[sustran] Re: land use control and levels of motorization

[Chris Bradshaw]

Alan Howes:

> Some fair points - but the good thing about BRT is that the buses can at
> any point leave the BRT track and become an ordinary bus which, properly
> catered for, can have all the advantages Chris claims for streetcars
> [trams].  OK, perhaps not a mega-200-place-bi-artic BRT bus, but you
> don't have to go the whole hog.

The ability for BRT vehicles to "become" a regular bus is appealing, but in
a limited sense.  As you point out, the type of buses that are best for the
"spine" of the bus system are often not that suitable for the "legs".

Second, the design of a station to allow for such movements both increases
construction costs and expand the site requirements.

Ottawa developed the first BRT in North America (starting in 1980).  We are
now implementing a light rail system that will partially duplicate the
former.

BRT route has not been very successful stimulating development at transit
stations, and the three-yearold O-train trial is too young to see its
land-use impacts.  Both systems are located far from main streets and the
services they offer.  Only in the system set up in Curitiba, Brazil, does
the system use existing streets.  That increases the population living close
to each station, and reduces the need for extra structures to get riders
across freeways and rivers, that comes with BRTs running in separate
(greenways or brown industrial corridors) rights-of-way.

Another point about BRT is that the right-of-way is widers, since the
vehicles need to pass each other.  In Ottawa, that is compounded by the need
to store snow in winters.

The concern that riders of transit don't want to transfer (thus the value of
buses being able to leave the transitway) is, I believe, overemphasized.  If
transferring occurs at enclosed stations which have public amenities and
convenience shopping, there can be advantages for the riders.  One of these
is that a person without a seat on the first leg of a journey often gets one
for the second leg.

Chris Bradshaw
Ottawa