Buses World News: May 2011

BUS SYSTEM * USA - More Central Floridians are taking the bus

Lynx ridership up more than 10 percent. "People are looking for ways to save money"

(Photo by Gary W. Green/Orlando Sentinel)

Orlando,FL,USA -The Orlando Sentinel, by Dan Tracy -May 23, 2011: -- People are flocking to Central Florida's bus system, driven by a slowly improving economy and gas prices at nearly $4 a gallon... Ridership at Lynx is up more than 10 percent. If the trend continues, Lynx will top its record of 27.2 million passengers, which was set in 2008 — the last time gas spiked to almost $4 a gallon... The allure of buses is simple: With a one-way ticket costing $2, they are considerably cheaper than driving... Orlando's slowly rebounding economy also helps because more people have jobs, many of them in the lower-paying service and tourism sectors. Those people are more likely to take the bus... Lynx's most popular route — drawing 2.3 million people last year — goes from the downtown terminal to the International Drive tourist corridor...

Labels: bus system

PUBLIC SERVICES * Venezuela - Issues its first suspension to bus driver

Caracas,Venezuela -Land Line Magazine -19 May 2011: -- In Venezuela, a commercial bus driver’s license was recently suspended for 12 months. It was the first suspension since a law was enacted three years ago to punish unsafe drivers... According to Reuters, police stopped the bus driver, Ramon Parra, 41, for speeding. Police cited him for carrying more passengers than legally permitted and for missing a rear wheel, which was found on the floor inside... The maximum suspension for a driver’s license in Venezuela is five years for killing someone. Fuel costs about 12 cents a U.S. gallon, and prices have not been raised in years... (Image from travelpod: The boom box junk bus to choroni)

Labels: public services

BUSMAKERS' NEWS WORLDWIDE * Sweden / UK - Volvo and MCV launch London double deck bus

Gothenburg,Sweden / London,EN,UK -Road Transport, by John Challen -13 May 2011: -- The new TfL-specified Volvo B9TL double deck bus has been launched, marking the beginning of a new partnership agreement with Egyptian based bodybuilder, MCV Group... Volvo's low floor 10.3m B9TL is specified with a rigid low beam front axle. The bus is powered by a rear mounted Volvo D9B engine, which is rated at 260bhp or 310bhp dependent upon operator requirements... The new vehicle is also the first diesel double deck bus with a passenger weight of 68kg to achieve a 28° tilt during testing...

* Bangladesh - Ashok Leyland secures US$23m bus order

Dhaka,Banglasesh -AutomotiveWorld -May 26, 2011: -- Indian commercial vehicle manufacturer Ashok Leyland has secured an order from the Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) for 290 completely built-up (CBU) double-decker buses. The deal is valued at US$23.3m. This is the company's single largest order for double-decker buses from Bangladesh. The agreement was signed by the chairman of BRTC and Antony Lobo, special director – International Operations, Ashok Leyland... In the recently ended financial year, Ashok Leyland exported 10,306 CVs worldwide, a figure that was up 72% compared with the previous fiscal year. The company has, over the years, exported more than 9,500 vehicles to Bangladesh... (Photo from bargainbusnews: Bus Leyland Atlantean)

Labels: busmakers news worldwide

Personal Rapid Transit * UK - Debuts At Heathrow

London,EN,UK -All Transport, by Armin Rosen -May 5, 2011: -- Exciting news for utopian futurist transit wonks, as well as air travelers in London, Heathrow Airport’s personal rapid transit system, which will carry travelers from parking areas to the airport’s terminals, started passenger trials this week. Among transportation systems that are actually being developed and built somewhere in the world, PRT could be the most aesthetically and conceptually radical. A PRT system consists of driverless pods that seat 4-6 passengers and travel on a short, dedicated track. The track incorporates interchanges and cutoffs that allow a pod to bypass stations en route to its riders’ final destination—a PRT pod works a bit like a personalized subway train that only makes express stops...

Labels: future's transports

Urban Traffic Problems * USA - A silver bullet for

Some of the most valuable real estate in cities is hidden beneath parked cars ...

New York,NY,USA-CNNMoney, by Eilene Zimmerman -April 29, 2011: ... For managers of urban resources, this turf is a blind spot... There's no real-time data about how it gets used, and you can't manage what you can't measure. Experts believe that some 30% of urban traffic comes from cars hunting for parking spaces... Enter Streetline, a 30-employee company in San Francisco that creates and installs wireless sensor networks to monitor parking spaces. Each sensor uses a magnetometer to detect the presence of large metal objects nearby... The sensors communicate wirelessly, signaling whether spots are occupied or vacant, gradually collecting data to reveal local parking patterns. That information allows cities to price their parking spaces according to their actual value, factoring in supply and demand as they would with any other piece of real estate... With that data, cities can both help ease congestion and boost their meter revenue... More cities are coming around to his way of thinking. During its first four years of business, Streetline closed only two deals. In the past six months, it closed six of them... (Photo from money.cnn: Lower East Side Seniors Home Eyes Seward Park Lots SPURA: Parking)

Labels: traffic troubles

Bus Ridership * USA - As Gas Prices Rise So Does Ones

Inter-city bus ridership continues to climb

New York,NY,USA -Transportation Nation, by Alex Goldmark -May 2, 2011: -- Ahead of the busy summer travel season, inter-city bus ridership continues to climb despite the trio of recent crashes in the Northeast... Robert Schwarz, Executive Vice President of Peter Phe said, “it’s definitely increasing and we’re very optimistic for where it’s going to go this summer.” He added of rising gas prices, “it’s very good for the intercity bus industry” because travel is a discretionary item and habits can change with relative costs... With gas over $4 a gallon, filling up the tank to go to Washington, D.C. can cost $60. You can get three bus tickets for that... MegaBus has been expanding fast in the past few years, so it’s hard to tell how gas prices might affect growth. Dale Moser, COO of MegaBus, said, that comparing ridership to this time last year on the same routes, the growth is “significantly greater” than projected, adding some of that “has to be somewhat related to gas.” He cautioned, they do not ask riders to give the reason they choose the bus over driving when the buy a ticket... (Photo from t3.gstatic: MEGABUS - SkyscraperCity )

Labels: Bus riders