Easy, direct, adaptive: the bus networks of the future
More than 20 practitioners and policy makers took part in a study tour organised by the CIVITAS Thematic Group Collective Passenger Transport to learn from the experiences of Nantes and Barcelona.
Delegates from Barcelona, Parma, Reggio Emilia, Treviso, Burgas and the vesuvian town of San Giuseppe Vesuviano debated of bus network design and service operations in Nantes last 24th February 2015.
Hosted by Nantes Métropole and the local public transport operator SEMITAN, the study tour was a good opportunity to analyse in detail how the capital city of the Pays de la Loire region tried to transfer the key characteristics of their tram and Busway systems into the classic bus service. The result is the Chronobus system, a smart & high-frequency service built-up by combining practical and reliable solutions (Rfid bus priority signals, adaptive lanes, bus stops). Something that demonstrated to be very effective in favouring and securing quality of public transport. The group had also the opportunity to learn from the redesgin of the bus network in Barcelona, where the local operator TMB is implementing a new scheme that takes advantage of the hortogonal and diagonal roads configuration of the Catalan capital but is also intelligible and easy to use.
Materials of the study tour (presentations, minutes and photos) are available on the event's page @ http://www.civitas.eu/content/civitas-study-tour-nantes-rethinking-bus-…
Cities that are working at the redesign of their bus network can receive support and learn more from this activity by simply joining the Thematic Group @ http://www.civitas.eu/TG/collective-passenger-transport Â
