News & Discussion: Adelaide Metro Buses

[Diamond]

Buses dont come off a production line like a car and there is far more work involved than a car one bus takes about 15 weeks to build. With one started every 5 to 7 days, thus one is road ready every week for use.

Acknowledged.

[crawf]

My point exactly. The rural living estates and new subdivisions are all designed by private developers. For $200k or so the council could develop a quality set of design guidelines to ensure future subdivisions contribute positively to the growth of Mt Barker. This is a fraction of the cost of creating parks and paths to remedy the poor planning.

Good urban design can save councils millions of dollars which can be put into building decent amenities, undergrounding powerlines, building additional freeway exits etc.

Actually developers have to put money into future infrastructure projects such as a second freeway exit, roads, footpaths, parks etc.

The current roads (especially around the Town Centre) are poorly designed and arn't able to cope with growing traffic. The council sees these problems and are looking at fixing these problems (such as installing more traffic lights, roundabouts etc...). But again the council can only do so much, the State Government needs to spend more money on fixing up the infrastructure.

I know you want Adelaide to be an exciting urban centre, this can only happen if we stop wasting money fixing the problems created by short-term thinking and poor urban design.

Whats Adelaide got to do with Mt Barker. the Adelaide CBD is very well planned compared to Mt Barker and other places.

[urban]

Mt Barker isn't Robinson Crusoe with it's problems. Adelaide's suburban Fringe has the same problems..

The extension to Gawler will create the same problems.

The growth south of nourlunga is screwed up.

much of mawson lakes is poorly planned.

Don't get me started on Golden Grove.

Greater metropolitan Adelaide's transport system is a mess because all of these poor ad hoc planning decisions are piling problems on top of each other. Infrastructure projects are always done on the cheap because there are so many problems that need to be fixed. This is why we got our absurd one way expressway, everyones complaining about a small extension to the tram line, our train system is on the point of collapse, some routes are serviced by 1970's buses, etc etc.

The Government is slow to move on anything because whichever project they pick first people will complain that something else needs to be done.

We need more buses, we need a larger tram network, we need an overhaul and extension of our train system, we need to fix south rd and on and on. Unfortunately poor urban planning has meant that our transport infrastructure (and electrical, water and communications infrastructure) is horribly inefficient. This means that very few infrastructure projects provide a return in savings or revenue equal to their cost.

If we don't fix the planning we cannot afford decent transport infrastructure. It doesn't cost anymore to get the planning right but the penalty for getting it wrong is huge.

Whats Adelaide got to do with Mt Barker. the Adelaide CBD is very well planned compared to Mt Barker and other places.

The money being spent by the government on fixing the problems caused by poor council planning decisions could be used to fund fixing up Vic sq or the festival centre or extending the convention centre or doing something on the le cornu site, or whatever projects we can dream up to attract people back to this state.

[crawf]

Government must be doing something right SA's population growth is at a 15 year high and less people are moving interstate.

[duke]

Interesting development in Queensland. I wonder how well these would work on the O-Bahn?

<snip>

THE Queensland Government is considering trialling "super buses" in the state's southeast to cope with growing demand for public transport.

Transport Minister Paul Lucas today said the vehicles, known as LighTrams, were 25m long and could carry around 200 people – three times as many as a standard bus and twice as many as an articulated bus.

“These vehicles are a good fit for Brisbane's growing busway network, especially given the increased passenger demand,” he said.

LighTrams are already in use in Switzerland, operated as electric trolley cars.

Mr Lucas said a Brisbane trial would involve buses powered by hybrid diesel-electric engines, rather than overhead electric wires.

</snip>

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/stor ... 62,00.html



Now this is a bus

[Ben]

Can't imagine them being very fuel efficient or overly fast. I'd prefer the tram network extended before more buses are put on the road.

[Pistol]

How much would it cost and is it possible to lay tram tracks on the existing o-bahn track? Then extend the trams through North Adelaide down Melbourne Street to King William. then the buses that feed the interchanges could start from there (ie. Paradise interchange could have buses waiting for arrivals of trams.) This would eliminate a LOT of buses from the CBD because quite honestly, as a resident of the city, there are too many buses on the roads of the city.

Perth's bus system is quite a good model to replicate also. There are two main stations in Perth, one at the train station and the other down near the Exhibition Centre. All suburban buses leave from these two stations. Then in the CBD, there are three lines of free buses called CATS (like our 99C and B) that all travel different routes but include these two stations in their routes. The difference is that they run every two to three minutes and are also smaller and more nimble for city travel. This eliminates the congestion caused by buses traveling throughout the CBD.

[jimmy_2486]

how the hell is that supposed to take corners in the city??

[Cruise]

These are not a new idea, they have been using them in Brazil (i think it was) for a while now on bus-only roads/lanes (not an obahn)
But to be used for regular city use 'shouldnt' work either because i would think they would break the ADR's, But then again technically all low floor buses break the ADR's.

[urban]

You would pretty much have to turn Grenfell St into a bus only zone to accommodate these.

[AtD]

urban: Not a bad thing.

[urban]

AtD I can see the balanced reporting from the Advertiser already. I think the RAA have started organising a protest rally just in case. Nursing home residents who haven't been to the city since 1964 have got talkback radio on speed dial to voice their concern at what it will do to traffic. MHS would rather see the money spent on a desal plant.

[Ho Really]

How much would it cost and is it possible to lay tram tracks on the existing o-bahn track? Then extend the trams through North Adelaide down Melbourne Street to King William. then the buses that feed the interchanges could start from there (ie. Paradise interchange could have buses waiting for arrivals of trams.) This would eliminate a LOT of buses from the CBD because quite honestly, as a resident of the city, there are too many buses on the roads of the city.

Melbourne Street would be a tight squeeze and not easily accessible from where the O-bahn enters the road at Gilberton. I would rather see it go down Hackney Road and then North Terrace all the way down to the existing line. If I remember correctly the initial plan by a Labour government was for the light rail to come out from underground near the Torrens Parade Ground and then over the Torrens and through parklands to Gilberton. No Melbourne Street.

Perth's bus system is quite a good model to replicate also. There are two main stations in Perth, one at the train station and the other down near the Exhibition Centre. All suburban buses leave from these two stations. Then in the CBD, there are three lines of free buses called CATS (like our 99C and B) that all travel different routes but include these two stations in their routes. The difference is that they run every two to three minutes and are also smaller and more nimble for city travel. This eliminates the congestion caused by buses traveling throughout the CBD.

The mini feeder buses (electric or biodiesel) would be perfect.

Cheers

[rhino]

Perth's bus system is quite a good model to replicate also. There are two main stations in Perth, one at the train station and the other down near the Exhibition Centre. All suburban buses leave from these two stations.

I thought we had two main suburban bus stations too - Grenfell St and King William St. All our suburban services seem to leave from one of those.

[Bulldozer]

They won't work in Adelaide because of the turning circle. Brisbane has built, and is still building, dedicated bus roads. The southern one pretty much tracks the Gold Coast freeway and there are large undercover interchanges/stations along the way. In the city the busway dives underground to a big interchange under the heart of the CBD. The government has a 10 or 20 year goal of 75% of people coming to the CBD to be doing so via public transport. There's also recent talk of re-establishing the tram network!