Imagine if buses continued on Wilshire (that’s public transportation too, not just the Red Line); maybe people would have an appreciation of buses as public transit.

Man, imagine that! That would have been a GREAT idea! Keep one lane open, but just for buses! I don’t think it would ever fly, but I would have had a lot more respect for the Car-Free Earth Day if they had pulled that off. Oh boy would drivers be pissed though.

Most of the cost will be in resurfacing Wilshire Boulevard to make the bus lanes level and smoother. Most of the money is a road project.

Also, this $250 million is only “rent” for Metro taking away a lane of traffic for four hours a day, weekdays only. Riders during middays and weekends, a not insignificant chunk of ridership, will get no benefit from this line. Line 720 runs 20 hours a day, every day.

During rush hour, the “only” part of bus-only lanes means vehicles making right turns. Because of the heavy pedestrian activity on Wilshire, cars cannot turn right until there are no pedestrians. Buses cannot pass until the cars move. Buses end up waiting a whole light cycle, and the ATSAC only gives 10 seconds of green if it happens to be in a good mood.

As you have said, taking a lane away for buses will lead to congestion in the remaining lanes. Bus riders should know this is bad for bus riders as well. When remaining lanes have to take up the burden of losing the lane, this means buses are trapped inside the bus-only lane. Has anyone not realized that three different types of bus service will be using this lane? How are Rapids supposed to overtake locals that stop every 2-3 blocks? How fast can a 920 be when it makes so few stops that it’s best for it to be in the center lanes, where all the congestion would be? In order for bus-only lanes to work, Metro would need to take two lanes of traffic in each direction, not just one.

This congestion ripples through the system. We can assume that the only people driving on Wilshire are going to be drivers who have a destination on or near Wilshire. Some others will opt to drive on the east-west arterials, such as Santa Monica, Olympic and Pico Boulevards, and east of Beverly Hills, Beverly Boulevard, Third Street, and Sixth and Eighth streets in Koreatown and downtown. The added traffic will end up severely slowing down bus services on these streets.

There’s one additional problem: the Orange Line effect. After a daily ridership of somewhere between 20,000 and 25,000, Metro has admitted that the Zevway is operating beyond its capacity. This is a service that has a street all to itself and represents the truest representation of bus rapid transit, yet it has an upper limit of 20,000. Well, the 720 corridor is at 70,000 boardings. No bus-only system can, will or should handle such an extreme burden.

Wad: No doubt about it. You did unintentionally leave yourself open to:

I’d rather pay $5 billion to get it right the first time than $250 million to get it wrong forever.

Dawg replies:
It wasn’t unintentional. I don’t mind discussing good enough versus perfect but I honestly don’t know what is gained with even considering half-assed implementations except to avoid the eye-popping price of good enough.

Ahhhh, Earthday, now with extra fumes!

And that’s not even taking the patchouli and incense into consideration!

I can only hope the next time there is a suggestion to take away a lane for other uses the lesson is learned.

No doubt about it. You did unintentionally leave yourself open to:

I’d rather pay $5 billion to get it right the first time than $250 million to get it wrong forever.