One reason I was curious about the Mall buses is that the first five 40-foot buses LAMTA bought from Byd had trouble going up the hills on the route used and also had lot of other problems as well.
LAMTA negotiated with Byd to buy the buses back for $3 million as a credit for ordering five new 60-foot buses to be used on the "Orange Line." Whether Byd had new factory start-up kinks or the bus was poorly spec'd ie. sufficient battery power, I dunno. Links Here and Here. They're also ordering five 60-foot EV buses from New Flyer. One issue with these new EV buses is that the upfront costs are reportedly 25% to 50% higher than conventional offerings. I did a quick-check on Louisville to see if I could get a read on their 1st year experience with Proterra's. Sounds like they only had a handful of minor issues and couldn't be more delighted. I assume Foothills Transit is very satisfied with theirs since they've been using a Proterra bus since 2010, exclusively, I believe. Three cities in Texas including DART have also bought the Proterra EV. |
I saw test trains on the R line yesterday. First time I've seen actual trains moving.
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Random question... does anybody know of any real-world examples of a center-running arterial BRT system that also has left-hand automobile turn lanes?
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^ Not offhand but I wouldn't be surprised if there were a mixed traffic center lane although it would be pretty dumb.
Oh my, so the devil is in the details. Most Americans don’t want new tolls to pay for road and bridge improvements, poll says January 17. 2017 By Ashley Halsey III and Scott Clement - Washington Post Quote:
So reality starts today. I recall when Obama took office Republicans actually helped build up his image of sainthood bcuz they knew that reality would chip away soon enough. With Trump, he's set such high and unrealistic expectations that I suspect reality will start biting soon. |
Sry, bad internet connection led to a double post.
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Sharing center bus lanes with left-turning vehicles, or (to me even worse) having traffic CROSS bus lanes into turn lanes would seem to negate most of the benefits of having a center-running alignment in the first place (i.e., at that point a side-running configuration where cars use the BAT lane to turn right would work just about as well). The only other solution I can possibly think of would be a signal timing thing where left turners actually turn ACROSS the bus through lane, but the two never get the green light at the same time. Of course this presents signal timing issues. I'm just curious if anybody else knows of ways this has been handled elsewhere. |
Apologies for throwing out an unrelated topic to the past few pages, but I've been wondering about two specific TOD areas for a while now and was hoping someone (anyone!) has some information.
Both the Denver Design District and Broadway/I-25 areas adjacent to LRT stations have had some pretty impressive plans floating around for a while now. With the potential upcoming infrastructure/transportation bonds and completion of build-out in DUS, is there any chance we see infrastructure work or private development at either site in the near future? I think last I heard was that D4 Urban lost control of the DDD site, and that public infrastructure works are mid/long range at Broadway, but it seems like such a shame not to concentrate development in these areas with the current state of traffic on I-25 and lack of connection between Baker and S. Broadway. |
Not quite Denver, but since commuters like me gonna commute...
Input on Interstate 25 widening north of Monument to Lone Tree sought at two public meetings Quote:
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The two lane stretch is 18m from the Monument exit to just south of the Plum Creek exit. If this is being executed as "early-action", I would love to see 4 lanes on each side and feasibly eliminate the need for any future expansion. There are three expensive spots in my mind: The weigh station section at Monument, the bridge over Greenland exit, and the bridge over the Larkspur/Upper Lake Gulch Road exit. Outside of those spots, should be a simple (albeit lengthy) project.
Will be interesting to see if going to 4 lanes through Castle Rock is on the table for this project as well. That would only add 4m and will be necessary in the near future anyway. |
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At present time, there just aren't very many CRBRT examples - especially in an urban arterial environment. The SBX BRT in San Bernardino is a pretty good example, as it maintains lefts at many signalized intersections. See this Google Maps example. Other examples include the upcoming mostly center-running Madison BRT in Seattle and the upcoming Geary BRT in San Francisco. I'm not sure if these two examples will maintain left turns or not, but it is possible. Here is an early concept for Webster Ave. in NYC. As mentioned above, you can see the left-turn pockets near-side in the space occupied by the far-side platforms: http://www.streetsblog.org/wp-conten...edianLanes.jpg |
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Oh btw I saw and rode a bus on Geary St in San Fran just a few months ago-it was quite interesting. |
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The way Phoenix handled this problem was to build miles and miles and then more miles of freeway lanes and then retrofit left-turn lanes at all the intersections. :haha: |
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Over the last year many Republicans (especially the C-Springs crowd) have complained that if CDOT weren't spending money on Bustang and for a new CDOT HQ they could afford to move forward with this project. :haha: Not even close. Perhaps not a mandate but I believe that CDOT is encouraged to allocate some $'s to transit. IIRC they helped the Roaring Fork Valley get their BRT project done. With CDOT having the funds, they were good in spending money for an early design phase for this project. They coupled this with some positive PR on the project, in effect passing the ball to the Republicans to find a needed new revenue stream towards the $9 billion backlog that CDOT is sitting on. The two political sides are threatening to reach a compromise which could then be submitted to voters for approval. Incidentally, The Coloradoan, two days ago ran a story that "No," C-Springs did not leapfrog NoCo for I-25 expansion and that both projects have equal priority. CDOT just needs the revenue stream so they can sell bonds to kickstart much needed ketchup. |
^ Thanks for that great information PLANSIT! I'm working on some sketch revisions to a sketchup model right now and wanted to know how this has realistically been handled in a US context. Of course analysis may still show that Center Running isn't the best option, glad to see it's been dealt with at least somewhere though.
The example of Webster Ave that you posted, and what I saw of the SBX when I zoomed in on Google Earth make it appear that stations maybe shouldn't be placed at the largest intersections (which also don't tend to be as pedestrian friendly anyway). Good food for thought, thanks! |
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Speaking of the Geary St BRT in San Fran, I remember it ran on a colored concrete strip between two or three lanes of regular traffic-Geary St is actually quite narrow as its an old street. A friend of mine came out to visit from Colorado (Thornton) and he and my wife caught the bus out to walk the Golden Gate bridge-since the route went through a portion of the Tenderloin hood some of the bus riders were very rough, tough and gritty-the bus was an electric trolley (the crowd was a bit like the ones that ride the east Colfax 15 in Denver but rougher). Further out west we caught another diesel one on out to the Golden Gate..
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I can think of a couple center transitway BRT lines with left turn lanes for cars.
Alexandria, VA: The Metroway BRT on US-1. It doesn't show up on Google Maps or Bing yet, so this picture is the best I can do. IIRC there are a couple of intersections that look like this. NOTE: This photo shows you how to solve the signal problem. You give the transitway its own signal. See the traffic light with the white bar? That's the signal for the bus. IIRC vertical bar means go, horizontal means stop. You can see the regular red arrow left turn signal for cars next to it. https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3873/1...5066fb83_b.jpg Suburban Toronto: Left turns lanes are standard for the Viva BRT system in suburban Toronto. There are a ton of them up and down the line. They don't have to deal with US design guidelines though. https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/471/32...7beb6ed5_o.jpg image from google maps https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8659/1...4e53fc2d_b.jpg Rt 7 BRT image from herbert fong on flickr They also have left turn lanes on at least some of Toronto's streetcar transitways, which are analogous for design purposes. You can see the green arrow "transit signals" in this picture, BTW. I think the white bars would be a lot less confusing to car drivers. https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4033/4...10e7ebc4_b.jpg Saint Clair transitway image by sean marshall on flickr Salt Lake City: Oh! If rail is OK as an example, here's Salt Lake's 4th Street TRAX: https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8326/8...393645e5_b.jpg SLC image by photo dean on flickr |
Denver already uses white bar signals for bus preemptions at a few intersections around town.
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Denver Post on Bipartisan Efforts to Fund Roads via Tax Increases
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If you want more political discussion on the possible transit funding fight, read here:
http://coloradopolitics.com/colorado...ransportation/ Here's a summary. Read the article for specific statements. Quote:
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