Research Project Description

Mineta Transportation Institute

Improving Bus Priority Lane Effectiveness in Congested Urban Centers

Project Number: 2606

Research Project:The proposed project will be a case study of several municipalities including Midtown and the Upper East Side in New York City, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles (and London, UK as a best practice case) examining policies and strategies regarding ongoing enforcement of bus rapid transit lanes.

Principal Investigator:Asha Weinstein, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, San José State University

Team Members: Todd Goldman, Ph.D., Assistant Director, Region 2 University Transportation Research Center;Robert E. Paaswell, Ph.D., P.E, Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering, City College of New York, Director, Region 2 University Transportation Research Center

Consultant: Herbert Levinson, P.E., Transportation Consultant

Institution:
Mineta Transportation Institute

Telephone Number:
(408) 924-7560
Email Address: mti@mti.sjsu.edu

Project Objective:This study will examine the policies and strategies governing the enforcement of bus lanes in major congested urban centers. It will also examine the effectiveness of current bus lane enforcement strategies in several major U.S. cities.

Project Abstract:

In recent years, there has been a wave of interest and innovation in strategies to make bus operations more efficient and effective. Cities around the country have created new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems and pursued other strategies to make their regular bus services faster and more reliable. One common approach in urban centers has been the dedication of street space for priority use by buses during designated hours.

But experiences in congested urban centers have shown that simply designating a bus lane is not enough to ensure that operating conditions for buses are improved. Amid the intensive competition for street and curb space that occurs within central business districts, the effectiveness of bus lanes can be quickly undermined in the absence of ongoing enforcement efforts. A vehicle stopped or parked in a bus lane requires buses to weave into adjacent traffic lanes, reducing the useful capacity of already-congested urban streets. Thus, strategies to ensure the effectiveness of bus lanes are essential not only for the success of BRT and other strategies to speed bus service, but also to improve the overall efficiency of traffic flow on city streets.

An important lesson that has been learned from earlier experiences with bus lanes is that some mitigation of their effects on other transportation system users is often required before enforcement becomes feasible. In New York City, curb access for delivery trucks is at such a premium that even steeply-priced tickets are seen as a necessary cost of business and do not provide an effective deterrent to the blockage of bus lanes. A recent study of the feasibility of BRT on New York City’s streets by two members of this study team concluded that new street designs that accommodated bus lanes while also extending the hours available for goods deliveries would make stricter enforcement more politically feasible. On streets that lack the width necessary to accommodate these conflicting demands simultaneously, pricing or other management strategies may help ensure efficient curb utilization during the hours in which they are available for commercial use.

Milestones Dates:

Task 1: Literature review

The research effort will begin with a review of the relevant literature to identify possible case study candidates and best practices.

Task 2: Strategies for bus lane effectiveness

The research team will conduct interviews with transportation departments and law enforcement agencies about their enforcement policies. This phase of the research will produce the following work products: descriptions of findings for each city; a table comparing legal frameworks in all cities; a typology of enforcement strategies; and “best practices” case studies.

Task 3: Field measurement of bus lane availability

In San Francisco and one other city, the research team will measure bus priority lane “availability,” defined as the share of time that no stopped vehicles are blocking the lane. Statistical analysis of the data collected will provide insight into the variation in bus lane availability by time of day and method of enforcement. It will also provide information on the frequency and duration of lane blockages by vehicle type (passenger cars, delivery trucks, emergency vehicles, etc.). Data have already been collected for New York City.

Task 4: Evaluation framework and recommendations

The research team will develop guidelines for evaluating the extent to which bus lane violations pose a problem for bus operations, and the types of solutions that are likely to be effective in different situations. It will develop specific policy recommendations using this framework for the three cities examined in Task 3.

Final completion date:    

Total Budget:$61,665

Student Involvement:
Student Research Assistant, San Jose State University TBA

Technology Transfer Activities:

Upon publication, pdf and html versions will be available on the Mineta Transportation Institute web site. The project experience and data will be available for community meetings. Authors are encouraged to submit articles based on the research to relevant journals and to present the information to end-users at conferences.

Potential Benefits of the Project:

This study is expected to produce two key sets of findings. First, it is likely that in a majority of cities examined, a lack of ongoing commitment to enforcement has led to rampant violations of bus priority lanes and a deterioration in the lanes’ exclusive availability to buses. Second, in a minority of cities, it is anticipated that innovative policies have enabled enforcement agencies to maintain a commitment to protecting the effectiveness of bus priority lanes, and that this commitment is reflected in lower rates of bus lane violations. It is hoped that these findings will be useful to local governments as they design and revisit their bus priority lane enforcement strategies.

TRB Keywords:

Bus lanes; Bus priority; Bus rapid transit; Rapid transit; Traffic law enforcement

Primary Subject:
Transportation/Bus rapid transit/Dedicated bus lanes

Goals:

The results of this research will be of interest to transit operators, departments of transportation or public works, and law enforcement agencies in cities that already have downtown bus priority lanes, as well as in those cities considering the creation of such lanes as part of new BRT systems or other bus service enhancement strategies. The successful implementation of bus priority treatments on city streets requires close interagency cooperation, something that can be very difficult to develop and sustain in the absence of clear policy guidance. The findings and best practices identified as part of this research can help cities develop this policy guidance, so that interagency cooperation around bus priority lane enforcement issues can be made as effective as possible.

Enabling Research:

This project will have three primary research components:

• Case studies of policies and strategies used to improve bus lane effectiveness in six to eight urban centers.
• Field measurement of bus priority lane availability.
• Development of policy framework and recommendations.

Modal Orientation:

Bus