Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Knew It Was Gonna Happen

I've been waiting for that day. The day when the Busway in Miami is handed over to the cars. We knew it was gonna happen...somewhere.
Now they might get their wish if county commissioners and other local elected officials approve a proposed plan to convert the Busway into -- among other alternatives -- a four-lane highway with express toll lanes where private vehicles would share the road with buses. The revenue would then be used to fund the cash-strapped county transit agency.
This is one of the things I fear with BRT boosterism, that eventually the road will revert to cars. To some degree my fears are unfounded, but this should give us caution.

9 comments:

Justin said...

So tragic, so expected. BRT is a crock.

Matt Fisher said...

They made this busway by paving over a rail line, and now this? As somebody who lives in Ottawa, where BRT is touted repeatedly, this proposal is an idea that I call half f**king bats**t insane. "Wowsers!" (Gadget tries to get the evil Dr. Claw!)

John said...

Shame to see this. 20,000 pax/day is pretty good for a busway, no?

Anonymous said...

Ottawa, oh you mean Autowa!

Anonymous said...

Gotta love Flori-DUH, which will be under water by the time its elected officials have even the slightest understanding of transit.

Anonymous said...

Happens all the time.

I-295 in Washington, DC was built with what I *think* may have been the first exclusive busway on an Interstate in America.

... Then car drivers complained, so VDOT opened up the busway to HOV.

... Then SOV drivers complained, so now the HOV is being converted to HOT.

What was originally built as a busway at great taxpayer expense has slowly been degraded over time. Now we're giving it away to a private firm so they can put as many SOV cars on it as they want.

BEWARE.

Jon said...

happened to the el monte busway too

Matt Fisher said...

This is like dumbing down. First it's a rail line used solely by freight trains, then it becomes a busway, and now it's going to become a HOT lane? How long will it be before it becomes open to general traffic? And they say BRT can do everything rail does "at a fraction of the cost". It should have been rail from the start.

Jon said...

forgive me if this has been posted...


new plans for congestion pricing on the 110 and 10 freeway carpool lanes (harbor and el monte busways)...
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-tollway9-2009jun09,0,7960912.story

more proof and less than a week from the miami proposal... exactly the degression beyonddc mentioned