Extended pavement bus stops

[croyde]

Or whatever they are called. Cropped up all over London during Covid meaning that the stopping bus held up all the traffic as it expelled and took on passengers.

There's one in my local high street which causes massive snarl ups. Who the hell comes up with these daft ideas?

Anyway, after 3 years, it looks like commonsense has prevailed and it's being dug up, removed and the road restored to its former width.

I hope others are meeting the same fate, but what another waste of public money. Absolutely ridiculous isn't it!

[GiantCardboardPlato]

I dunno, people queuing/waiting at bus stops can cause a lot of pedestrian congestion on the pavement when they are normal width.. And people are a lot more space efficient than cars.

[normalbloke]

It’s to make the bus make more sense…. In our nearest town, bus stops were filled in, ensuring that the bus has to stop in the full carriageway. Then, to absolutely ensure you’ll never pass the bus, they put traffic islands in the middle of the road too….

[Super Sonic]

We've had these in my town since long before COVID. The pavements are pretty wide. I heard they were to stop the traffic behind the bus so the bus didn't have to wait for a break in the traffic to pull off. It just means mile long tailbacks polluting the air every time a bus stops. One is quarter of a mile from a r'about where two of the busiest roads in town cross (Seaside rd &Lottbridge drove) and at busy times these roads snarl up for a mile in all directions.

[grumbledoak]

This crap is everywhere. It's an idea from the old eastern bloc countries. The idea is it gives the bus a clean pull away.

Where I live everything in both directions is now driving on the opposite pavement to get round the parked buses. The pavements have been completely destroyed.

[CourtAgain]

Sadiq Khan has been blending these into cycle lanes, so watch out for cyclists knocking you down when you board the bus. These are all over London Road, Enfield. How Covid relates to cycle lanes, we'll never know

[2gins]

Super Sonic said:

We've had these in my town since long before COVID. The pavements are pretty wide. I heard they were to stop the traffic behind the bus so the bus didn't have to wait for a break in the traffic to pull off. It just means mile long tailbacks polluting the air every time a bus stops. One is quarter of a mile from a r'about where two of the busiest roads in town cross (Seaside rd &Lottbridge drove) and at busy times these roads snarl up for a mile in all directions.

And these are the same people who will happily tell you that one bus pollutes a lot less than a bunch of cars, yet that rule seems not to apply when it's a bus idling waiting for a gap.

[Spare tyre]

Happened here, all bus stops removed and pavement now a bit into the road

Get buses stopping opposite each other and causing a standstill

You then also get the situation of busses not being able to leap frog each other and then busses who are early or whatever having nowhere to stop and wait

Add in the odd breakdown and it’s less than ideal


We have also been putting pedestrian crossings on top of the underpasses in the surrounding estates which all have been purposefully put in in the 60s for school kids

The kids seem to take the shortest route over the top, the school seems powerless to dictate underpass use.

Sure 23:20 on a December evening walk over the road if scared, but the roads not busy so no drama. Now the tax payer has double the amount of assets to maintain.

Sometimes get the bus dropping kids off next to the crossing on top of the underpass, you couldn’t make it up

[donkmeister]

Spare tyre said:

We have also been putting pedestrian crossings on top of the underpasses in the surrounding estates which all have been purposefully put in in the 60s for school kids

The kids seem to take the shortest route over the top, the school seems powerless to dictate underpass use.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but underpasses were usually (if not always) built in a way that doomed them from the outset. If you are in a car then you follow the road, regardless of whether it's the most direct route (assuming you don't live somewhere third world like Bradford). But, humans have a tendency to seek out the shortest easiest route when moving under their own steam. So, to make underpasses actually work the pedestrian route should always have been the most direct and level one, with the car route being engineered around that. Then there is no incentive for peds to ignore underpasses as doing so would involve using stairs/climbing embankments/walking further.

[croyde]

Seems I was wrong, sense has not prevailed.

They've dug it up only to rebuild it with 'nicer' paving

[braddo]

CourtAgain said:

How Covid relates to cycle lanes, we'll never know

Are you serious?

[2gins]

croyde said:

Seems I was wrong, sense has not prevailed.

They've dug it up only to rebuild it with 'nicer' paving

That really is grade A trolling from the council

[Riley Blue]

We now have them along Sheffield Road in Chesterfield where they're a real PITA. The pavements have also been widened and the two 'innovations' have simply reduced parking for nearby shops and increased traffic pollution because it's less free flowing; an own goal by whoever signed it off.