Independent public transport, cycling and walking news & comment. Supporting all forms of moving towards a more environmentally sound NZ

Monday, June 21, 2010

TransJakarta Busway Station Pic

Photo from Institute forTransport and Developmental Policy - Thanks

I can't find any blurry self taken photos to pass off as artworks (see previous Art in Transition entries) and have other engaging commitments at the moment, but I know the insatiable appetite of my millions of readers for constant fresh news! 

So to keep both of you happy I enclose a random photo of one the busway stations on the TransJakarta Bus Rapid transit System - when I last checked carrying over 160,000 passengers a day. Note that the bus doors on this dedicated do not open at conventional street level but are designed to offer platform level loading. With Paris and Montreal having rubber tyred trains, and many busways having dedicated tracks there is almost no clear cut-off or dividing line between bus and rail except for one key factor, relevant to lower density cities - busway vehicles can leave the corridor and pick passengers up and drop them off close to departure points and destinations - a superb and compelling advantage!!  

Almost all the other supposed advantages of light rail - smoothness, capacity, safety - are rapidly being achieved - at a fraction of the cost - by rapidly developing bus technology.

ps though I only have two readers they are very constant in checking this site! - just passed 3000 views - and that just since about  Feb, not bad for an obscure subject like transit, mainly about buses in one small city (ranked 980th in size) at the bottom of the world  - and  a blog laced with lengthy tirades from a carrot wielding know-it-all busspotty rabbit!!

3 comments:

  1. Hey! don't I count as a reader? Or was that just....bait???

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  2. Great photo and observations. Imho there are many advantages to a system that is limited to dedicated lines and uses high-floor stations... using low floor buses that later have to contend with the delays of mixed traffic doesn't make sens and confuses the dividing line between BRT and conventional bus. Treat the BRT as it's own mode and feeder buses as a complement to it.

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  3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA4IR7PvO6I

    ReplyDelete