To look for a specific item then please use the search facility by clicking here

External environments

5.23 Bus shelters

Whenever possible bus shelters should be primarily made of transparent glass and illuminated at night. Shelters open to public gaze are perceived as safer places for waiting passengers, especially vulnerable people. Shelters which do not hide them are less attractive meeting or hobby places for children, youths and vandals. Transparent shelters are particularly important in those areas where Close Circuit Television surveillance has been installed to combat crime and vandalism.

Combining bus shelters with commercial advertisements or public telephones - provided these do not have priority over bus service information - reduces costs and facilitates lighting at night, thereby reducing passengers' fears of assault. Any shelter without lights should be sited in open, well lit areas. Shelters should be designed and sited to provide maximum weather protection, bearing in mind the prevailing winds and the need for protection, from being splashed by passing vehicles. Waiting passengers must have a clear view of approaching buses, and be
themselves clearly visible to bus drivers and passers-by. Shelters should provide a minimum obstruction to the pavement and have no projecting sections or sharp corners to provide a hazard to pedestrians.

Unglazed areas, or otherwise obscured areas of bus shelter sides, can be used to display timetables and service information. Glass walls should have a colour contrasting band 140mm to 160mm wide. Incorporating a logo at a height of about 1500mm from the ground, which partially sighted people can see, will help avoid injury from walking into the glass. Shelters should be easy to clean, receive regular inspections, cleaning and maintenance, and if damage occurs it is cleared up and repaired quickly.

Bus pull-in provision

There are four types of roadside stops allowing buses to pull up:

parallel to pavement kerb
into a dedicated lay-by, allowing traffic to pass in nearside lane while passengers are boarding or alighting
into a shallow echelon shaped lay-by clear of traffic lanes
alongside a section of paving, called a Bus Boarder or Bus Cape, extended into the nearside carriageway of the road.

Pavements should have standard kerb heights of 100mm above the roadway at the first three types of bus stop, but may be locally raised on the roadside edge of a Bus Cape. There should be a dropped kerb within 20m of any bus stop.

Kerbside bus stops

These are the most common type. Whenever a route is registered to traverse a previously unserved road or street, the local Highway Authority in consultation with police and the operator choose a place where a bus can stop. This will be near to where passengers are likely to be coming from or going to, but where a parked bus will not create danger for other road users, and the bus stop will not cause an obstruction for pedestrians.

To pull up parallel and close to the kerb at the stop a bus needs to draw close to the side of the road and straighten out a good distance in front of it. A bus stop box marked in the road in white or yellow lines needs to be preceded by a KEEP CLEAR area.

Bus bays

It is impossible, without an extremely long bay, for a bus to pull-up parallel and close to the kerb, unless the front overhang of most front entry buses sweeps well over the kerb area prior to the bus straightening out parallel to the kerb. During peak traffic flows buses entering bus bays may have problems rejoining the traffic, so bus drivers do not use them at these times. Bus bays still have a role at timing points and crew change points.

Shallow echelon lay-bys

These are most useful where several bus stops are needed on a short section of street, to allow buses to leave in any order. The pitching between bus stops must be at least 18m. This type of layout permits a skilled bus driver to draw close and parallel to the kerb without sweeping pedestrians off it with the front or rearoverhang of the bus.

Bus Boarders or Capes

Bus Boarders are of most use when the inside lane of a road is permanently obstructed with parked cars. They prevent parked cars obstructing bus stops. Because buses always approach parallel to Boarders, it is possible to locally raise the pavements to 240mm above road levels along roadside edges to allow level boarding, provided slopes from original pavement kerb lines to Cape edges do not exceed 1 in 15. The actual height that the roadside edges of Capes can be raised depends therefore on the distance they protrude from pavements, and the local topography.

Boarders must be protected on their traffic approach flanks with crash barriers marked with chevrons to warn motorists, and with barrier rails up each flank.

Bus Capes lower road flow capacity and calm traffic, because all traffic in the inside through lane will stop when a bus stops. Capes could, however, be considered hazards if introduced on roads with little parking, and they should not be used on urban clearways.

Taxi ranks, Bus stops, Bus stop indicators, Seating Provision, Interchanges, Service information at bus stops

next part of fact sheet 5.19