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Originally Posted by biggus diggus
I thought the point was to move people efficiently, not just to create development.
exit2left you made a few good points but I still have to wonder. Light rail isn't an option for commuting for a lot of people because it's so much slower than driving to work, so if a brt operates even at 80% (I just made this number up) the speed of light rail it'll be excruciatingly slow. I think both options seem like failures to me tbh.
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Light rail is definitely slower over long distances like going all the way from northwest Phoenix to Mesa, but that's not really how it's used. Most passengers travel a shorter distance, where the speed advantage is less meaningful. Of course, that comparison assumes the user has a car available, the ability to drive it, and a place to park it.
That brings up an interesting issue of competing priorities. Transit improvement plans need to balance two goals: 1) enhancing service for existing passengers 2) attracting new passengers who otherwise would have used another mode (most often a private car). Those goals sometimes align, but at other times they dictate opposing strategies.
If the goal is to attract people who are not currently using transit, rail is the way to go because, as noted above, there are people who will ride trains but not a bus. That's not entirely rational, but it's a consumer preference that cannot be ignored either. Sometimes a bus is just a bus, no matter how upgraded the service is.
If the goal is to improve the experience for existing passengers, then increasing hours and frequency of bus service is essential. Phoenix's Transit 2050 program does a good job, I think, of balancing these two priorities. BRT, though, falls in a grey area in between. It takes bus improvements to an even higher level, but I'm skeptical of its ability to attract new passengers.
Economic development is a nice bonus from rail development, but should not be the primary reason. Moving people should always be the highest priority. That's why I tend to be skeptical of many (although not all) modern streetcar projects. Those tend to be more about economic development than actual transportation needs.