4.7.2
Original Document
One approach would be to reconfigure the existing bus network serving Birmingham city centre to provide a more efficient service to passengers and reduce the impact of buses on the street environment. This approach envisages the progressive installation of bus priority measures on radial routes. ‘Showcase’ standard bus shelters, facilities and information, improving the quality of the waiting experience and overall public realm of the streets. This should be regarded as a ‘do-minimum’ level of bus service enhancement.
Plain English Translation
We could change the existing bus network serving Birmingham city centre to give a better service to passengers and cut the impact of buses on the street environment. To do this we would gradually put bus priority measures (such as bus lanes) on the routes that go into and out of the city centre, we would have very good bus shelters, facilities and information, we would make waiting for a bus better and generally improve the look of the streets. This would be the very least we would to.
There needs to be a definite rethink rergarding the bottleneck effect where buses and traffic come off Digbeth High St and onto Moat Lane (alongside market). Possible solution could be putting a Bus lane along Digbeth High St?.
This could be eased by re-routing a few bus routes… part of the problem (as I see it) is that some routes (the 6 and 37 come to mind) go through that same bottleneck on Moat Lane by St Martins twice – once on the way in, and once on the way out. These routes run every 5-10 minutes peak time… thus putting more stress on an already overused pinch-point.
These are essential measures to put in place. currently the buses travel at the same slow speed as congested traffic, and they are far from clean and pleasant to use. So why use a bus if you can sit in a more comfortable car? Lets make them more comfortable, provide better bus-stops and travel information, link up with park & ride locations and train stations, and most of all – give them dedicated bus-lanes that allow them to halve the time it would take for the same journey by car…