Thomas Morgan, Wellington City Council Eastern Ward Candidate has been pondering the problem of bus lanes to the Eastern suburbs as an additional factor to his intensive passenger shelters policy and come up with the idea of dynamic lanes that switch between general use and buses only at peak travel times to make bus travel even more enticing.

“The lack of bus lanes at peak travel times is a major issue for public transport in the area and if traffic is coming to halt anyway then removing a lane at peak times may well not make much difference making dynamic bus lanes during peak travel periods a possible solution.”

Morgan suggests having one of the two general traffic lanes switch into a bus lane using comprehensive traffic signals to manage traffic flow allowing buses to have a clear express route at peak times and he’s modelled his idea on the current bus priority traffic lights and the dynamic traffic lanes on the Auckland harbour bridge.

“The idea is fairly radical and some will find it annoying at the outset with a lane closed down at peak times however as the buses hurtle past the already near stationary traffic using the bus service will become more and more compelling. Along with the management advancements more trips will be needed as demand increases, perhaps within days.” Morgan said.

“In particular the Cobham Drive roundabouts would be switchable between give way and bus priority traffic light control depending on the time of day and buses already have priority through most of the city it is a natural extension to have them get directly to the suburbs more easily.”

“With the dynamic bus lanes and extra passenger shelters there could be a huge increase in public transport use to and from the Eastern suburbs and perhaps both ideas will be useful across the country.” Morgan said.

Morgan admits that he’s no traffic engineer and is quite happy for his ideas to be held up to scrutiny. He also notes that Cobham Drive is part of State Highway 1 which is generally managed by Transit New Zealand and that airport traffic needs to be taken into particular consideration.

More on how Morgan will add to the council table can be found here and of course he would rather like the No.1 vote of Wellington’s Eastern Ward residents:- https://www.facebook.com/VoteThomasMorgan

© Scoop Media