Dear RTA: Look at BRT

I read that nominations to the Dane Country RTA have been made. Let's hope the approval process goes quickly so we can get the show on the road.

But here's something that I hope the RTA mandarins will take note of: bus rapid transit ridership is growing like gangbusters. To wit:

Bus rapid transit systems in Los Angeles; Kansas City, Mo.; and Eugene, Ore., all report ridership far beyond their initial expectations.

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority established Metro Rapid in 2000, and now has 28 routes covering more than 450 miles. Those lines have done well, spokesman Dave Sotero said, but even better has been the relatively new Orange line, which began service on a 14-mile stretch in the San Fernando Valley in 2005.

“Our ridership estimates were completely smashed,” he said.

While the transit agency projected an average of 7,500 weekday boardings, the Orange line hit an average of more than 16,000 boardings per weekday the first month and has grown to around 21,000, Sotero said.

The Lane Transit District in Eugene, Ore., started a free line, EmX, on 4 miles between downtown Eugene and downtown Springfield in January 2007. While the line that previously served that corridor averaged 2,700 boardings a day, EmX had 4,500 the first month and in January 2009 reached more than 5,800.

Let's get on those federal grants for buses and bus facilities.



Speaking of buses, did you catch George Hesselberg's article about how getting to the new Greyhound station here in Madison requires an Ernest Shackleton-like adventure? A couple days prior to its publication, I was on a packed Metro bus going home from work. Being stuck standing at the front of the bus, I was caught between the driver and a passenger who were in the middle of a conversation.

The passenger was a young man clad in an Arizona State jacket. He was trying to get to the Greyhound station which, unbeknownst to the driver, had moved to the middle of nowhere after the Badger Bus Depot had been demolished. Luckily I intervened as the driver was telling the guy to get off at W. Wash and Bassett. The problem was that no one knew where the hell Greyhound had relocated to. The bus driver called the dispatcher who explained that it was now located in the boonies and I grabbed a map to help explain its location to the guy. He was just trying to get to the Dells to cover a volleyball match for his school paper and finds himself the victim of Madison's disregard for the concept of centralized transportation planning.

Now, imagine you were that guy. You're in a city that, while not a metropolis, isn't exactly tiny and seemingly no one knows where the fuck the Greyhound station is. And when its location is finally ascertained, you discover that it's a tiny storefront in a mall that's miles away from the nearest sidewalk and bus stop. As Hesselberg put it:

A trip from UW Hospital, for example, via Metro Transit to the Greyhound station would cost only $2 but would take an hour, include at least one transfer and leave a passenger a half-mile walk. Estimates of the cost of a taxi ride from the hospital to the station range from $16.50 to $30.

Put yourself in this guy's place and tell me what you'd be thinking. For my part, it would go like this: "How incredibly lame. What kind of podunk town puts the station out in the middle of nowhere?"

Hell, maybe it's just me. Perhaps the downtown bus depot is an outdated concept and it truly is better to have four different places to board/debus one of which has no Metro service anywhere near it, another only during weekday rush hour, while another is served only by campus circulators. Then, when we get an Amtrak stop, it can be out at the airport to ensure that intercity travel not done by car is a complete mess.