A new light-rail bridge over Lady Bird Lake could allow buses for an extra $60 million, agency says
https://www.kut.org/transportation/2...transit-system |
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Even if we had $60M to spare on a bus bridge, this is basically, by definition, the worst possible spot to put it. Because it's almost completely redundant to the 10B light rail system. |
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Yeah, I was thinking about redundancy. Not to mention, aesthetically, I don't like the idea of a two-decker bridge, as it were... It works in some contexts, but not there.
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This is a horrible idea and it should be fought at every turn.
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I wouldn't be opposed to adding buses to the new bridge if it made our bus network better but I'm not conviced that it actually does. |
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And since CM's operating budget is severely constrained, this would result in worse service overall (though improved for some minority of riders). There's very, very few trips that actually see significant benefit from a bus crossing there, especially compared to other geographic locations. Say you're coming into/out of downtown from directly south. Does this bridge help, no not really, you're better off taking the orange line. It's faster and more frequent. coming into/out of downtown from the SW? You're probably better off taking either a bus route that hypothetically crosses a bus bridge further west (~S 1st) or riding an E/W connecting line and then transferring to the Orange. Okay, best case scenario, you're SE of downtown. Far enough out, you're again better off riding e/w and then transferring to the orange, rather than slogging through traffic _almost_ all the way (except the bridge itself). Or if you're riding from SE to E, once you're far enough out you're better crossing at PV (with hopefully bus only lanes). Or some new bus only crossing between 35 and PV. Even if there's a low frequency coverage route directly overlaying the Blue (remnant of the 20) in most cases you're better off riding that just a short distance and then transferring to the Blue at the next common station. If it existed, sure routes would use it. Late night after the light rail shuts down (night owl and such) sure. But the overall benefit then is pretty low (less traffic) and not many riders to benefit. Any potential benefit of a crossing there is hurt even more by there not being a N/S arterial between Congress and 35. |
KVUE did a story on the Blue Line:
Project Connect: Renderings show first look at Austin's Blue Line light rail https://www.kvue.com/article/news/po...JZLHxGhW3nz5GM |
Project Connect is also live on YouTube now to discuss the project:
Project Connect: Design Workshop - Lady Bird Lake Bridge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SAXUrmTchg |
Watching the presentation now. Pleasantly surprised at how well it seems to work and the potential for reconfiguring bus routes on the east side of Downtown. Potential to integrate commuter buses coming off I-35 and Gold Line and other metro rapid and local bus connections. I'm not opposed to the idea, but is it worth $60 M when everything else is already over budget?
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What a fantastic piece of infrastructure in every way possible.
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On the metroexpress commuter buses, there's 2 considerations. 1) On the purely selfish side of things, we're talking about city of Austin taxpayers paying a lot of money to the benefit of non-Austin residents. The south Metroexpress park and rides are going to be right at the city limits if not outside the city. 2) I asked but didn't get an answer, I'd be curious about the comparison between riding a metroexpress all the way on I35 vs. transferring to the Orange line at slaughter. Especially at rush hour (which is the main time the metroexpress operate). And then one final issue they alluded to. Given the CIG evaluation process, to the extent that a bus bridge moves riders from the light rail to buses directly, it could actually hurt the ranking of the orange line. Kind of silly that it works that way, but less riders on the line the feds are paying for is less riders. |
Love subway entry and bridge. Really hope Austin can pull this off!
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I acknowledge that the posters here are citizens who care deeply about the future of Austin and want the best for present and future Austinites in all aspects of livability and egalitarianism. (Although I can't also stop myself from writing that I suspect many posters here are employees of large developers, contractors, A & E, and/or their PR firms - I an truly sorry for that.)
I am not trying to troll but am trying as a faceless resident to put on an independent record - for my own benefit - that I believe the Project Connect subway system will never be built. And if something like a subway is ever built instead, it will be so much smaller and delayed so long as to render the effort absurd. |
Can you list specific reasons or are you just going to put out a statement?
"I suspect many posters here are employees of large developers, contractors, A & E, and/or their PR firms - I and truly sorry for that" Did you create this conspiracy in your head? |
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I for one am excited that this is moving forward. And no, I'm not an employee of a large developer. I'm also not a bot. Nor am I an alien. Nor am I politically motivated in 99% of my posts. I'm just a dude who likes smart development. And I play drums, so I'm even honest about that. Moving on....
All said, I like the option without the bus now that I've seen a video of it. I was leaning that way beforehand. |
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I don't think there is anyway we bump the subway however we might have to delay the subway for the orange line south of republic square due to the elongated need identified in design. Of course, it's a little silly to speculate since we are still waiting to see how much additional federal dollars we'll get out of this administration and the infrastructure bill. |
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