By Greg Conley:
Quite often this site and others have posts and comments from readers about mass transit. I think many people dream of living in some city of the future where trams zoom by in every direction. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening here any time in the near century.
Let's go back to the old way.
I recently mapped the Buffalo street car system near its height in 1916 (see here). It was at that point, I realized why modes like light rail and BRTs work. Each of the systems are compartmentalized. When those systems are running at street level, they have their own lane. Many times, they are not interfered with. In 1916, compartmentalization was popular. It separated street cars from carts, and all of that from pedestrians using sidewalks.
When cars came and street cars phased out, buses were left to fend for themselves. There was no compartmentalization. Mass transit fell out of favor.
^Click to enlarge
Here are two realistic choices I've come up with:
#1 - Grab a six-pack and wait. But in this case, you might need a thirty. It could be a while.
#2 - In a place like Buffalo, you have to use what you have: Buses and roads with some width. When you put those together, you can create what I call an "Urban Bus Rapid Transit." It's the realistic idea of not having wide enough roads for a typical two lane BRT.
What's Urban BRT?
An Urban BRT is a single lane in the middle of a road where dividers separate the bus from other vehicular traffic. Buses use the same Urban BRT lane for both directions of travel. It's similar to reversible lanes that are used on bridges. Boarding and exiting the bus happens at a stop light, similar to street cars in cities like Toronto. When buses need to intersect each other, they have their own traffic light to give them the right of way to do so within the intersection. This is what keeps the Urban BRT from needing two lanes. This switch can happen at a designated bus stop. In some areas, the single BRT lane also leaves enough room to allow car parking on the side of the street still.
The buses themselves are the current stock of buses we have, but with perhaps a color touch up to designate the Urban BRT. The only buses allowed to use this Urban BRT lane are those designated for one particular route. Cars can only cross the BRT lane at intersections with traffic lights. Drivers who want to turn left onto a side road will have to do as it's done on roads like Sheridan: Make a U-turn. This allows Urban BRTs to travel at faster speeds without having to worry as much about being cut off.
Urban BRTs match the needs of Buffalo. We don't need extravagance, just "lighter, quicker, cheaper." It has the benefits of a BRT along with the costs a region such as ours can digest. Simply having a dedicated lane will make for a faster trip in and out of the city. Along with other small touches, it will also lower accident rates through traffic calming by creating more narrow streets. This new system can increase the ridership by evening the playing field when competing with cars.
^Click to enlarge
Some Possiblities: (These are just ideas where an Urban BRT route can be molded from.)
Route #24 - Genesee connects the Buffalo Niagara International Airport to Downtown Buffalo. It could cover both this route and the express service Route #204 connecting the same two places. A recommendation would be for #24 to reduce its stops by one or two to quicken the trip.
There are a variety of ways to connect the Southtowns to the city, which would make the costs and flow of traffic vary considerably.
Links:
Video about successful mass transit by using BRT in Curitiba, Brazil.
A couple of concepts for dividers on an Urban BRT
View image
Quite often this site and others have posts and comments from readers about mass transit. I think many people dream of living in some city of the future where trams zoom by in every direction. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening here any time in the near century.
Let's go back to the old way.
I recently mapped the Buffalo street car system near its height in 1916 (see here). It was at that point, I realized why modes like light rail and BRTs work. Each of the systems are compartmentalized. When those systems are running at street level, they have their own lane. Many times, they are not interfered with. In 1916, compartmentalization was popular. It separated street cars from carts, and all of that from pedestrians using sidewalks.
When cars came and street cars phased out, buses were left to fend for themselves. There was no compartmentalization. Mass transit fell out of favor.
^Click to enlarge
Here are two realistic choices I've come up with:
#1 - Grab a six-pack and wait. But in this case, you might need a thirty. It could be a while.
#2 - In a place like Buffalo, you have to use what you have: Buses and roads with some width. When you put those together, you can create what I call an "Urban Bus Rapid Transit." It's the realistic idea of not having wide enough roads for a typical two lane BRT.
What's Urban BRT?
An Urban BRT is a single lane in the middle of a road where dividers separate the bus from other vehicular traffic. Buses use the same Urban BRT lane for both directions of travel. It's similar to reversible lanes that are used on bridges. Boarding and exiting the bus happens at a stop light, similar to street cars in cities like Toronto. When buses need to intersect each other, they have their own traffic light to give them the right of way to do so within the intersection. This is what keeps the Urban BRT from needing two lanes. This switch can happen at a designated bus stop. In some areas, the single BRT lane also leaves enough room to allow car parking on the side of the street still.
The buses themselves are the current stock of buses we have, but with perhaps a color touch up to designate the Urban BRT. The only buses allowed to use this Urban BRT lane are those designated for one particular route. Cars can only cross the BRT lane at intersections with traffic lights. Drivers who want to turn left onto a side road will have to do as it's done on roads like Sheridan: Make a U-turn. This allows Urban BRTs to travel at faster speeds without having to worry as much about being cut off.
Urban BRTs match the needs of Buffalo. We don't need extravagance, just "lighter, quicker, cheaper." It has the benefits of a BRT along with the costs a region such as ours can digest. Simply having a dedicated lane will make for a faster trip in and out of the city. Along with other small touches, it will also lower accident rates through traffic calming by creating more narrow streets. This new system can increase the ridership by evening the playing field when competing with cars.
^Click to enlarge
Some Possiblities: (These are just ideas where an Urban BRT route can be molded from.)
Route #24 - Genesee connects the Buffalo Niagara International Airport to Downtown Buffalo. It could cover both this route and the express service Route #204 connecting the same two places. A recommendation would be for #24 to reduce its stops by one or two to quicken the trip.
There are a variety of ways to connect the Southtowns to the city, which would make the costs and flow of traffic vary considerably.
Links:
Video about successful mass transit by using BRT in Curitiba, Brazil.
A couple of concepts for dividers on an Urban BRT
In before some idiot talks about how mass transit doesn't work.