Transit Backers Slam Move to Gut BRT Plan,
Call for “More Transit, Not More Asphalt”
Press release issued July 8, 2013
Transit backers today denounced a proposal to gut the bus rapid transit plan that will go before the Planning Board on Thursday.
The Action Committee for Transit said the board must reject changes in the BRT plan newly proposed by planning staff. Under the new proposal, creation of bus lanes would be contingent on traffic studies, and conversion of car lanes into bus-only lanes would be put off into the indefinite future.
“To be worthy of support, the bus rapid transit plan must put bus lanes on the most congested roads, not the least congested ones, and include lane repurposing as a major component,” the group wrote in its letter. Otherwise, it argued, “we would get more asphalt, not better transit.”
By putting bus lanes on existing pavement, they pointed out, BRT can get started quickly and inexpensively. Otherwise it will have to wait for funding behind other high-priority projects such as the Purple Line.
“There's no point building bus lanes where traffic isn't backed up,” said ACT president Tina Slater. “At the heart of BRT is the idea that roads exist to move people, not cars. That idea requires us to reserve lanes for buses whenever that is the way to carry the most people.”