Published Friday, February 1, 2008, by the Berkeley Daily Planet

Letters to the Editor

BRT PROBLEMS IN OAKLAND

I want to thank J. Douglas Allen-Taylor for letting us know about
some very troubling BRT complications in his piece, "BRT Runs into
Delay in Central Oakland." (Jan. 25). It is clear that establishing
an exclusive bus-only lane in central Oakland would cause significant
traffic delays—slowing not only automobile and truck traffic but also
the buses themselves! The consulting engineer's estimated traffic
delays of up to two minutes on a 1,000-yard stretch of roadway are
indeed problematic -- and show that implementing BRT might actually
lengthen the travel time current bus riders spend on that part of the
route, as well as increasing the overall time along the entire route.
It's no wonder that AC Transit Board Vice President Rebecca Kaplan
stated recently, "That is enough of a delay to destroy the whole
purpose of rapid transit."

For a problem of this magnitude to appear so late in the process
shows how poorly conceived the entire BRT scheme is, and illustrates
a wholesale failure of AC Transit officials to plan adequately to
meet our transit needs. Instead of spending taxpayer money on trying
to fit a poorly-suited and costly BRT system into this area, they
should have been working to develop a fleet of smaller local buses
that would serve more people and link up more effectively with BART
for regional travel.

It's time for AC Transit to change its approach and begin to work
with the people in the communities it serves to find out what transit
improvements they would prefer -- instead of just working with
insiders who stand to benefit from the construction of BRT. Either
that, or it's time to consider recalling the entire AC Transit Board.

Doug Buckwald

[BATN: See also:

Bus-only BRT lane may not be possible in downtown Oakland
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/37085 ]

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