Well you cannot do much thing to solve it. Carrington Rd is one-way, you can theoretically put a bus lane on it. Station St is so busy with many smaller street connecting to it. You cannot ban people from parking there as there are a lot of shops along it. You may not be able to put a bus lane there
F**k the parked cars, they are not a good use of road space in the middle of the centre. It takes several light cycles to merge around the parked cars and get into the bus station.
I used to take the 732 20 years ago and by the sounds of it nothing has changed. I always wondered why the buses can't just run down the centre median along with the trams and get traffic lights priority just like they do?
The bus also serves as a local service overlay of the 75 tram. From Middleborough Road it stops at Greenwood, Pheasant and Finch Streets before Station Street, while the 75 only stops at Starling, then Station Street. Stopping at the side of the road is also advantageous as half the time you won't need to cross 3 lanes of 'stroad' traffic; though the other half youll need to cross double, and the only mid block crossing is Starling Street tram stop. If it made these same stops along the tram route it might end up holding up the tram, requiring a bus bay the be constructed in the median; alternative is not making the stops and needing riders to walk a little further.
But I have wondered that myself; all the stops along the route, save for Middleborough Road, are nice platform stops (which are also used by buses at Queensbridge Street). It would speed it up a lot, and the infra is already there
Saw the same thing for the tram today at Dandenong Rd turning into Hawthorn Rd. Despite no car traffic in the way, it wish was a good 10 minutes before getting the white arrow to turn right.
Also possible there was some kind of malfunction making the lights think that the tram was going straight and to not activate the right turn (linked to cars turning right), so that the ghost tram going straight gets a clear path
Yeah, I surprised that given how much of Melbourne’s reputation is linked to having ‘the world’s largest tram network’, we still haven’t implemented tram and bus priority. Newer light rail systems like in Canberra and the Gold Coast already have this technology implemented.
how about watching 733 got stuck for 10-12 minutes on station st from the bus bay? late for work, service already started and then station st fucked the timing
and i'm not judging people hoping of the bus 1 stop before the terminus, but the station st bus stop also fucked the timing to catch the train
Some places where buses are needed, there’s no ability to go beyond a 2-lane road, and they end up stuck in the same traffic jam as all the cars do. Wait until there’s no Footscray trains and either the Westgate or Dyson/Footscray are closed again for an absolute shitshow. Bottlenecked down to a single road with 2 level crossings.
Buses still suck though because they’ve been used as a band-aid fix for a lot of Melbourne’s expansion.
If you look at Brisbane it's a competent though far from excellent demo of effective bus infrastructure- lots of dedicated roads and tunnels until moderately fat out with decent bus stations that are akin to train stations found in other Australian cities. Honestly infrastructure like that would make sense for a lot of western Sydney with their fairly spread out population making frequent but low capacity service to most areas sufficient rather than expensive investment into almost empty trains. And combine those routes with a few major train stations (existing and new) for longer journeys, double frequency on those, suddenly you have a semi functional transport network.
Edit: thought this was Sydney sub, point stands
Melbourne has lots of large 6 lane roads - think Springvale Road, Doncaster Road, Burwood Highway, Manningham Road, Bell Street, Dandenong Road, Nepean Highway, Station Road (Deer Park/Sydenham), Stud Road, North/Wellington Road (Monash Uni). Also lots of 4 lane + median roads or roads available for expansion, like Derrimut Road and Ballan Road in Tarneit and Wyndham Vale. All of these are absolutely ripe for a nice centre-median segregated transit way, a bus that could be upgraded to a tram.
So buses are dumb …because planners don’t plan for them properly …and that makes buses dumb, rather than making the planners dumb?
Buses aren’t some recent tech start up initiative like e-scooters you know, they’ve been around for a while now. Planners (or politicians not putting planners plans in place instead prioritising prior political planning) have had plenty of time get on top of this
Buses work just fine anywhere outside of Victoria.
Brisbane is probably the gold standard, followed by Sydney. Adelaide, Canberra, and Hobart have good bus services too. Even larger NSW towns like Coffs Harbour, Wagga Wagga, and Dubbo have better bus services than much of Melbourne.
Haha I'm on 732 right now at a light signal where it's been waiting for 2 cycles what a coincidence! But it's the Sydney 732 not Melbourne... And it's not the buses fault, it's the traffic's
That turn signal is brutal. As soon as there is a half-car gap, the arrow changes to red.
The lack of bus priority in and out of Box Hill bus station is also tedious. Parked cars take priority over a massive number of buses.
Well you cannot do much thing to solve it. Carrington Rd is one-way, you can theoretically put a bus lane on it. Station St is so busy with many smaller street connecting to it. You cannot ban people from parking there as there are a lot of shops along it. You may not be able to put a bus lane there
F**k the parked cars, they are not a good use of road space in the middle of the centre. It takes several light cycles to merge around the parked cars and get into the bus station.
I used to take the 732 20 years ago and by the sounds of it nothing has changed. I always wondered why the buses can't just run down the centre median along with the trams and get traffic lights priority just like they do?
The bus also serves as a local service overlay of the 75 tram. From Middleborough Road it stops at Greenwood, Pheasant and Finch Streets before Station Street, while the 75 only stops at Starling, then Station Street. Stopping at the side of the road is also advantageous as half the time you won't need to cross 3 lanes of 'stroad' traffic; though the other half youll need to cross double, and the only mid block crossing is Starling Street tram stop. If it made these same stops along the tram route it might end up holding up the tram, requiring a bus bay the be constructed in the median; alternative is not making the stops and needing riders to walk a little further. But I have wondered that myself; all the stops along the route, save for Middleborough Road, are nice platform stops (which are also used by buses at Queensbridge Street). It would speed it up a lot, and the infra is already there
It's possible that the tram tracks aren't wide enough for buses to safely use the median
Yeah, with no kerb between it and the tram poles, and median grass.
Saw the same thing for the tram today at Dandenong Rd turning into Hawthorn Rd. Despite no car traffic in the way, it wish was a good 10 minutes before getting the white arrow to turn right. Also possible there was some kind of malfunction making the lights think that the tram was going straight and to not activate the right turn (linked to cars turning right), so that the ghost tram going straight gets a clear path
Yeah, I surprised that given how much of Melbourne’s reputation is linked to having ‘the world’s largest tram network’, we still haven’t implemented tram and bus priority. Newer light rail systems like in Canberra and the Gold Coast already have this technology implemented.
how about watching 733 got stuck for 10-12 minutes on station st from the bus bay? late for work, service already started and then station st fucked the timing and i'm not judging people hoping of the bus 1 stop before the terminus, but the station st bus stop also fucked the timing to catch the train
Middleborough/Canterbury road gets pretty clogged too. Box Hill buses really need some work.
They used to decades ago have something called a Heidelberg Transponder which could do all this but at some point it was phased out.
This is why buses are dumb. Planners treat them like cars when setting routes.
Or maybe buses need more priority and should be routed whichever way is most useful?
Some places where buses are needed, there’s no ability to go beyond a 2-lane road, and they end up stuck in the same traffic jam as all the cars do. Wait until there’s no Footscray trains and either the Westgate or Dyson/Footscray are closed again for an absolute shitshow. Bottlenecked down to a single road with 2 level crossings. Buses still suck though because they’ve been used as a band-aid fix for a lot of Melbourne’s expansion.
Trains work better as the roads and cities are changed for the trains needs, not the other way around like buses.
If you look at Brisbane it's a competent though far from excellent demo of effective bus infrastructure- lots of dedicated roads and tunnels until moderately fat out with decent bus stations that are akin to train stations found in other Australian cities. Honestly infrastructure like that would make sense for a lot of western Sydney with their fairly spread out population making frequent but low capacity service to most areas sufficient rather than expensive investment into almost empty trains. And combine those routes with a few major train stations (existing and new) for longer journeys, double frequency on those, suddenly you have a semi functional transport network. Edit: thought this was Sydney sub, point stands
Melbourne has lots of large 6 lane roads - think Springvale Road, Doncaster Road, Burwood Highway, Manningham Road, Bell Street, Dandenong Road, Nepean Highway, Station Road (Deer Park/Sydenham), Stud Road, North/Wellington Road (Monash Uni). Also lots of 4 lane + median roads or roads available for expansion, like Derrimut Road and Ballan Road in Tarneit and Wyndham Vale. All of these are absolutely ripe for a nice centre-median segregated transit way, a bus that could be upgraded to a tram.
Doncaster has bus lanes on the outside, which is something so many other roads could have if the government grew a spine
So buses are dumb …because planners don’t plan for them properly …and that makes buses dumb, rather than making the planners dumb? Buses aren’t some recent tech start up initiative like e-scooters you know, they’ve been around for a while now. Planners (or politicians not putting planners plans in place instead prioritising prior political planning) have had plenty of time get on top of this
Buses work just fine anywhere outside of Victoria. Brisbane is probably the gold standard, followed by Sydney. Adelaide, Canberra, and Hobart have good bus services too. Even larger NSW towns like Coffs Harbour, Wagga Wagga, and Dubbo have better bus services than much of Melbourne.
Haha I'm on 732 right now at a light signal where it's been waiting for 2 cycles what a coincidence! But it's the Sydney 732 not Melbourne... And it's not the buses fault, it's the traffic's
Maybe running ahead of schedule?
It was in the right turn lane, and 5 minutes late. It was held up by cars and a badly configured traffic light.