He’s only talking about exclusive ROW on the highways. Most of the issues with bus unreliability happen on the surface streets, where it’s VERY hard to get exclusive ROW.

These guys like to talk about things like a tunnel in Bellevue, but the cost of doing all that just ends up being the same as the cost of rail – with lower capacity.

And again, I’m only watching PRT, not advocating it everywhere. It looks great in theory. And soon we’ll get to see how it works in practice.

Give the guy a break. BRT in exclusive ROW does not “bounce down broken up pavement”. And, if BRT had been the selected technology for the cross-lake system there would be no passenger cars in the center roadway, because it would be bi-directional and the Mercer Island kludge would no longer be feasible. Hence, nobody cutting off the buses.

Now I admit that he does kind of blur the difference between BRT in exclusive ROW and “Blue Streak” type express buses (collectors with a freeway trip) which DO sometimes “bounce down broken up pavement” if the local streets aren’t up to snuff and are exposed to nutcase drivers on some parts of the freeway.

But the truth is that we don’t need to destroy BRT because the limitations of the DSTT have already done so. There is simply not enough capacity for a significant expansion of cross-lake transit service through Downtown Seattle UNLESS it’s Link, as has been pointed out by several posters.

Exclusive bus lanes with island platforms could be constructed on 2nd & 4th Avenues but those streets’ bus lanes are already jammed during rush hour. 5th Ave is too narrow. 1st is too congested and slated for a streetcar.

Then build a new bus tunnel which would cost more than building a rail only tunnel.

The Eastside Transportation Association advocates building a Downtown Bellevue bus tunnel as the centerpiece of their eastside BRT system instead of Link.

Also, sounds like there are enough UW’ers around here that we should do a brownbag lunch sometime. Maybe check out the station area or something. Email me my username at u if interested.

Most of his compatriots in the anti-mass transit movement also oppose tolling – the cornerstone of Niles’ Libertarian transportation ideology.

Which is such perfect irony. Since John Niles started down this path when HIS personal bus commute was interrupted by a train in DC, several decades ago.

“It’s all about me” doesn’t make for strong coalition building. Hence, John Niles finds himself in obscurity.

The guy really doesn’t need a disguise.

The problem is, in the long run, dedicated right of way *brings more users*. Buses in dedicated right of way are eventually overwhelmed. And PRT, don’t get me started, you realize how much the right of way for passing ‘tracks’ would cost?