AUSTIN | Transportation Updates

[SecretAgentMan]

To be clear, I thought I would try to compare Rapid Bus and Light Rail.

Because all transit operating on city streets is governed by speed limits, there is little inherent difference between bus and rail in terms of speed. Because the limited stop pattern accounts for probably 90% of the time savings, Rapid Bus can be as fast, or nearly as fast as Light Rail. Speed is not everything, though. It is tempting to think of Rapid Bus, or especially full featured BRT to be nearly as good as Light Rail, but for a much less money. This is very misleading though, and was a major failing of the direction the FTA was going under the Bush administration.

Capacity – the chief advantage of rail is capacity. This is more important in higher ridership corridors than lower ridership corridors, but also affects operating efficiency. Rail vehicles (including streetcars) have higher capacity than most buses. Most rail vehicles (including some streetcars) can be coupled into consists of multiple units, allowing capacity to grow over time, without needing to build more rails.

Operating Efficiency – because of higher capacity, fewer operators are needed per passenger, reducing operating costs.

Ridership – studies show clear preference for rail over buses. For whatever reason, some people who will not ride buses will ride rail, resulting is higher ridership in the same corridor. This requires higher capacity and increases operating efficiency.

Land Use Affects – rail projects (including streetcars) are shown to increase property values and induce investment in higher density, mixed use developments. Full featured BRT, with major investment in dedicated busways have also been shown to have an impact on development, but the cost competitiveness with LRT is marginal. TOD development further reinforces ridership.

Environment – electric rail can be more energy efficient, less polluting, and is generally quieter than diesel buses. That makes them more compatible with higher density development.
Ride quality – rail provides a more pleasant ride than buses which tend to lurch and bump around.

Buses have one advantage over rail besides cost – Flexibility. Almost all cities have far more roads than rail lines, and the need for an electric power source further limits light rail to fewer streets. This allows buses to go places rail can’t. This quality has been used very successfully to build BRT busways that allow buses to be both fast and accessible. In low density suburban environments, buses can circulate around like local feeder buses, then enter the busway and travel at high speed to the primary destination.

If money were no object, I would be for light rail any day. But consider this: the cost of the two Rapid Bus lines would buy about 1 mile of Urban Rail.
Given the financial situation Cap Metro is in, I believe Rapid Bus is a good transitional technology for our main corridors. I do not believe they will impede urban rail from being developed in those corridors incrementally. The Rapid Bus investment is easily relocated to the next corridor to be developed. In the meantime, we will benefit from improved service that will support the land use changes we are already seeing in those corridors, which in turn are supporting development of higher quality transit.