Since the 1993 feasibility study by Steer Davis Gleave, “Quality Bus” and bus priority measures have been the adopted approach to providing a local public transport service. Major progress has been made by designating the Heysham, Morecambe, Lancaster, University route as the Primary Bus Corridor.
Bus priority measures have been introduced at strategic points along the corridor to facilitate the preferential treatment of public transport movements. These actions must be commended, but is qualified by the question:
Why have Quality Bus and bus priority measures taken so long to implement when infrastructure modifications have been minimal?
Lancashire County Council – Draft LTP2 Headline Target
“By 2016 increase bus journeys within Lancashire by 20% based on 2001 levels”
At first glance these look like challenging targets that work towards government, regional and local aims of reducing car usage.
But when we look closer in Lancaster district for 2001, 3,130 (5.6%) people journeyed to work daily by bus. A 20% increase leads to only 3,760 required to meet targets. But the number of households is predicted to increase 16% by 2006
Assuming the same proportion of workers use the bus, 3,630 are projected to use the bus without other intervention measures
Therefore only 130 people over 10 years are required to shift modes in order to achieve LCC targets (13 people per year between 2006 and 2016).
Ways to move forward:
- Set more challenging targets within a shorter time scale
- Introduce additional Quality Bus routes across the district
- Investigate vehicles which use cleaner technology such as LPG
- Define additional bus priority measures around Lancaster’s gyratory system
