Quote:
Originally Posted by Antigonish
My only gripe about BRT is that even with signal priority those buses still have to share the roads with vehicles and still prone to congestion. The next problem is marketing. Nobody wants to take the bus in a 50/50 choice scenario, only unless someone does not have a vehicle and has no choice it is improbable to convince more riders to try BRT. Hell, the "rapid" busses themselves aren't even different from standard busses, unless there is some super duper rocket powered new quirky rapid busses I'm unaware of. If we're going to do the BRT thing why not at least pony up the extra cash for trams instead? People will absolutely ride a tram even if it's marginally faster than a rapid bus. They are smooth, sexy, "European", hell I guarantee even Keith P. would ride it even if only a few times for the novelty.  |
True BRT has its own ROW separated from traffic similar to a rail line. Beyond being cheaper, they have the added advantage of being easily upgraded to LRT as ridership increases. You just need a classic bus and the ROW lets you zoom past traffic. I’ve had the chance to ride the new system in Gatineau and it’s definitely cutting travel times between Hull and Gatineau proper. I actually think it was built on an abandoned freight line, because it reused an old iron bridge.