Why don't you try and sell it a little harder...
The bus lines are designed to imitate light rail systems used in other cities. Many parts of the route have dedicated bus-only lanes and the buses will stop at raised platform stations, where passengers will buy tickets before boarding. “We’ve had a lot of discussion in this valley about light rail. This is the closest thing we can bring for the cost of a bus,” Snow said. “It is really a train-on-tires concept. It’s designed around the light rail concept. It looks like it’s a train.”
Total references to superior transit to the bus they are building in the article: 9 I'm not going to say whether this corridor should or shouldn't have had light rail over BRT. But it seems to me that people might be disappointed when they don't get the train you're promising.
9 comments:
Ridiculous. At least they have the stones to say they're doing transit on the cheap. I have no idea what the area looks like demographically though. It could be the density just isn't there right now for rail.
The good news is I'm sure someone has been thinking about this system with the intent of eventually turning it into light rail. You don't rework a BRT system these days without at least considering how it could be converted to rail.
Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is an oxymoron.
BRT is a joke. I was reminded these past two days with the Red Line on the Metro being closed due to the tragedy that one bus holds half as many people as one Metro car. The difference is that you can put 8 Metro cars together. A BRT system, even if it's designed with its own right of way, can't possibly move as many people as a train.
The key word is "imitate". Like a model imitates the real thing.
How can BRT realistically be "eventually" converted to LRT anyway? It's more of a cheap imitation and a cheap trick. (Apologies to fans of Cheap Trick.) I'll try to sound like a certain Simpsons character here: Haw haw!
Oh, and in the past hour was my sister's high school graduation. Today is a hot day in Ottawa. BRT is just a cheap imitation.
Finally, my condolences to the victims of Monday's Washington Metro disaster and to their families.
Left out a question: What's the point of the title of this posting? I'm curious. :)
It's an expression. "Being Close only counts in Horseshoes and Hand Grenades"
Shotguns too!
OT:
http://www.infrastructurist.com/2009/06/22/11-beautiful-train-stations-that-fell-to-the-wrecking-ball/
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