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Report n°6: Urban Public Transport

UPT/ERW : What is the best choice?

The evaluation of exclusive right-of-way for buses therefore deserves more attention, based on some existing projects in France or elsewhere, some of them quite long-standing, so as to measure the efficiency and the representation of bus-based UPT/ERW on the one hand, but also by a kind of subtraction, to isolate the tramway's added value in terms of equipment. Comparative evaluation would seem useful to settle disputes on the selection of rolling stock in which industrial lobbying is taking the place of debate on public policy issues. After twenty years dominated by tram-based UPT/ERW, tighter local budgets and dwindling availability of sites suitable for tramway tracks are ample justification for giving more attention to the possibility of bus-based UPT/ERW.

Changes which have been of benefit as regards efficiency and representation can be listed as indicators with which to evaluate the degree of evolution and to compare to what extent increased transport offers have met with user response. But the first task is to define the theoretical contours of the "system".

"Surface" exclusive right-of-way, unlike the metro for which tracks are laid in tunnels or viaducts, shares public space with all other users — pedestrians, cyclists, motorists — according to special rules which grant the system priority in certain sections of public space. The consequences of this privileged position, exclusive right-of-way, are now well known: faster commercial transit times than on ordinary routes, more regular service respectful of announced timetables, increased comfort level for passengers. Increased speed, less uncertainty and improved comfort are the three components that have motivated user acceptance. There are further effects due to concomitant measures: higher frequencies and therefore less waiting time, increased vehicle capacity leading to more comfortable rides, on-line information dispelling uncertainty about waiting times, station furniture increasing passengers' comfort level while they wait for a car, and finally priority of passage at intersections which has what is probably an important effect as regards the individual and social representation of the relationship between public transport and private cars, over and above the impact of regularity of service and commercial speed.

An increase of the general level of the quality of public transport must therefore be composed essentially of two types of measures: major measures bearing on the quantities made available to users: speed, frequency, capacity, combined with measures relating solely to quality: physical comfort and information. An attractive fares policy, better suited to the different segments of existing and particularly potential customer base, is also an important factor.