Re: Re: Why cities planning to spend billions on light rail should look again at what buses can do
  TP

It's not an either/or debate as the very misleading article implies. Trams
and buses serve different capacity needs, so people are going to be
catching either or all modes according to where they're travelling. There's
rarely a choice between one and the other because different modes tend not
to be duplicated along the same routes because it's wasteful to do so. If
you want to go somewhere, you jump the transit that's going there - whether
it's a train or bus and whether you're young or old. So you typically see
plenty of young people on trains and trams, among all sorts of others, and
plenty of old people on buses.

In terms of comfort of the various modes, the jury obviously isn't
unanimous, otherwise you wouldn't get 20,000 people in SE Sydney
petitioning against being transferred from buses to trams. They evidently
don't mind their bus ride at all and it's obvious that other factors come
into play that outweigh any perceived comfort issues, such as journey time.
Most definitely trains and trams have a smoother ride and without the risk
of sudden lateral movements or uneven braking and acceleration. On the
other hand, buses have a seating attraction. The average seating
availability on a modern articulated tram is about 2 seats per linear
metre. On a typical Australian articulated city bus that figure is about 3
and on a 12 metre city bus about 3.5. In addition, most of the bus seats
are facing forward which is attractive to very many people.

While the city bus will never be as smooth as a tram or train,
electrification has brought new opportunities. Looking through an oldie's
eyes now, the jerk-free acceleration and the dynamic braking bring a
significant improvement to the ride. The other thing is that it opens up
the stepless, flat floor (very relevant for older people) which is an area
in which Australian buses have been way behind Europe and I've been
campaigning for it for some years, but there are few examples so far in
Australian fleets (one exception being the Volvo hybrids in Victoria with
CDC and Latrobe Valley). However, the new Australian electric bus by Custom
Denning is completely up to European standard in this regard and I hope it
will in fact become the standard Australian citybus:

https://scontent.fsyd4-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/166382164_3847699272016535_7713560700008146351_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=b9115d&_nc_ohc=zMOLoH10f6cAX9F1_Nu&_nc_ht=scontent.fsyd4-1.fna&oh=1931773faff845c4683b4039d21e4fee&oe=608909E8

https://scontent.fsyd4-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/166357747_3847699415349854_972335729165913791_n.jpg?_nc_cat=106&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=b9115d&_nc_ohc=FUDmd0xrLosAX-Es2z0&_nc_ht=scontent.fsyd4-1.fna&oh=74536521b7a1bdc3564c1eb7cdb2f720&oe=608A996B

Tony P
On Tuesday, 6 April 2021 at 12:44:53 UTC+10espe...@... wrote:

> Absolutely right on the mark Greg, comfort is paramount.

>

> On Tue, 6 Apr 2021 at 12:16, lime...@...> wrote:

>

>> This report leaves out the major reason that discourages use of public

>> transport COMFORT.

>> As an older user of Public Transport I can assure the writers of this

>> article ( who I would suspect do not regularly use buses) buses bounce and

>> swerve from side to side on the road. This makes it difficult to sit

>> comfortably, or stand and negotiate to the doorways prior to the stop to

>> alight. This is a major reason older peple do not use buses and prefer

>> Trains and Trams.

>>

>>

>>

>

> --

>

> cheers and best wishes,

> David in Avenel.au,

> [Before you change anything, learn why it is the way it is.]

>

>

>

>