16 October 2006 1

16 October 2006 2

London Borough of Merton Transport Liaison

Robert PontinBorough Relationship Manager

Agenda

• Access to the bus network

• Road Congestion

• Bus Countdown

Access to the Bus Network

Access to the Bus Network

• All buses are low-floor vehicles (excluding Heritage buses on routes 9 and 15), which means that they are lowered to street level when the bus stops and the doors open.

• 50% of all bus stops in London are fully accessible. This rises to 56% in Merton.

• Floor level buses enable all customers, including wheelchair users*, people with buggies, people with assistance dogs and people with other mobility impairments to get on and off easily.

• * The wheelchair space on buses cannot take a wheelchair bigger than 70cm in width

and 120cm in length.

Scale of the Bus Network

Key Bus Indicators

1999/00 2008/09 Change

Bus passenger Journeys (m)

1296 2247 +73%

Bus-km operated (m)

348 478 +37%

Excess Wait Time

2.1 minutes 1.1 minutes -48%

Percentage of accessible low-floor buses

37%

(Mar ’00)

100%

(Dec ’05)

+5690 low-floor vehicles

New Bus for London

New Bus for London

Principal areas for discussion

Facilities for standees

Lighting levels

Location, designation & marking of priority seats

Seating spacing upper deck

Seat heights

Trims, colours, floor coverings

Handrails and hand poles layout and colours and finish

Step edge treatment

Bell push locations

Operation role & duties of conductor

Ticket reader locations

Guidance for Bus Drivers

Driver Training

• Driver Training is taken very seriously by TfL and is more comprehensive than the rest of the UK

• Drivers must take a BTEC qualification which is a bespoke vocational award unique to London

• All drivers must achieve the BTEC within their first year of service and undertake annual refresher training.

• Competence based award administered by Edexcel

• 40 hours’ worth of training

• 23,000 bus drivers in London

• At any one time 20,000 drivers are BTEC qualified

Monitoring of Service Standards

• Driving quality monitored by the Driving Standards Agency

• Year on year favourable trend

• Revamped Mystery Traveller Survey, focussed on:– Smoothness of ride– Interaction– Professionalism– Serving the stop

• Pilot scheme to encourage improved performance linked to bonus payments

Road Congestion

TfL’s Responsibilities

• Full operational responsibility for the Transport For London Road Network (TLRN – the ‘Red Routes’), consisting of:

• 4% (580km) of London’s total road length, but;• Carrying over 30% of its traffic, and;• Up to 40% of the total economic value (GVA) of traffic movement

across the city.

• Through the Traffic Management Act, a strategic responsibility for coordinating works and ensuring the free flow of traffic on the Strategic Road Network (SRN) – a further 500 km of Borough maintained and heavily trafficked major (‘A’) roads.

• Responsibility for the maintenance, management and operation of all of London 6000 traffic signals on all roads across London, and for the real time operational control of the road network through the London Streets Traffic Control Centre (LSTCC).

Policy vs. Operational Outcomes

MTS Policy Objective Key Operational Outcomes

• Efficient and reliable operation of the road network

1. Journey time reliability2. Signal junction efficiency

• Minimising the impact of roadworks and planned interventions

3. Disruption due to planned interventions

• Minimising the impact of unplanned events and emergencies

4. Disruption due to emergencies

& unplanned events

Journey Time Reliability

80%

82%

84%

86%

88%

90%

92%

94%

96%

98%

100%

00:0

001

:00

02:0

003

:00

04:0

005

:00

06:0

007

:00

08:0

009

:00

10:0

011

:00

12:0

013

:00

14:0

015

:00

16:0

017

:00

18:0

019

:00

20:0

021

:00

22:0

023

:00

09-10 P109-10 P209-10 P309-10 P409-10 P509-10 P609-10 P709-10 P809-10 P909-10 P1009-10 P1109-10 P1209-10 P1310-11 P1

Journey Time Reliability - Improvements

• Corridor Management Approach

• SCOOT Programme

• Pedestrian countdown

• Removal of unnecessary traffic signals

• Review of traffic signal timings

Signal Junction Efficiency

Before

After

Improvement

%age of occasions when vehicles clear traffic signals on first green phase

71.7%

77.6%

+5.9%

%age of occasions when pedestrians clear footway during green man phase

94.3%

94.6%

+0.3%

Disruption due to Planned Interventions

P109/10

P209/10

P309/10

P409/10

P509/10

P609/10

P709/10

P809/10

P909/10

P1009/10

P1109/10

P1209/10

P1309/10

P0110/11

Special Events-Planned 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 0 0 1 10 2Planned Utility 15 5 16 14 9 10 41 57 16 13 0 18 1 1Highway Authority -Planned Works 37 18 12 83 25 48 27 7 23 8 7 11 78 9

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Ho

urs

TLRN Duration (hours) of Serious & Severe Planned Events by Category

Minimising Impact of Planned Interventions

• Strengthening the Mayor’s Code of Conduct on Streeworks to improve coordination

• Delivering the London Permit Scheme

• Improving enforcement work to minimise disruption from planned roadworks

• Working with DfT to develop further legislative powers to incentivise reductions in the duration of roadworks

• Develop workathons/extended hours and 24/7 working/plating

Minimising Impact of Unplanned Events• Deploying Image Recognition

Incident Detection (IRID) camera technology

• Delivering better integration of police, traffic and bus operations through a combined Surface Transport and Traffic Operational Control Centre (STTOCC)

• Improving real-time public information to enable motorists to avoid disruption

• Development of real-time traffic modelling capability, to improve the effectiveness of incident responses

Bus Countdown

Bus Countdown

• Information (RTI) for ALL bus routes and bus stops across London’s network

• Information provided via fixed and mobile internet and SMS text message will secure access to bus RTI both at and away from a bus stop

• The Internet and SMS text message services are scheduled to be available in Q2 2011/12

• A new generation of 2500 on-street signs will by deployed within London complementing these services. The roll out of the new Countdown signs will start in Q2 2011/12 and will complete in 2012/13

Physical Signs

The new signs will:

• Utilise the latest technology to ensure easy readability and will adhere to the latest Disability Guidelines (LED signs, amber colour on black background)

• Be more flexible and adaptable to a wider range of situations

• All sign locations have been decided according to a stop selection strategy

New Information Channels

• Internet (fixed and mobile)

• Extends RTI beyond the stop environment and covers the entire network

• Will be a flexible service offering search facilities to find a bus stop by

– stop name or stop code,

– street name,

– post code or area.

SMS Text Service

The SMS text service will:

• Search by using a unique stop code displayed at the bus stop, which user texts to a TfL mobile number

• Enable visually impaired people to use Text to Speech facility available on phones

• Cost 12p/txt for reply in addition to standard network charge

The “Virtual” Sign

Disability Access

• TfL aims to provide a web service that is simple and easy to use

• Text to speech facility where available on phones

• Signs will utilise the latest technology to ensure easy readability and adhere to the latest Disability Guidelines

• TfL are actively pursuing a stop specific audio solution

• The final design of the new signs is currently being developed

• User Testing for all media delivery channels – SMS, Web and On-street Signs – will be undertaken prior to the launch of Countdown.

www.tfl.gov.uk