16 October 2006 1

Robert Pontin
Borough Relationship Manager
16 October 2006 2

• Access to the bus network
• Road Congestion
• Bus Countdown

• 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.

15
10
5
0
30
25
20
2007/08 System Patronage (millions)

1999/00
Bus passenger
Journeys (m)
Bus-km operated (m)
Excess Wait
Time
Percentage of accessible lowfloor buses
1296
348
2.1 minutes
37%
(Mar ’00)
2008/09
2247
478
1.1 minutes
100%
(Dec ’05)
Change
+73%
+37%
-48%
+5690 low-floor vehicles

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

• 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

• 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

• 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).

MTS Policy Objective
• Efficient and reliable operation of the road network
• Minimising the impact of roadworks and planned interventions
Key Operational Outcomes
1. Journey time reliability
2. Signal junction efficiency
3. Disruption due to planned interventions
• Minimising the impact of unplanned events and emergencies
4. Disruption due to emergencies
& unplanned events

100%
98%
96%
94%
92%
90%
88%
86%
84%
82%
80%
09-10 P1
09-10 P2
09-10 P3
09-10 P4
09-10 P5
09-10 P6
09-10 P7
09-10 P8
09-10 P9
09-10 P10
09-10 P11
09-10 P12
09-10 P13
10-11 P1

Journey Time Reliability - Improvements
• Corridor Management
Approach
• SCOOT Programme
• Pedestrian countdown
• Removal of unnecessary traffic signals
• Review of traffic signal timings

Before
%age of occasions when vehicles clear traffic signals on first green phase
71.7%
%age of occasions when pedestrians clear footway during green man phase
94.3%
After
77.6%
94.6%
Improvement
+5.9%
+0.3%

TLRN Duration (hours) of Serious & Severe Planned Events by Category
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
P1
09/10
Special Events-Planned 1
Planned Utility 15
Highway Authority -Planned Works 37
P2
09/10
0
5
18
P3
09/10
0
16
12
P4
09/10
0
14
83
P5
09/10
0
9
25
P6
09/10
0
10
48
P7
09/10
0
41
27
P8
09/10
0
57
7
P9
09/10
10
16
23
P10
09/10
0
13
8
P11
09/10
0
0
7
P12
09/10
1
18
11
P13
09/10
10
1
78
P01
10/11
2
1
9

• 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

•
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

• 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

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

• 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
.

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

• 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 Onstreet Signs – will be undertaken prior to the launch of
Countdown.