Smart Move best practice:

Flexible bus and coach lanes exist in various forms. They may be reserved for buses/coaches only during peak traffic hours or the direction of motion could change according to the main traffic flow. Such bus/coach lanes can be dedicated only to buses/coaches, or also to taxis and vehicles with more than two occupants.

Example: In 1992, Madrid introduced a 16 km flexible bus lane “BUS VAO” on a highway connecting the suburbs to the city itself. The bus lane consists of two sections. While the first section in the suburbs is for both buses and vehicles with more than two occupants, the second part, which is 3.8 km long, is only reserved for buses and coaches. The bus lane is reversible and functions according to the bigger traffic flow demand. (Morning: Suburbs-Madrid; After 14:00: Madrid-suburbs). More than 15 years of operation has proven “BUS VAO” to be an efficient service. With 21 routes, about 252 buses make use of the lane during peak hours. The share of people taking buses from the suburbs into the city centre increased from 17% in 1991 to 28% in 2007.

Find more best practices in Doubling the use of collective passenger transport by bus and coach – practical solutions.
French version to be published mid-March.
Please send your examples of business innovations and best policy initiatives to the IRU Secretariat (remi.lebeda[at]iru.org) which will be considered for the second edition of the study to be published in the second semester of 2010.