The O-Bahn in Adelaide is a fantastic middle path between a light rail and a bus system. Its tracks allow very rapid transit but the buses that go onto the tracks can then come off of them and travel on any road too. An exceptional thing. Poo-Poohed at the time of course, in fairly typical Aussie fashion, but in truth an excellent system that I show to people whenever I go to SA with someone new and that I really enjoy travelling on.

Gem,

Watch out if you take any interstate visitors to Adelaide to try the O-Bahn, as South Australia breaches section 117 of the Commonwealth Constitution in not permitting seniors from other states to travel on it at the same price it charges South Australian seniors.

I think this is a wonderful idea, provided that I don't have to use them.
Even more important, is where these wondrous dedicated lanes are built. The claim that they are of such low cost to build leads me to believe that they are to USURP parts of existing roads, built, & paid for, by myself, & my fellow motorists.
I have been feeling, for some time, that our motoring organisations should be questioning the legality of governments taking our roads from us, for use in transit, & bus lanes, of very doubtful worth, for the majority of us, who have paid for them.
I would be happy to help fund a test case, if it could lead to a stop of these stupid ideas beeing transplanted to our young cities. They may work in old cities, but our dormitory cities, they all fail.
Very large sums of money, are spent, transporting small numbers of people, at huge cost to the majority.
Academic stupidity overflowing, after a nice study tour?

Too true Hasbeen, what a waste of OUR taxes. But why stop with public transport? What about all those layabout sick people in hospitals? I'm healthy, so why should MY taxes support those losers. Age pensions? Well I'm not old, so it is obviously a waste of my taxes. And don't get me started on all the subsidies for breeders and their brats out there....

Of course it isn't just buses that "USURP parts of existing roads, built, & paid for, by myself, & my fellow motorists". What about all those selfish damn pedestrians? Pedestrians just get in my way when I'm driving fast in my car. Get rid of 'em I say. If they're too stingy to buy a car they don't deserve a place on OUR roads. And those evil cyclists......

Yes, as Sydney's traffic grinds to a halt you and I will be proud to say that OUR taxes didn't get to pay for any plebs riding in smelly buses.

I don't think it is a combination of bus vs rail, I think it is more that they complement each other. We should also not get too carried away in comparing ourselves with European cities. Most European cities are quite small and are very densly populated. Many outlying "suburbs" resemble Singapores HDB farms instead of the aussie suburban sprawl.

Having a bus network which runs on it own roads not shared by other traffic is an interesting idea that I haven't encountered anywhere. Obviously the roads would be cheaper to make than rails and not having any trucks on these roads makes them cheaper to maintain. You'd have less passengers per driver but with smaller vehicles you'd need less security guards and ticket inspectors. Not sure about fuel economy vs rail but having many vehicles that can be densely packed (compared to heavy rail) could give a very flexible service.

For its financing I am a firm believer that public transport is a part of a cities infra structure that should not be privatised but subsidised by the state. I' hapily give back my tax cut for a working public transport system. Privatising rail has been a complete disaster with the accident rate and punctuality rates flying of the rails (pun intended). Many of the high paid cbd jobs rely on low paid jobs and everyone should be able to reach their workplace with relative ease.

Having a congestion charge like London or Singapore is not a bad idea either.