NYC Got on the Bus
New York City is finally on the BRT bandwagon.
Mayor Bloomberg announced "Select Bus Service" along the BX 12 line last week, a plan that many policy-minded readers might know by a different name: Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). Yes, after years of hard-nosed advocacy by Transportation Alternatives, the NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign and a growing chorus of advocates like "Communities United for Transportation Equity," the City and the Bloomberg Administration finally got on the BRT bus.
Expect prepaid fares, signal priority at intersections, colored "bus only" lanes, entrances in the front and rear of the vehicle, as well as fewer stops along this flagship BRT route that runs on 207th Street in Northern Manhattan and on Fordham Road and Pelham Parkway in the Bronx. If all of these measures are made a reality, well-maintained and strictly enforced, New York City will see its first ever surface subway, a bus line capable of quickly moving a train's worth of people for a fraction of the cost.