A Step Forward for San Francisco BRT [View all]

A Step Forward for San Francisco BRT

San Francisco | 05/22/2012 7:42am |
Egon Terplan | SPUR





After more than six years of planning, and six months after the release of a draft environmental impact report, we now have a clearer picture of what bus rapid transit on Van Ness Avenue, a north-south San Francisco thoroughfare, might look like. This past Tuesday, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) unanimously approved a combination of two out of the four designs under consideration.

Bus rapid transit (BRT) is similar to light rail in efficiency, but it uses buses instead of trains on tracks, which makes for lower costs and greater flexibility. Systems typically feature three ingredients:

• Dedicated lanes, usually in the center of the street

• Unique branding to make buses highly visible

• All-door boarding and proof-of-payment systems, often with payment required to be in the station area ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://americancity.org/daily/entry/a-step-forward-for-san-francisco-brt