Buses World News

In brief: Worldwide montly news & informations about Buses, Busmakers, Passengers' and the Transport Industry

16.5.10

LESS BUSES MORE BIKES ? * USA - LAS board to consider bus route change

(Flooding in Ludington, Michigan from katie barnes on Vimeo)

Ludington,MI,USA -The Ludington Daily News, by Kevin Braciszeski -May 15, 2010: -- Ludington’s out-of-town school bus routes could change from double runs to single runs next school year and bike trails may be built in the district’s school forest... Superintendent, Cal DeKuiper, has said the change will save the district $70,000 even if it buys two more used school buses. The change would reduce the district’s bus travel by 250 miles a day, or about 35 gallons of fuel a day for the 7-mile-per-gallon buses... In-town bus routes would stay the same with children in grades K-5 being picked up at neighborhood bus stops and students in grades 6-12 walking to Pere Marquette, Foster or Lakeview schools to catch buses to the high school/middle school complex... DeKuiper has also said the district will consider keeping younger children near the driver at the front of the bus and said the district may add cameras to all the buses...

Labels: bikes vs. buses, buses and bikes

23.1.08

"GREEN" DEBATE * UK - Bikes are 50 times more energy efficient than buses - so why displace bikes with buses??

Knowle,Bristol,UK -Bristol Evening Post's letters page/Vowles the Green in Knowle, by Glenn Vowles -22 Jan 2008: -- Given the recently announced plans to turn the most popular cycle route in the UK (from Bristol to Bath), with 2.4 million journeys per yr, into a major bus route, its well worth reminding ourselves of just how ultra-efficient, healthy and green that great piece of technology - the bicycle - is... Primary energy use in cycling amounts to just 0.03 megajoules per kilometre, nearly 50 times less than a single decker bus! Even walking, which consumes 0.14 megajoules, is not this efficient. The average for a car with average occupancy is 2.1 megajoules per passenger kilometre whilst domestic air travel is also 2.1 due to its higher occupancy rates... Public transport fares better with figures of 1.1 per passenger kilometre for the average rail (about the same as a double decker bus) and 1.4 for a single decker bus, depending on occupancy rates. The most efficient forms of public transport, such as London Underground trains or certain forms of tram might achieve figures as low as 0.2 megajoules when fully occupied - still no match for the bicycle... This makes the bicycle 70 times more energy efficient than the average car and 6 or 7 times more efficient than even the very best forms of public transport running under the most efficient conditions. So, in terms of efficiency its vital to invest much more in cycling and try much harder to create a cycling culture... More is also needed for public transport but not at the expense of cycling - the plans to turn the Bristol to Bath cyclepath into a bus route simultaneously cut the capacity for cycling and walking there as well as destroying a large amount of pleasant, quiet and wildlife-rich green space... We need a cycling culture for our health as well as our environment - a 10% increase in the number of people riding a bike regularly would lead to a 4% reduction in people with heart disease, saving hundreds of millions a year in healthcare. And it would create a more pleasant, greener environment...

Labels: bikes vs. buses

5.7.07

* USA - Bikes versus buses

USA -Pinch Flat News, by Pinchie (Hans Eisenbeis) -July 3, 2007: -- Among the advocacy crowd, buses and bikes are considered complimentary. Indeed, the more they play together nicely, the better off we all are; there's the whole "last mile" argument among commuters trying to make the break from the single-occupant automobile. That comes down to putting more bike racks on buses so people can string together their transportation methods to get to where they're going, not just in the general vicinity... But among hardcore urban cyclists, buses and bikes are more like Goliath versus David. Buses are big and slow, they send up volumes of noxious eyesting and lungburn, and they're constantly crossing into bike space. And that's when they're being nice...

Labels: bikes vs. buses