New bus lane operating hours from 1 April 2007

Motorists take note. From 1 April 2007, bus lane operating hours will be revised. To avoid intruding into the bus lanes, please note the following changes:

1. Full-day bus lane will be expanded to cover five new locations: Eu Tong Sen Street, Hill Street, Victoria Street, Bras Basah Road and Somerset Road/Penang Rd. [Post-note: For update on the expanded full-day bus lane scheme effective on 2 June 2008, please refer to here.]
   
2. Normal bus lane hours during weekday mornings will remain the same while the operating hours of the weekday evening period will be adjusted from 4.30pm-7.00pm to 5.00pm-8.00pm. Bus lane hours on Saturdays will no longer apply.

Kudos to LTA for their publicity effort. Information brochures and car decals were sent to motorists to inform them of the changes well in advance. In total, 600,000 information packets was sent to all registered vehicle owners, taxi companies and for distribution at selected petrol kiosks.

I have only one peeve about this: that the removal of bus lane operational hours on Saturdays should have come hand-in-hand with the implementation of five-day work week (which was adopted by almost all industries by early 2005).

For those who are a bit more nostalgic, bus lanes were first introduced in 1974 because "public buses using limited road space are to be given high priority", and "quicker turn around can effectively increase the carrying capacity of the fleet of public buses" (Straits Times, 20 Jan 1974). The scheme first started with bus lanes at 11 areas involving 20 roads, which were implemented in stages in the following order:

• 6 Feb: Robinson Road-Maxwell Road of Collyer Quay
  
• 22 Feb: Stamford Road-Bras Basah Road
• 15 Mar: Orchard Road-Stamford Road to Paterson Road
• 16 Mar: Collyer Quay-Connaught Drive
• 21 Mar: North Bridge Road-South Bridge Road-Neil Road-Cantonment Road
• 21 Mar: North Bridge Road-Bras Basah Rd to Crawford Street
• 4 Apr: New Bridge Road-Hill Street-Victoria Street from Outram Road to Bras Basah Road
• 4 Apr: Victoria Street-Kallang Road from Bras Basah Road to Lavender Street
• 20 Apr: Selegie Road-Serangoon Road from Dhoby Ghaut to Lavender Street
• 11 May: Jalan Besar-Bencoolen Street from Lavender Street to Bras Basah Road
• 20 June: Shenton Way from Raffles Quay to Maxwell Road
  

Back then, the penalty for other vehicles which enter or travel along the bus lanes were a maximum fine of $400 for the first offence and a $1,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months for a second or subsequent conviction.

Quite a hefty sum to pay!

Graphical illustration of the full day bus lanes implemented (effective 1 April 2007). [Source: LTA]

A motorist advisory plate along Bras Basah Road

1 April 2007 - Changes To Bus Lane Scheme

There will be changes to the bus lane scheme from 1 April 2007. The details are as follows:

Changes to the scheme:

i. Evening bus lane hours will be moved to a slightly later slot to reflect current traffic patterns which indicate that evening traffic volumes tend to peak around the 6.00pm mark. The Saturday bus lane hours will no longer apply at these locations, due to the lighter traffic volumes noted on Saturdays.

ADJUSTMENTS TO BUS LANE HOURS
Days	Existing Operation Hours	New Operation Hours
Mondays to Fridays	7.30am to 9.30am	7.30am to 9.30am (No Change)
	4.30pm to 7.00pm	5.00pm to 8.00pm >
Saturdays	7.30am to 9.30am	No Longer Applicable
	11.30am to 2.00pm
Indicated by a continuous yellow line

ii. The full-day bus lane scheme, currently in force from Mondays to Saturdays at Orchard Road since October 2005, will be extended to five new locations with very high bus and vehicle volumes.

EXTENDED FULL-DAY BUS LANE SCHEME
Days	Operation Hours	Locations
Mondays to Saturdays	7.30am to 8.00 pm	1) Eu Tong Sen Street (from Outram Road to River Valley Road , towards Kallang Road ) 2) Hill Street (from River Valley Road to Bras Basah Road , towards Kallang Road ) 3) Victoria Street (from Bras Basah Road to Lavender Street , towards Kallang Road ) 4) Bras Basah Road (from Prinsep Street to Beach Road ) 5) Somerset Road / Penang Road (from Clemenceau Avenue to Orchard Turn) 6) Orchard Road (from Scotts Road to Handy Road)* * Already in operation
Indicated by a continuous yellow and red line

As part of LTA's public education efforts to inform motorists of the upcoming changes in bus lane hours, 600,000 information packets have been sent out to all registered vehicle owners, taxi companies and for distribution at selected petrol kiosks.

By now, motorists should have received the information pack that contains an information brochure which explains the changes to the bus lane scheme and commonly asked questions in four official languages. A decal with the new bus lane hours is also included in the information kit. Motorists can place the decals on the windscreen of their cars as a reminder of the changes to the Bus Lane Scheme.

Source: LTA (28 March 2007)