Monday, September 6, 2010

A sensible plan for the Oakland connector

It is floating around out there, and getting a serious look. I will find the link. But..

The plan is a center single lane for BRT, a lane shared in both directions with digital assist. Cheap, reasonable, flexible; a model for BART along the East Bay.

I remind all transit planners: The new technology BRT can easily do 50-60 MPH along single, even narrow lanes. Plan on integrated traffic communications, use RR cross bars even. The new BRT are fast, have two to four sections, full digital control.

Value saved in time and energy per commuter:
$20 * 6,000 * 2 = $120,000 per commute day, or 60 BRT trips per average corridor.

Force the technology vendors on standardization. Cities need to collect much of that income in cash, road capacity fees. This is really a consumer network, so get economies of scale soon with technology components.

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