wrote:
"Tom Anderson" wrote in message
h.li...
On Thu, 20 Nov 2008, Neil Williams wrote:

1. Allowing the bus the option to overtake and turn at traffic
lights (this is one of the best features of Dutch and German bus
lanes - basically the bus gets its own signal so it can pass in the
bus lane then turn right (left) across traffic).

Their left, our right, i take it? This sounds like a rather good
idea.

I haven't heard of own signals for busses, but I have heard over the
years that they are working on a system that would give priority to
busses at traffic signals.

It seems only to be talk, however, as I have never heard or seen
anything like that in actual practice.

There are numerous places in Greater London where traffic lights give buses
(usually taxis too) priority over other traffic. They generally take the
form of a traffic light on a short island between the bus lane and the
traffic lanes(s), with no stop line in the bus lane, and they occur just
before a traffic light controlled junction and are synchronised with it. For
most of the time that the main traffic lights are red, only bus lane traffic
can get to the main junction, then when the main junction is about to turn
green, all traffic is allowed to reach the main lights. So conceptually it's
the same as advanced stop lines for cycles.

Here's one in Seven Sisters Road on the northbound approach to Fonthill
Rd...
http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=...cl=1&encType=1

Here's one in South Lambeth Road just before you hit the Vauxhall one way
system.
http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=...cl=1&encType=1

Here's one in Harrow....
http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=...cl=1&encType=1

Here's one near the Ironbridge in Hanwell/Southall
http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=...cl=1&encType=1

This looks like another version even closer to the Ironbridge, although I've
never noticed this one on the ground, I found it now when I was looking for
a map of the other.
http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=...cl=1&encType=1

I think there are some in Walworth Rd and Camberwell Road, but they might be
too new to be on the photos. This is nowhere near an exhaustive list.