MacDonald on Plan B

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

Joe Connelly outsources his column today to former transportation secretary Doug MacDonald, who writes:

“We can assemble a better, cheaper, more adaptable, more useful foundation for public transportation than a few light rail corridors. Tomorrow’s systems will exploit fast, frequent buses operating on an affordable network of free-flow lanes crisscrossing the region. And also vans, private custom transit now coming to Microsoft, even modern-age jitneys. And probably yet-to-be-seen Web-matched ride sharing.” [my emphasis]

I do like the emphasis on IT. Putting better traffic-sensing tech in cars will help, too.

But what is “an affordable network of free-flow lanes,” exactly? I mean, it sounds good and all, but like all these whiz-bang turns-of-phrase, the devil’s in the details. We’ll need more expensive, dedicated rights-of-way for all these hep new buses, jitneys and rickshaws, otherwise they’ll just get stuck in traffic.