Monday, January 12, 2009

Why transit guys hate BRT


One of the traditional tools of transit opponents is the promise of Bus Rapid Transit. It is pitched a lot because there are no right of ways to negotiate, road infrastructure is loved by transit opponents and is considered "free" and it can be used to kill rail. Then of course no one funds the buses and infrastructure for the BRT system and many people hate to use buses. Mostly because they are fine for local trips but bad at being part of a longer distance backbone. Buses are also easy to kill by inches, keep the system, spread the frequency out and no one will use it because they can't get to their destination on the schedule they live and work with. Then kill the entire system due to lack of use. It is a standard ploy.

Openroads has a nice link to this being used in 1946 in Detroit, so classic. The funny thing is that so many people find BRT ideas new and innovative.

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