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Re: Am I the only one who thinks a Monterey bus rapid transit line is more important than...? Yep, BRT is mostly nonsense and wishful thinking, especially in a place like that.
Author: BOB2
Date: 04-28-2024 - 00:11
Real transit, real change Wrote:
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> I respect what Todd has done with the handcar
> ride. Hard work and an impressive success. A nice
> story. I hope it and the BRT can coexist.
>
> But a bus rapid transit line is more beneficial.
> Much more beneficial. Carrying needed workers from
> barely affordable housing to jobs in an expensive
> area. With a more reliable schedule that separate
> transit ROW can provide. Saving workers gas money
> and less maintenance costs a year.
>
> He says it is really about creating high density
> housing. Housing shortages and unaffordability
> were the state's biggest problems! Until the
> self-created crime crisis. Even if these new
> apartment blocks are market rate and unaffordable
> to the workers, a precentage will by law be set
> aside at low rates for worker incomes. The added
> inventory will reduce price pressure in nearby
> "affordable" towns like Salinas. Keeping them
> available for the working class.
>
> If the BRT runs to Salinas or Castroville or
> Watsonville it can connect to passenger trains.
> Feeding riders to the aquarium and many more local
> stops than an Amtrak trian could. light rail would
> be better than Amtrak. But BRT can be feed by
> multiple bus routes using city streets for the
> final mile. Better than LRT.
>
> I read it as the BRT would only wipe out the
> existing track in a short segment. Can the handcar
> ride convince the project to widen the ROW to
> accomodate both?
>
> Isn't he a government urban planner? He knows all
> this. He knows BRT serves a broader range of
> classes than a $140 and hour pleasure ride. This
> is the one-party corrupt "Rules are whatever we
> define it" Leftist government he voted for. He was
> extra mouthy against the GOP after he caught the
> China Flu. Hey bud, your fellow Dems Fauci and
> Daszak partnered with China to develop Covid years
> before 2020. Should blame them for partnering with
> an untrustworthy enemy, the GOP didn't give u
> Covid. They tried to immediately shut the borders
> and u guys called them racist and said to go party
> for the China New Year.
>
> I hope the Cal Coastal Commission let's the BRT be
> built. More transit and much more housing is
> needed. High density housing within walking
> distance is a good thing. Even if the majority of
> residents won't use the transit. Some will.
Rail and/or preservation of the rail line, just for the sake of preservation, may not make much sense for Monterey in this corridor, due to the varied travel needs. There are some arguments for rail and some arguments against in this Monterey County corridor. I've always tended to rank this route relatively low, in terms of restoring direct rail services.
But, as someone who has studied the purported benefits on HOV lanes for buses and BRT systems, in the US and around the world, in most of these current proposed and all of these proposed "rural" applications can end up being a waste of scarce transit funds.
And further, most of these exclusive lane BRT systems, even including on supposedly "urban" BRT routes (like the one MTA is building in Eagle Rock), all too often simply run too few buses to justify such systems (like 4 buses max each direction in Eagle Rock) and have been shown that they do not save any real travel time, even in most urban applications. Which can make spending money on exclusive BRT lanes a potential waste of scarce transit fuunding... But, which do tend to reward the contractors who are buildig them, for attending the political fundraisers....
Building a new lane of exclusive ROW, or converting a extisting street to an exclusive bus lane, or "BRT", should be looking at a minimum of 20 buses per hour each direction, to justify the costs, and/or the likely serious traffic impacts of these "take-a-lane" BRT projects, which even operations like Muni and MTA are failing to operate at.
-------------------------------------------------------
> I respect what Todd has done with the handcar
> ride. Hard work and an impressive success. A nice
> story. I hope it and the BRT can coexist.
>
> But a bus rapid transit line is more beneficial.
> Much more beneficial. Carrying needed workers from
> barely affordable housing to jobs in an expensive
> area. With a more reliable schedule that separate
> transit ROW can provide. Saving workers gas money
> and less maintenance costs a year.
>
> He says it is really about creating high density
> housing. Housing shortages and unaffordability
> were the state's biggest problems! Until the
> self-created crime crisis. Even if these new
> apartment blocks are market rate and unaffordable
> to the workers, a precentage will by law be set
> aside at low rates for worker incomes. The added
> inventory will reduce price pressure in nearby
> "affordable" towns like Salinas. Keeping them
> available for the working class.
>
> If the BRT runs to Salinas or Castroville or
> Watsonville it can connect to passenger trains.
> Feeding riders to the aquarium and many more local
> stops than an Amtrak trian could. light rail would
> be better than Amtrak. But BRT can be feed by
> multiple bus routes using city streets for the
> final mile. Better than LRT.
>
> I read it as the BRT would only wipe out the
> existing track in a short segment. Can the handcar
> ride convince the project to widen the ROW to
> accomodate both?
>
> Isn't he a government urban planner? He knows all
> this. He knows BRT serves a broader range of
> classes than a $140 and hour pleasure ride. This
> is the one-party corrupt "Rules are whatever we
> define it" Leftist government he voted for. He was
> extra mouthy against the GOP after he caught the
> China Flu. Hey bud, your fellow Dems Fauci and
> Daszak partnered with China to develop Covid years
> before 2020. Should blame them for partnering with
> an untrustworthy enemy, the GOP didn't give u
> Covid. They tried to immediately shut the borders
> and u guys called them racist and said to go party
> for the China New Year.
>
> I hope the Cal Coastal Commission let's the BRT be
> built. More transit and much more housing is
> needed. High density housing within walking
> distance is a good thing. Even if the majority of
> residents won't use the transit. Some will.
Rail and/or preservation of the rail line, just for the sake of preservation, may not make much sense for Monterey in this corridor, due to the varied travel needs. There are some arguments for rail and some arguments against in this Monterey County corridor. I've always tended to rank this route relatively low, in terms of restoring direct rail services.
But, as someone who has studied the purported benefits on HOV lanes for buses and BRT systems, in the US and around the world, in most of these current proposed and all of these proposed "rural" applications can end up being a waste of scarce transit funds.
And further, most of these exclusive lane BRT systems, even including on supposedly "urban" BRT routes (like the one MTA is building in Eagle Rock), all too often simply run too few buses to justify such systems (like 4 buses max each direction in Eagle Rock) and have been shown that they do not save any real travel time, even in most urban applications. Which can make spending money on exclusive BRT lanes a potential waste of scarce transit fuunding... But, which do tend to reward the contractors who are buildig them, for attending the political fundraisers....
Building a new lane of exclusive ROW, or converting a extisting street to an exclusive bus lane, or "BRT", should be looking at a minimum of 20 buses per hour each direction, to justify the costs, and/or the likely serious traffic impacts of these "take-a-lane" BRT projects, which even operations like Muni and MTA are failing to operate at.
