Thursday, October 17, 2002

Network of stops could link region for less than BART

By Aaron Davis
Mercury News

Thousands of European-style luxury buses -- some that steer 
themselves down busy Bay Area freeways -- would be a faster and 
cheaper way to fix the area's transit woes than spending billions of 
dollars on BART to San Jose and other big-ticket projects, a 
consortium of transportation and public officials said Wednesday.

Hoping to repeat the success of fledgling "high-speed" bus programs 
in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, the Bay Area's Transportation and Land 
Use Coalition and San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Tom 
Ammiano gathered on the steps of San Francisco City Hall on Wednesday to kick off a campaign to lobby for $2.5 billion to bring rapid bus service to the Bay Area.

The coalition promised that a "revolutionized" bus system -- a 136-
mile network ringing the bay with stops from San Jose to Oakland to 
San Francisco -- could get 200,000 commuters off area freeways in two to three years instead of the 20 or 30 years that new rail projects 
might take.

"This is the first time we've been able to apply technology to a bus 
system and make it useful," said Rex Gephart, who's heading up Los 
Angeles' so-called Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project. In Los Angeles 
and elsewhere, the new bus system works by letting a network of 
computers linked to antennae and transponders in city buses adjust 
red and green lights to let buses flow more smoothly along congested 
city streets.

In Los Angeles, the BRT program has increased bus ridership by 40 
percent in the past two years without slowing down automobile 
traffic, Gephart said.

Rail advocates weren't convinced that bus service could do all that 
transportation leaders believe. BART spokesman Mike Healy said it's 
hard to compare buses and light rail over long commutes.

"Trains tend to be more marketable," he said. "I mean, buses are fine 
and feed into BART on both sides of the bay, but rail lines tend to 
negotiate key corridors more efficiently than buses."


Bus Rapid Transit

Some of the highlights in the plan unveiled Wednesday for a Bus Rapid Transit system in the Bay Area:

What it is: A 136-mile network of roads with stops from San Jose to 
Oakland to San Francisco

How much it would cost: $2.5 billion

Where funding would come from: Proponents want BRT funded through sales tax and toll revenue.

How it works: A network of computers linked to antennae and 
transponders in city buses would adjust red and green lights to 
improve traffic flow.

Source: Transportation and Land Use Coalition

IF YOU'RE INTERESTED

For more information on the BRT plan, visit 
<http://www.transcoalition.org>.


Contact Aaron Davis at acdavis@s... or (650) 688-7590.