Liverpool City Centre Traffic Issues

[iMarkeh]

RE: Liverpool City Centre Traffic Issues

(16/10/2018 13:55)mr t Wrote:  A shambles is a very good description. It was designed by Miserytravel to accommodate 20 buses per stand an hour, it did used to be even worse than now when it first opened, the number of buses using it, that is also why Sir Thomas Street stands were built as an "overflow" for Queen Square, so in effect there is 16 stops still, plus also obviously why the south services all got shafted with Hanover Street and stops on Great Charlotte/Elliot St. Thankfully a lot using stands 9-12 got moved out in 2008 as the queuing for the stands was hindering the inbound alighting services for years

If the queues for 9-12 were that bad in 2008, I think it would be great to hear why Merseytravel have got 2 empty stands on that side and are cramming all routes into stands 10 & 11 rather than spreading them out.
I think the stands overall can take 20 buses per hour. It's the road which can't take 160 buses per hour

Sir Thomas Street is a good little operation but there are far too many buses crammed onto stands. Stop SD regularly ends up with a bus on stand and another waiting to load which then blocks stand SC.
Stop SB has space to load 2 buses at the same time but only has 11 buses per hour. Stand SD has 17 buses per hour yet has only space for 1 bus to load.... Simply switching a stand could solve many issues on Sir Thomas Street.

Something else which has just surprised me is the amount of taxi ranks. I never noticed until I have looked more in depth at maps around Liverpool. Why are there so many taxi ranks? Get rid of these taxi ranks and make bus stops (or make it so that buses can use the streets). Taxis can be a great way for people to get home at night but between 7am and 7pm, there are so many taxi ranks which should be non operational or merged into bus stops so that it is a bus stop 7am-7pm and then a taxi rank from 7pm-7am.
Or, another alternative is build taxi ranks underground. Just go with me on this one, it sounds a little daft but that massive Dawson Street taxi rank, if that went directly under where it is now (With entry/exit through the delivery area), you could fit a good 2-3 bus stop islands or bus stands there. Even if you moved the Queensway Tunnel buses in there, you are looking at 17 buses per hour off Sir Thomas Street and they have layover points (to some extent. depending on how timings all worked) so not only are you removing traffic off Sir Thomas Street but also off Crosshall Street and Dale Street. It's like a win win for everyone. Taxis still get where they need to, more bus stands, less buses on busy roads.