[sustran] Re: yet more on Denver thread

[BruunB at aol.com]

Matthias,

Your points are well taken. I may be given to overstatement. However, in my 
defense, I would like to refine my comments a little bit.

Yes, I am totally in favor of far more projects like the Curitiba bus 
project. But I note that Curitiba is one of the most progressive cities in 
the world. Most will never give up their streets to public transport to the 
degree Curitiba has, since it is the decision makers who get to drive around 
in their cars. How long does the fight go on before one concedes defeat and 
start to build something that is substantially grade separated? I also note 
that Curitiba is looking to convert a line or two to rail as the limits of 
the busway approach are being reached.

I also made an unstated assumption that it is unacceptable in the long run to 
doom the poor to long rides at slow speeds, wasting large parts of their day 
traveling back and forth to work. Once one gets enough control of the streets 
to favor public transport, it just makes more sense to go to larger vehicles 
like Curitiba buses or LRT rather than have a long stream of jitneys. In my 
opinion, the jitneys would then be better re-oriented to community 
circulation and connecting to a trunk line. Further, as the distances get 
longer and longer, at some point grade separation becomes necessary in order 
to get high enough speed to keep travel times reasonable. This was my 
thinking at the time I wrote my statement.

Eric Bruun