Bus Rapid Transit

Chokepoints as Traffic Meters and Transit Opportunities

Posted on January 6, 2010 in Bus Rapid Transit, Seattle

My post on the strategic value of chokepoints, using the example of chokepoint-rich Seattle, led to an interesting comment thread at the Seattle Transit Blog. As often happens, discussion quickly turned to my references to rail and Bus Rapid Transit, as readers argued over whether my real agenda was to advance one of those modes.

As regular readers will know, it’s rarely that simple. But chokepoints do point to an advantage for Bus Rapid Transit if you’re trying to do things cheaply. That advantage is that a chokepoint that affects private vehicle traffic is effectively a kind of traffic meter. In our* work for Seattle Dept. of Transportation in the mid 00s, for example, we noticed that congestion was actually worse at the chokepoints around the edges of downtown than right in the center of downtown. The chokepoints were restricting the rate of flow of vehicles so that they couldn’t congest the core, exactly the way a system of freeway ramp meters can limit congestion on a freeway. Continue Reading →

Bus vs Rail, an “Oversimplified Comparison”

Posted on December 12, 2009 in Atlanta, Bus Rapid Transit, Downtowns, Minneapolis – St. Paul, Philosophy, Pittsburgh, Portland, Rail Transit, San Antonio, San Diego

Planetizen points out a new paper by Jeffrey R. Brown and Gregory R. Thompson of Florida State University, called “Bus vs. Rail: an Oversimplified Comparison.” From the abstract: Continue Reading →

Include Bus Rapid Transit on Rapid Transit Maps?

Posted on December 2, 2009 in Branding, Brisbane, Bus Rapid Transit, Maps

Most large transit agencies have a map that shows just their rapid transit services, which are usually rail. One good test of how an agency thinks about bus rapid transit is whether they include it on their rapid transit maps. Los Angeles County MTA’s rapid transit map, here, does include the Orange Line, which is exclusive right of way but is hampered by signal delays. But they don’t show their non-exclusive Metro Rapid product at this scale, which makes sense to me. Continue Reading →

North of Seattle: Snohomish County’s “Swift” Bus Rapid Transit

Posted on November 29, 2009 in Bus Rapid Transit, Seattle

If you think on-street Bus Rapid Transit can never be acceptable, have a look at the new “Swift” project in Snohomish County, the suburban area north of Seattle. The local agency, Community Transit, has a slick but very informative presentation, including a great video, here. People who think BRT can never be good transit really need to watch the video. It’s definitely a sales pitch, but it gives a good overview of the system and shows some of why BRT projects have such appeal, especially in outer-suburban areas where densities don’t support rail, at least not yet. Continue Reading →

Bus Rapid Transit: Some Questions to Ask

Posted on November 26, 2009 in Branding, Bus Rapid Transit, Philosophy

There’s been lively comment on the last several posts about Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), including its recent history in America and elsewhere, the usefulness of the term, and the suspicions that it raises.

Still, “Bus Rapid Transit” is not going away. So as you consider new BRT proposals that arise in your community, possibly as alternatives to a rail project that you’d prefer, here’s a wise bit of advice I was once given about conversing with people who have differing viewpoints and incomplete information:

Don’t state a judgment. Ask a question. Continue Reading →

Bus Rapid Transit and the Law of Multiple Intentions

Posted on November 24, 2009 in Branding, Bus Rapid Transit, Language

In recent posts on Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) I’ve been dealing with the widespread feeling among US transit advocates that BRT proposals are designed to serve the interests of people who want transit to be cheap to build and don’t care whether it works. But of course, there’s a contrasting stream of intention also built into BRT, well described by commenter Alexander Craghead: Continue Reading →

Bus-Rail Debates in a Beautiful Abstract City, and in Los Angeles

Posted on November 20, 2009 in Bus Rapid Transit, Los Angeles, Rail Transit

On a recent post, commenter Pantheon laid out the core idea that explains why I cannot be a full-time rail booster, even though I love riding trains as much as anyone:

The problem can be posed in the abstract in the following way. Let’s
say we have a city with 20 neighbourhoods, A-T. Our city has a big
deficit in transit infrastructure, and limited resources for redressing
it. We have X dollars to build infrastructure, which is enough to do
one of the following things:
Continue Reading →

Bus Rapid Transit Followup

Posted on November 19, 2009 in Brisbane, Bus Rapid Transit, Language, Los Angeles, Ottawa

I’ll pull together a response to feedback on the controversial Brisbane busway post in the next few days, but meanwhile, Engineer Scotty asks a good clarifying question:

Part of the problem with BRT [Bus Rapid Transit] acceptance in the US, is [that] most visible BRT systems … tend to look and act like rail-based metros. In the US, we speak of BRT lines–the Silver Line in Boston, the Orange Line in LA, EmX in Eugene, OR–and so forth. The busses which run on BRT are different than the local busses (different branding, different route nomenclature, different fare structures, rapid boarding, longer station spacing, nicer stations, proof-of-payment or turnstiles rather than pay-the-driver-as-you-board)–
Continue Reading →

Brisbane: Bus Rapid Transit Soars

Posted on November 16, 2009 in Brisbane, Bus Rapid Transit, Ottawa

If you’ve never been to Brisbane, Australia, you’ve probably never seen Bus Rapid Transit done at the highest standard of quality in a developed country. Only Ottawa comes close.

In the US, in particular, a generation of activists has been taught that Bus Rapid Transit means inferior rapid transit, because there’s no will to insist on design choices that protect buses from delay as completely as trains are usually protected. Continue Reading →

The March of the Centipedes: Amsterdam’s Bus Rapid Transit Line

Posted on October 1, 2009 in Amsterdam, Architecture, Bus Rapid Transit

Throughout the Thredbo conference on transit competition in Delft, Netherlands last week, the various Dutch speakers and hosts managed to keep up a continuous theme of national self-reproach. The message was something like: “We know everyone thinks we’re the closest thing to an urban transport paradise on earth, so the best service we can offer is to show you all the ways that even we can screw up.” The conference began with a plenary presentation by Hugo Priemus of the Delft University of Technology on collusion and price-fixing in the Dutch construction industry, and wrapped up with a study tour that included the Zuidtangent Bus Rapid Transit system, giving particular emphasis to its most embarrassing feature.

Continue Reading →

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