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Of course, the GAO report I’ve cited before has been roundly criticized by the light-rail advocacy groups.

Here is a link to their article, GAO’s “BRT” Report: Errors, Anomalies, Misinformation

And a link to an entire page of info about BRT, BRT Analysis

One thing will be continually clear as I try to sort this out, a transit solution is needed for 35W. I want to see the best long term option utilized.

I attended the public meeting and presentation yesterday regarding a proposed Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) solution for 35W. I applaud the elected officials who have been working to include a transit solution for 35W. My main conern, which I shared with the group last night, is that BRT is being looked at as the sole transit option. Given the overwhelming success of the Hiawatha Light Rail line, it seems silly to exclude LRT as an option.

I have been doing research into the comparison, BRT vs. LRT, and the obvious difference is the lower initial capital cost. In a very interesting article (if you’re into this sort of thing) done by the GAO, entitled Bus Rapid Transit Systems Show Promise, they conclude that on average, there was lower capital costs for BRT. However, the costs can approach each other if BRT is constructed in their “best case” scenario. Which means basically constructing BRT to be as similar to an LRT system as possible.

The reason this is the best case, is because exclusive right of ways and rail like stations and schedules provide the best rider experience. The buses are allowed to move at the fastest speeds, because of the seperated roadway.

Unfortunately, this is not the design put forth by the consulting firm as their recommended proposal.

Another point that I made last night was that BRT could be designed and implemented as an interim step to a LRT line. Designed properly, stations and right of ways can be reused, and the ridership is already in place.

I think this represents our best option. Design the BRT with exclusive right of ways and limited entrances to the dedicated lanes. DO NOT allow other HOVs into these lanes, and design the stations and basic infrastructure in a way that would allow a smooth upgrade to LRT.

Quoting the GAO report:

Bus Rapid Transit also has the advantage of establishing a mass transit corridor and building ridership without precluding future changes. The development of a busway secures a transit right-of-way for the future. Some cities have identified Bus Rapid Transit as a means of building transit ridership in a travel corridor to the point where investment in a rail alternative becomes a cost-effective choice. For example, one of the projects in FTA’s demonstration program, the Dulles Corridor Bus Rapid Transit project in Virginia, hopes to build transit ridership in this fashion.

I would argue that we already know that this corridor, which was described last night as “the most heavily traveled corridor in the state” already has the ridership to support the scalability of LRT service, but I understand completely that the funds for the capital investment that LRT would require here are not available.

So my hope is that 35W/62 reconfiguration will not, in the future, require another major redesign to support LRT. Even if we never got to LRT for this corridor, the BRT experience would be far better with a design that was as “rail-like” as possible.

So:

1. Raise the gas tax. It’s at 20 cents right now, 10 more cents would raise approximately $320 million a year. (We should also tie gas tax revenues to transit solutions in some creative way.)
2. Think about the 30 year future.

One more note, I brought up Denver’s T-REX project. They are doing a complete reconstruction of I-25, 19 new miles of LRT, something like 40 bridges, etc.

From start of construction to expected completion, 5 years. They received $525 Million from the federal government for the light rail construction. Total Cost, 1.67 Billion.

Staggering yes, but check out the site to get a feel for the scope of the project, and the forward-thinking leadership it took to do something like that.

We could do that in Minnesota too.

Okay, this took 3 minutes on google:

A Review of Bus Rapid Transit Calgary, 2002 (pdf file)

Capital and operating cost data indicate that Bus Rapid Transit applications are significantly less expensive to construct than LRT – i.e. as little as $0.1 million (Cdn) per kilometre. Due to lower passenger capacities and shorter life expectancy of buses, total vehicle costs would be similar to LRT. However, the operating costs of BRT are considerably higher than LRT on a per passenger basis. Overall, BRT applications on urban arterial streets can be more economical as an interim measure or where demand is not expected to justify LRT service capacities.

That whole paragraph sums up my argument. (The emphasis in the quote was mine.)

1. 35W is a heavily traveled corridor, for which a high capacity solution is needed.
2. We should be planning for 30 years from now, when there will be one million new residents of the MSP area.
3. We want the most cost effective solution for the long run.

If I am wrong on any of these three points, please let me know..

The conclusion of the Calgary BRT study:

In Calgary, potential BRT applications are corridors where LRT will not be constructed for many years or where demand is not forecast to be sufficient to justify LRT construction.

I will argue that in Minneapolis’ case, on this corridor, demand for rapid transit more than justifies the initial capital costs of an LRT solution, and in the long run will be the more sustainable, scalable, and cost-effective solution.

Also in the Star Tribune today, an article about Gov. Pawlenty’s proposed mandate that the gasoline in Minnesota contain twice as much Ethanol as it does today. This would help reduce our dependence on oil, while at the same time bolstering Minnesota’s corn farmers.

Everyone’s favorite critic of progress, Rep. Krinke of Shoreview, has a brilliant quote, saying that Ethanol subsidies and mandates requiring Ethanol in gasoline, are

“worst of both worlds from a free-market perspective.”

Remember, Krinke is probably the biggest critic of the Hiawatha Light Rail line in the world, and apparently wants the “free-market” to simply sort things out here.

As far as I’m concerned, anything that makes cars cleaner, and reduces our dependence on oil is a good thing, be it LRT, ethanol, etc.

Unfortunately there was scant mention of BioDiesel in the article, and while Minnesota does have a proposal/mandate to have all the Diesel in the state be 2% BioDiesel by 2006, there are a number of provisions that will cause the mandate to not go into effect if they are not met.

Namely, some number of gallons (8 million? I forget… doesn’t really matter) of the BioDiesel must be produced in the state before 2006, and the last figure I saw suggested we were not terribly close to meeting that goal.

So Gov. Pawlenty, I don’t agree with you on much, but congratulations on pushing forward clean technologies for vehicles in our state. A state that mandates clean technologies for it’s energy usage is a state that I am proud of.

An article out today in the Star Tribune discusses a study regarding a dedicated busway on 35W to alleviate the traffic situation.

While I am in favor of expanding our mass transit options in the city, they are only studying buses. In the face of the overwhelming success of the Hiawatha Light Rail line, in which for every period measured ridership has doubled the projections, they are not even considering light rail.

The bus service is the only transit option being considered to alleviate traffic congestion on I-35W south of downtown.

Why? Since they are not studying Light Rail as an option, we have no idea how this would compare in terms of cost.

I don’t have numbers and figures in front of me, but I believe studies in other muncipalities have shown that in the long term, 20-40 years, light rail will be the cleaner, safer and more cost-effective solution. If we are not planning for the long term in this city, what are we planning for?

Since I recently updated a bunch of my media purchases, I moved that section up to the top over on the right hand side of the site.

I will try to keep up to date with my recent CDs from now on, but sometimes I’m a bit of a slacker.

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Did you know that approximately 13,000 civilians have been killed in Iraq.

Having a hard time imagining what it’s like in Iraq right now?

Need some assault weapons?

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