You may know him as the sex columnist at the back of The Straight. But Dan Savage is really the Editorial Director of The Stranger, Seattle’s Straight equivalent, only way less straight.
And he’s a poster on their blog, The Slog. Where he opines on issues like, well, the city’s so-called Bus Rapid
Transit (BRT) line: “There is no real public transportation without dedicated lines.” It’s not pretty.
Another Slogger weighs in here: Why Bus Rapid Transit Won’t Work, At Least Not Here.
It’s unfortunate that we have this common association between slow speeds and BRT when the real cause is a low quality right of way.
Perhaps there should be industry standards for what can be considered BRT. That would make it harder to politically water-down plans for rapid transit service to service levels that are no better than regular mixed-traffic buses.
With common metrics, taxpayers would more accurately be able to know what to blame- the technology, or the implementation.
Chris Y “It’s unfortunate that we have this common association between slow speeds and BRT when the real cause is a low quality right of way.”
It’s even more unfortunate when Vancouver’s TX director is still thinquing in the 20th century . . .
“Vancouver’s transportation director has declared that a $2-billion tunnelled SkyTrain along Broadway is the only workable city option.”
The only one . . . huh!
This is an unfortunate, but predictable, move on the part of Mr. Dobrovolny.
Is this really the ” . . . only workable city option “? Indeed if it is implemented it will, at C$@2bn (and we can double that by the time it is up and running), ensure the city’s 20th century status well into the future.
This will make the Cambie fiasco look like Friday nite on Granville.
UBC has publicly stated a preference for a tramway.
The best option, the only option if Vancouver is to be a 21st century conurbation is to reduce traffic along that corridor: i.e. reduce the seasonal academic traffic to UBC.
Every fall, as classes commence, the crush on the B-line and no 9 bus makes scheduling impossible.
The obvious and inexpensive solution is for UBC to go digital.
When I was in school my stats class was attended by over eighty of us. The prof had virtually no personal contact with us as students: neither did we! We may as well have been on the moon as far as real academic and social contact was possible. I vaguely remember something about standard deviation and the bell curve (Oh, and I sat next to a pretty girl I never got to talk to). And even back then we all had computers, even the prof.
Today every one has a computer so why not conduct classes on line. That does not preclude personal contact between colleagues and the prof. It just means we are not wasting our day watching the full-up no 9 lumber by.
When I was in school all the hip talk was about people working at home, studying at home. Then the idea sorta petered out.
Digital classes will free up space on the bus, space on Broadway, campus parking and bus turn-around space. I don’t know why the digital classroom at UBC (SFU, Emily Carr U and Langara too for that matter) is not front and center of the debate.
This is the 21st century yunno . . .
Chris, I agree with you. I would just put it a little bit differently: You can’t overcome politics with technical language. If politicians want to call something a BRT, that is there perogative. they are the ones making the financial decisions. Transit experts know the difference between a BRT system and an express bus service (in mixed traffic), but probably many people do not. Consequently, the unrealistic expectations for the level of service, and the subsequent dissatisfaction.
Without the guts to re-allocate space to transit, transit sucks most places. Without the guts to re-allocate space to bicycles, riding a bicycle sucks most places.
There are always stoned dreamers who envision skyways for both running everywhere. But there is a difference between dreams and reality.
Human Transit article on Ottawa’s conversion from Busway to LRT:
http://www.humantransit.org/2010/05/ottawa-moving-on-from-the-busway.html