Possibilities of ensuring urban public transport priority

Not only the opinions of experts point to the increasing number of cars in central areas of cities, but this fact is also perceived by the city residents themselves. They experience it every day when they move around the city. Congestion at the junctions and sometimes a total collapse of traffic cause substantial problems for urban public transport vehicles. It is not uncommon for an urban public transport vehicle to stand in a slowly moving queue of vehicles, transporting mostly two or three passengers. An urban public vehicle can transport several times more passengers and in this fact it is much more favourable for the city area. Delays of urban public transport vehicles deteriorate the quality of public transport, which is very important for the passengers. The article deals with the different ways of public transport priority which could be broadly categorised asphysical measures, traffic signal priorities, and integrated measures. These measures are used according to the need and the feasibility to provide them and can include with-flow lanes, contraflow bus lanes, bus only streets, priority at traffic signals and integrated measures such as queue-relocation and virtual bus lanes.