Last week, I asked you guys for questions about the streetcars, and you guys put great question and I think we got some great answers.
Now I’m going to try it again, this time with King County Metro’s Rapid Ride, the bus rapid transit system they are putting in place as part of Transit Now! passed in 2006.
So do you have rapid-ride questions? Questions about BRT in general? Leave them in the comments so when I talk to Metro this week I can get your question answered.
How is BRT different than express bus?
How much of a trip time reduction are you projecting?
Why is Metro duplicating the future LINK ROW along SR99?
How much is being spent on the rebranding?
Are existing bus routes that follow the course of RapidRide going to be abolished?
What resources would it take to commit to more dedicated right-of-way for buses and to ensure off-bus fare purchases?
How can they enforce off-bus fare purchase?
What kind of ITS improvements will be made?
– will there be GPS tracking?
– real time arrival displays at stops?
– what % of signalized intersections will have TSP?
Will there be off-bus fare purchasing?
What does the service frequency look like throughout the day on the Rapid-ride routes?
I heard the rapid ride buses will have more doors, does that mean lower capacity?
One more, what in-street improvments are being done? Smoother pavements, their own lanes, traffic priority, signal priority?
How quiet/noisy will the bus engines be compared to the existing (too noisy, but better than ordinary buses) hybrids? Has any effort been made to get quieter hybrids?
How were the routes decided? Is the funding based on the standard 40/40/20?
why is BRT better if it takes as long to develop and deploy as light rail at such a great cost?
why is this taking so long if there are no real capital improvements planned? isn’t this just an express bus?
What are the strongest examples of increased ridership and/or transit-oriented development occuring around BRT stations and what were the main factors contributing to these successes?
How does the success of the third street dedicated bus way during rush hour inform Metro’s design of rapid ride?
(this can also be a back door to dedicated right of ways.)