Bus bulb
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A bus bulb, also called a bus boarder, bus border, bumpout, bus cape, or a kerb outstand is an arrangement by which a
sidewalk A sidewalk (North American English), pavement (British English, South African English), or footpath (Hiberno-English, Irish English, Indian English, Australian English, New Zealand English) is a path along the side of a road. Usually constr ...
or pavement is extended outwards for a
bus stop A bus stop is a place where Public transport bus service, buses stop for passengers to get on and off the bus. The construction of bus stops tends to reflect the level of usage, where stops at busy locations may have shelter (building), shelters ...
; typically the bus bulb replaces roadway that would otherwise be part of a
parking Parking is the act of stopping and disengaging a vehicle and usually leaving it unoccupied. Parking on one or both sides of a road is often permitted, though sometimes with restrictions. Some buildings have parking facilities for use of the bu ...
lane. With bus bulbs or boarders, a
bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...
can stay in its traffic lane to discharge and pick up passengers, instead of having to pull over to the curb. The term bus bulb is prevalent in
North American North America is a continent in the Northern and Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea, and to the sou ...
usage, whilst bus boarder or bus border is used elsewhere. A bus bulb or boarder can be considered as a specific form of curb extension, although that term is more normally used to describe a sidewalk extension for the purposes of
traffic calming Traffic calming uses physical design and other measures to improve safety for motorists, car drivers, pedestrians and bicycle-friendly, cyclists. It has become a tool to combat speeding and other unsafe behaviours of drivers. It aims to encour ...
or other
traffic management Traffic management is a key branch within logistics. It concerns the planning, control and purchasing of transport services needed to physically move vehicles (for example aircraft, road vehicles, rolling stock and watercraft) and freight. Tr ...
purposes.


Benefits

Benefits include preventing buses from being delayed by having to pull back into traffic, reducing risk of
traffic collision A traffic collision, also known as a motor vehicle collision, or car crash, occurs when a vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, road debris, or other moving or stationary obstruction, such as a tree, pole or building. Tr ...
s, reducing pedestrian exposure in crosswalks (if provided at the same location), reducing sidewalk congestion, providing space for bus patron amenities including bus shelters, and
traffic calming Traffic calming uses physical design and other measures to improve safety for motorists, car drivers, pedestrians and bicycle-friendly, cyclists. It has become a tool to combat speeding and other unsafe behaviours of drivers. It aims to encour ...
. The protrusion also facilitates easier full length alignment of a bus entrance with a raised kerb stop, especially to allow level boarding in the case of
low-floor bus A low-floor bus is a bus or trolleybus that has no steps between the ground and the floor of the bus at one or more entrances, and low floor for part or all of the passenger cabin. A bus with a partial low floor may also be referred to as a l ...
es. Bus bulbs also retain more parking when compared to a bus stop located in a parking lane, as a bus stop so located requires run-in and run-out tapers. Together these tapers may take up as much space as the actual stop, requiring parking to be prohibited over a longer length of road than with a bulb, where cars can park immediately on either side of the bus stop itself.


Drawbacks

The main drawback is for cyclists. The narrowing of the road can create danger for cyclists if the design does not take their needs into account. Where more than one lane exists in one direction, modelling has shown that there is no additional delay overall for following drivers, since the buses have shorter dwell times (there is less time spent pulling back into traffic) and since following vehicles may use the second lane for passing.


Tram and streetcar bulbs

Some
tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...
and
streetcar A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include s ...
systems use similar bulbs, such as the
Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
tram network, the Hongkong Tramways, the Melbourne tram network and the
Toronto streetcar system The Toronto streetcar system is a network of eleven tram, streetcar routes in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). It is the List of North American light rail systems by ridership, third busiest light-rail s ...
. The latter, which operates mostly on traditional streetcar tracks in mixed traffic with cars, and has frequent request stops similar to bus routes, is introducing bulbs at some high-traffic stops and transfer points that have been recently renovated, notably on
Roncesvalles Avenue Roncesvalles Avenue is a north–south minor arterial street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It begins at the intersection of Queen Street West, King Street (Toronto), King Street West and the Queensway running north to Dundas Street, Dundas Street ...
. The first bulbs (called bumpouts locally) along Roncesvalles Avenue also accommodate cyclists, as the bike lane running parallel to the streetcar tracks would gently rise up from the road level to run on top of the bumpout. When the streetcar is boarding, cyclists have to stop behind the yellow line to allow riders on and off. There are three expected goals for these bulbs: *Prevent vehicles from parking in front of streetcar stops. *Increase standing room on the often restricted sidewalks at stop locations in some of the densest regions of the city. *Improve safety for passengers boarding and alighting at these stops; unmodified stops require passengers to step into traffic to board/alight. The safety concerns are mostly with regard to drivers who are inexperienced at driving among streetcars in mixed traffic. Streetcar bulbs may also be beneficial at higher-capacity stops along other streetcar routes, and may be rolled out in conjunction with longer streetcars on the route. These bulbs are also featured in the westbound of Johnston Road, as well as southbound Percival Street and westbound Catchick Street in Victoria City, Hong Kong Island, on the Hongkong Tramways.


See also

* Bus turnout *
Bus lane A bus lane or bus-only lane is a lane restricted to buses, generally to speed up public transport that would be otherwise held up by traffic congestion. The related term busway describes a roadway completely dedicated for use by buses, whilst ...
*
Bus stop A bus stop is a place where Public transport bus service, buses stop for passengers to get on and off the bus. The construction of bus stops tends to reflect the level of usage, where stops at busy locations may have shelter (building), shelters ...


References

{{Public transport, state=collapsed Bus stations Bus terminology Street furniture Road hazards Pedestrian infrastructure