NX coach stuck on Luton-Dunstable Busway

[TAS]

Why can't they just build a standard tarmac road, with central crash barrier, and have drivers steer? Surely a lot cheaper, and the road would still be reserved just for buses.

I don't get the need for the guidance bit, unless I'm missing something stupidly obvious.

I think I've seen it suggested that guided busways are useful on old railway alignments because old railways tend to be narrower than road alignments. As a result, if you want two buses to pass each other safely at speed without a guided system, you'd need to carry out more earthworks, rebuild more structures and acquire additional land. I'm prepared to be proved wrong on this, though.

 

[radamfi]

Why can't they just build a standard tarmac road, with central crash barrier, and have drivers steer? Surely a lot cheaper, and the road would still be reserved just for buses.

I don't get the need for the guidance bit, unless I'm missing something stupidly obvious.

The primary reason for guidance is to enable buses to travel at speed in a narrow space. It is quite hair-raising on the Cambridgeshire busway when two buses pass each other at 50 mph. Enforcement isn't such an issue these days as cameras can be used instead. Car traps prevent narrow vehicles using the busway. Car traps are also used in the Netherlands even though they don't use guidance.

 

[Welshman]

Moving on a little - does anyone know how they got the coach off?

 

[carlberry]

I think I've seen it suggested that guided busways are useful on old railway alignments because old railways tend to be narrower than road alignments. As a result, if you want two buses to pass each other safely at speed without a guided system, you'd need to carry out more earthworks, rebuild more structures and acquire additional land. I'm prepared to be proved wrong on this, though.

That's basically it. Rail tracks are less than 5ft wide, rail vehicles wider but tend to stay where they're expected to be. Buses are over 8 foot wide now and expect to operate with a bit of leeway if they're unguided. For comparision a standard motorway lane is 12ft wide.

 

[PermitToTravel]

I don't get the need for the guidance bit, unless I'm missing something stupidly obvious.

I wonder whether it's true that First Manchester disable the cruise control on their guided Volvos, to obviate the risk of a bored driver deciding to sit upstairs

 

[Lrd]

I wonder whether it's true that First Manchester disable the cruise control on their guided Volvos, to obviate the risk of a bored driver deciding to sit upstairs

First group in Southampton disabled the cruise control and kick down on all of their buses so would assume it's pretty much company wide.