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Don't Gut the BRT Plan

Letter to Planning Board chair Francoise Carrier

July 8, 2013

The Bus Rapid Transit plan now under consideration by the Planning Board offers the county a way forward in a changing world. Walkable urban streets are in demand. Gasoline prices are rising. And we have learned that we can never build enough highways to eliminate traffic congestion.

The most recent staff draft of the master plan amendment alters the plan by removing lane repurposings from the initial phase. Except where new lanes are built, buses will remain stuck in traffic. The only true BRT would run on pedestrian-hostile highways that, with bus lanes and turn lanes, would be 8, 10, or more lanes wide.

The new draft states, moreover, that lanes can only be reserved for buses after “a thorough traffic analysis.” But the whole point of BRT is to move buses quickly on congested roads. Making bus lanes contingent on a traffic analysis would defeat the purpose of the plan. We would get more asphalt, not better transit. To be worthy of support, the bus rapid transit plan must put bus lanes on the most congested roads, not the least congested ones, and include lane repurposing as a major component.

The basic idea of BRT is that road space is used most efficiently by rapid transit vehicles that carry many passengers. When lanes are reserved for exclusive use by buses, a road can carry more people faster.

Using roads more efficiently also makes them more walkable. This is essential for the economic future of our county. Over the coming decades, our aging strip malls will be forced to choose between decay and redevelopment. We will not be able to build the mixed-use communities that the market now demands unless we have streetscapes that welcome them. Thus the plan should require BRT corridors with new lanes to be rebuilt as complete streets with closely spaced intersections, narrower lanes, slower design speeds, and removal of slip lanes.

Lane repurposing costs far less than building new lanes. The full buildout of the proposed network will have to wait for funding behnd other high-priority transit projects such as the Purple Line, the Red Line, and the MARC Growth and Investment Plan. Yet the least expensive segments of the network have high ridership potential. By repurposing lanes, we can start to create our BRT system now.

We urge you to reject efforts to water down BRT and adopt a strong plan.


Sincerely,

Tina Slater
Action Committee for Transit, President