On the road to public transport

The Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA) has an overall responsibility for ensuring that the road and transport sector develops in line with national transport policy goals. This sector responsibility does not release other authorities from their responsibilities, but means that NPRA shall act as a prime mover and coordinator in ensuring compliance with the transport policy goals defined in the national transport plan.

One of the goals requires ‘an increased commitment to sustainable transport in urban areas by investing more in public transport and facilitating use of walkways and bicycles’. Our task is to help clarify these goals and show how they can and should be implemented in practice. This involves operationalising the national goals for development of urban transport systems. One way of addressing the task has been to develop a national cycle strategy. It also involves developing and maintaining manuals, standards and tools for the planning and design of concrete, sustainable transport solutions in urban areas.

In this article, we will focus on three specific areas that NPRA is working on related to public transport and sustainable urban transport:

• Development and dissemination of knowledge, including research and development
• Physical arrangement of urban public transport priority measures
• Physical arrangement for users of public transport by means of universal design

Research & Development (R&D)

NPRA is devoting substantial financial resources and time to R&D, both at a regional and central level. In order to use these resources to enable us to see several problems in context, large R&D programmes have been set up. These four-to-five-year programmes each have a cost ceiling of approximately €2.9 million. One of these programmes relates to sustainable urban transport. The concrete result targets for this programme are sorted into three main areas – to develop tools and methodology adapted to the goal of more sustainable urban transport, to define and evaluate measures aimed at achieving sustainable urban transport and to implement R&D projects relevant to the topic of sustainable urban transport.

Benchmarking

In the focus area of tools and methods, we will develop a system for benchmarking sustainable urban transport in Norwegian cities and urban areas. It is important to view the environmental problem’s full life cycle in context, from drivers to political response or solution strategy. The methodological approach is based on what we refer to as the DPSIR model – Drivers, Pressure, State (the actual environmental problem), Impact (effect or consequences of the problem) and Response (political measures). Where appropriate, the methodology will be based on the indicator system of the UITP (International Association of Public Transport).

Based on an initial clarification of the DPSIR model for more sustainable urban transport, significant Drivers will be the city’s economy, trade and industry structure, revenues, localisation (housing and workplaces), population density and access to different transport resources (cars, public transport). Key Pressure factors will be CO2 and NOx emissions from vehicles, noise and accidents. State indicators will be travel behaviour and modal split (number of journeys and length), with cars, public transport, bicycles, walkways and the annual number of public transport journeys per inhabitant. Important Impact indicators are the amount of people exposed to noise and local pollution from traffic, and the implications of uneven allocation of transport resources. Political and social Response indicators are partly investments in transport infrastructure, the proportion of public costs for public transport, traffic control and parking restrictions, and – particularly important – coordinated land-use and transport planning. The benchmarking system is being developed by the Institute of Transport Economics (TOI) in cooperation with different administrative units in the Southern region of Norway.

Methodology for street planning

The transport system is a dominant and structuring element of towns and cities. Today, it is evident that transport routes in cities and urban areas have been planned and designed to provide better access for cars at the expense of other forms of transport. More appropriate street planning is vital if we are to achieve sustainable transport solutions – both for people and goods. A systematic methodology for street planning adapted to sustainable urban transport must therefore be developed and established in order to create a common understanding of what is involved in the design of a road traffic system in urban areas.

Development of different registration and analysis methods will be a key factor. It is important to use general and thematic ‘analyses of places’ side-by-side with functional and socio-cultural analyses.

Database of good practise

A database containing good examples of measures and solutions for promoting more sustainable urban transport will be set up. The aim is to develop a toolbox of measures and devices which may be relevant to implement in urban areas. The target group comprises planners and designers of transport solutions in cities and urban areas.

There are several national and international databases containing these kinds of measures and devices for promoting more sustainable urban transport. The challenge is to systemise effects and show how the measures and solutions can be simply adapted to local Norwegian conditions. NPRA’s own recommendations on sustainable urban transport, which are systemised in various ways in manuals and standards, will also be exemplified in the database we are developing.

Evaluating measures

In order to obtain new knowledge about good solutions to include in the database, we evaluate implemented solutions and measures. Ongoing and scheduled evaluations which are relevant to public transport are largely associated with bus priority lanes. In Trondheim, Norway’s third largest city, a political decision has been made to introduce a bus priority lane on the main road through the city. On some stretches, this bus priority lane will replace the normal car lane, while on others they will replace the high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane. The effects and the reaction of this in the public opinion are to be evaluated. We are also planning an evaluation of the current practice of allowing electric cars into bus priority lanes, as well as a feasibility analysis of allowing goods transport vehicles into these public transport lanes.

The bus priority lanes are an important element in our efforts. Next we will consider physical arrangement of urban public transport priority measures in general.

Priority to public transport modes

A survey of public transport users in Oslo revealed that frequency, regularity and punctuality are the most important parameters. The number of departures and punctuality are crucial determinants of customers’ overall satisfaction with transport services. Customers consider lower ticket prices less important than travel time (door-to-door).

Good public transport priority in the street and road network is important if customers are to be given the punctuality and regularity they want. Another factor is that by saving the costs of trams and bus queuing with other traffic, more departures could be run instead, thereby providing increased frequency. Viewed in context, the measures produce more passengers and better revenues which in turn could be used to produce more departures and more satisfied passengers.

In 2002, the Norwegian Parliament decided to use government budgets to allocate resources to improve urban public transport mobility in a special programme for Oslo. NPRA has been given responsibility for coordinating the plan based on the following measures:

• More resources for public transport bus and tram priority
• Green light for trams and buses when they approach traffic lights
• Priority for trams and buses on roundabouts
• Sharper control of car drivers with regard to public transport lanes
• Simpler access to clear tram lines of illegally parked cars
• NPRA must be given a higher opportunity to prioritise public transport, using signs, road markings and similar
• Separate signs clarifying lanes used by trams and buses
• NPRA’s manuals and road standards must be updated to address access for trams and buses

In line with the Ministry of Transport and Communications’ guidelines, close cooperation has been established between local authorities, administration companies, operating units and NPRA on planning and implementation of measures. The cooperation has been given a raised profile through two large projects.

Work is taking place systematically and in phases on measures of varying scope. The county administration has responsibility for financing and running public transport. With its specialist expertise, NPRA compiles manuals containing solution alternatives and makes direct investments in defined main lines to ensure higher speed of delivery. NPRA also seeks to ensure better conditions for buses on the main roads for which the government has responsibility, by building public transport lanes, creating good intersection solutions, priority in traffic lights and designing good bus and tram stops. Investigations show that not only public transport benefits from these initiatives; the business community and others who for various reasons continue to drive private cars, also benefit from a well functioning public transport flow.

Oslo accounts for between 55% and 60% of the on-going passengers in public transport in Norway. Oslo also has the most complex traffic situation and highest competition for use of a limited road network. NPRA and the city of Oslo have worked actively together to prioritise public transport. The results of the collaboration have been productive. Since 2003, public transport has taken market shares from car traffic. Each year the share of passengers using public transport has risen more sharply than the population, car ownership and car traffic. One in three vehicle journeys is now made on public transport.

Although Oslo has made good results, the target of a 20% reduction in travelling time which is the aim of the project, has not yet been achieved. However, we have found solutions which really work. To achieve the target, access for trams and buses must be prioritised even more consistently than is the case at present. This is particularly important in the central urban areas.Pressure on road use in Oslo is high and we see a major need for good centre plans which ensure better predictability, capacity and punctuality. The most important measure will be centre plans with separate lines for public transport. NPRA will support this using the measures we control, although we are well aware that land and road use policy is decided by local authorities.

A good public transport system used by large numbers of travellers is a prerequisite for achieving the goal of developing a vibrant, fresh and green capital city region. Records show that priority for public transport is no longer a phenomenon to Oslo alone; it is also a challenge for other major towns and cities. Consequently, experiences from the work in Oslo are to be transferred to other parts of Norway.

Universal design of infrastructure is an important goal

One of the principal goals for Norwegian transport policy is for the transport system to be more accessible to users, regardless of individual functional capacity. With this in mind, the NPRA Director General adopted a universal design policy in January 2008. Under the policy, the principles of universal design will be fundamental when the NPRA builds new infrastructure or upgrades existing infrastructure.

The challenges are enormous. Of the 65,000 tram and bus stops in the public transport system, only a few satisfy the universal design requirements. The authorities’ estimates show that it will cost between €1.4 billion and €2.3 billion to upgrade the existing infrastructure to a satisfactory standard. The upgrading operation must therefore be implemented over a long period of time, with local authorities, counties and the government addressing their own areas of responsibility.

There are different government measures. Firstly, the NPRA’s regions carry out concrete universal design work. The first phase is concentrated on improving the quality of the public transport system. This work has progressed furthest in the most densely populated urban areas. The concrete improvements in the system relate to different elements in the public transport system. These include:

• Improved information systems. Information is made simple and easy-to-understand for all travellers. This includes real-time information systems. Different loudspeaker systems, such as speaking beacons or sound domes (directional sound sources).
• Measures which give step-free access onto the public transport. This is the most widely used measure. Kerbs at stops are raised, to give them a platform height of 16-18cm. With modern buses, which can lower to 16-17cm, this gives step-free access.
• Placing of tactile indicators for the blind and partially-sighted.
• Placing of profiled kerbs such as warning or stop lines.

It is important for the measures to be implemented throughout an entire journey chain, so that the journey is more predictable for all travellers.

Secondly, to initiate and strengthen the infrastructure upgrading, there is a government grant programme available. Under the programme, local authorities and counties can apply for funding to upgrade the infrastructure in their own area of responsibility. This programme is administered by the NPRA. Each year, a government budget of €7.4 million is allocated to the programme. Counties and local authorities apply to the NPRA for a grant, and the NPRA then arranges measures which will ensure prioritisation of upgrading of entire routes. The grant programme will be evaluated in 2008-2009.

Thirdly, there is a major need for research and development in this area. Universal design in transport is a relatively new area of focus in the Norwegian transport sector and knowledge dissemination is an important instrument of the authorities. In 2008, NPRA is spending approximately €400,000 on research and development in the area of universal design. Projects include formulation of guidelines for universal design of roads, an analysis of road users’ opinions of universal design measures, an evaluation of grants and a literature study.