Speedy bus veterans share their experience By BRYAN F. YURCAN

Speedy bus veterans share their experience
By BRYAN F. YURCAN

Several advocates for and experts on bus rapid transit laid out ideas recently for what they believe is the best transit option for the Interstate 287 corridor.

The event was sponsored by the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, a New York City-based nonprofit planning organization.

The conference focused solely on one of the options presented for the future of the corridor, the bus rapid transit (BRT) option.

Members of the Tappan Zee project team, comprising representatives of the state Department of Transportation, Thruway Authority and Metro-North Railroad, in February presented six different options for the future of the bridge, one of which was the BRT.

Among those who spoke was Alan Hoffman, a principal with the San Diego-based planning organization the Mission Group.

Hoffman said there are “two distinct modes” of BRT: the way most American BRT systems are designed and those designed in Europe and other parts of the world.

He said most American BRTs, such as the one that exists in Los Angeles, only travel on a straight line that misses many of the important “activity centers” in the city and stops at every stop, which can make trips unduly long for some riders.

However, he said in cities such as Bogota, Columbia, and Brisbane, Australia, BRT systems are designed with “layers” of servicing lines with both express and local buses that run to most areas of those cities.

“I think more relevant to the Tappan Zee corridor are European modes (of BRT) rather than American modes,” he said.

Another aspect of successful BRT systems in other parts of the world is the aesthetics of those buses.

In Bogota, for example, the bus stations are enclosed and have glass doors that open when the bus arrives so the rider can enter the bus without having to brave the elements. The experience, he said, is more like that of being in a subway station than the typical American bus stop.

“Market research showed us (that BRT) needs three things to attract people: get people where they want to go; do it quickly, frequently (with less than a 10-minute wait); and make them feel good about having used transit,” he said.

The last item is of major importance, Hoffman said, because many people associate negative connotations with riding the city bus.

He cited Bogota’s raillike riding experience with one way of getting around that association. Hoffman said that system is only about 7 years old, and it already carries about 1.3 million people per day.

Also, he said, successful BRT’s have well-placed stations at locations where people are likely to go and where people live. This differs from many American BRT systems that cut a straight line through one part of a city.

John Bonsall, former general manager of the Ottawa-Carlton Regional Transit Commission in Ontario, helped design Ottawa’s BRT system.

He said there is no point in doing BRT if it’s only going to be a cheaper version of a rail system; you have to spend the money to do it properly.

He estimated that the BRT being talked about as one option for Westchester and Rockland could cost between $5 million and $10 million per mile.

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