I've mentioned some of this before, but a radical overhaul of the bus network is clearly needed.
The chief things that annoy me are:
1. Buses having dedicated lanes except at the narrowest, most congested points. I recently got a bus from Swords Road, which made great time to the outskirts of town, but if I'd know in advance that I would be stuck in O'Connell St going nowhere for 15 mins, I'd have got off and walked.
2. Busses stopping every two minutes because stops are too close together.
3. Busses to outlying suburbs detouring through every little housing estate along the way.
4. Every stop adding five minutes to the journey because of a long line of people paying single journey fares.
5. Having to step out onto the road to board the bus because of out of service bus blocking the bus bay.
I will try to outline the broad ideas of how I would see an ideal bus system for Dublin working.
1. Remove all city centre termini, and make all routes cross-city.
2. Select a limited number of routes through the city centre and designate them as "super bus lanes" with the following features:
2.1. They would be relatively shory, extending perhaps 1km outside the city centre, but joining with a number of regular bus lanes.
2.2. Busses would always have priority over other traffic. If the road selected isn't wide enough for both, make that section busses only and divert cars away completly.
2.3. Bus stops would be approx 500m apart, and would have ticket machines and electronic displays showing the times for all busses calling at the stop. The ticket machines would also offer multi-mode tickets for changing to Luas or Train.
2.4. Busses would be prepaid only along the central sections to minimise wait times.
2.5. Drivers would not check tickets in central sections. Inspectors would rnadomly board busses in this section to catch fare evaders.
3. There would be a number of "hub" points at the intersections of these routes. This would be designed to make it as easy as possible to make connections.
4. There would be a single zone system, with fares based on the number of zones crossed. It should be possible to make as many changes as required to reach a destiantion on a single fare. This should be common with Luas and DART, though there could possibly be a "mode change" surcharge.
5. Having a limited number of routes through the city should considerably simplify the task of creating a single integrated public transport map for the city. Every bus stop should have an overall city map and a detailed map of the local area.
6. There should be substantial discounts on multi-journey and season tickets to encourage people to buy these tickets. Currently the incentive is very limited.
Perhaps this is too radical, but our current approach of minimal change is like trying to cure cancer with asprin. If i've missed anything, please add it to the list, or if any of my ideas are stupid, please set me straight.
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