New bus terminal @ growing city

[BoneRattler]

Just wanted to show you guys the design of a new bus terminal they're planning on building in Leuven, a Belgian city I visit often.

http://www.g-2.be/, click "Projecten" and then click the second image on the second row.

Personally I find this fudgeing insane. Nothing wrong with the building itself imo, some new stuff is always welcome, but the busses have to cross eachother twice! Bycicle drivers have to ride alongside the busses when they are pulled over, creating a very dangerous situation.

To give you an idea of the amount of traffic the busses generate: At the moment 1300 busses pass that location. Even though the bus company denies this, unofficial sources claim that they intend to almost double that number! That's one bus every 20 seconds!

I don't have any numbers about the car traffic but at the moment it's relatively low. In the new design cars will not be allowed to circulate around the central building but will be able to drive into the Tiensestraat when coming from the station. To make this more understandable: Cars coming from the right will be able to pass the building to reach a street at the bottom of the map.

Extra pictures:

For a Powerpoint presentation of the new design as well as the other designs that were entered (and a crapload of text in Dutch), click here. And ow yeah, in case you were wondering...yes, the roof will be blue.

Your comments on this?

[wolfdawg54]

It looks pretty neat. How big is the actual structure going to be?

[BoneRattler]

I don't have any numbers on that but you might get an idea of size by looking at the biggest of the three pics I posted.

Anyway I think it kind of blows. Hooray for the bus terminal, but why do you have to create such a dangerous traffic situation for busses, cars and cyclists? It makes no sense and the other designs were by far safer then this one.

And I don't really like the idea of a blue roof either to be honest

The Belgian government has been doing research and planning on a Light Rail connection between the cities of Tervuren, Leuven and Brussels. In other words a cheap and fast way to travel between those cities, and a dangerous competitor for "De Lijn", the bus company that pretty much has a monopoly going on in all of Flanders. One of the proposed Light Rail-lines went right through the center of Leuven. By putting in a massive bus terminal there "De Lijn" is pretty much securing their monopoly position in the region.

[wolfdawg54]

Do you have pictures of the other options that they had. I would love to see them.

[BoneRattler]

Watch the powerpoint presentation for pictures of the other designs.

I especially like the one with two long rows of waiting roooms, since it's by far the safest of them all. Some modifications such as better shelter from the wind and sitting benches would be nice though.

[danteque]

no no no.

This modern buildning will ruin the beautiful street scene. It was so beautiful! They're going to ruin it! RUIN it I tell you! RUIN it!