Room for Improvement

Public Transit's Quickest Fix: Revolutionize the Bus

Yglesias recently linked to a great New York magazine article, " Subway on the Street," positing that focusing on across-the-board improvements to buses would be the simplest, least expensive way to improve public transportation. Here's a four-point plan: 1.

 From 2010...

From article, (Here's a four-point plan:

1. Pay on the street
More than a third of all bus delays can be attributed to the time it takes passengers to board. Here they will swipe their MetroCards at street kiosks before the bus arrives.

2. Enter at the back
A new fleet of buses improve boarding time by being lower to the ground—and allowing rear-door entrance.

3. Hold the light green
Soon after Select Bus Service launches, buses will be equipped with “signal prioritization” technology that tells upcoming traffic lights to delay turning red.

4. Own the lane
A painted lane will be reserved for buses, and cameras will photograph stray cars and trucks. But some activists—and politicians—criticize the program for not including physically separated lanes.)

Me, "I still think there is room for improvement by physically separating the lanes. At least in this way you never have to worry about cars and trucks entering this lane. I think another solution would be to move the lanes from the right side of the street to the left or middle. There would be a concrete barrier that kept cars and trucks out and when you came to an intersection special merging lanes with SBS so they could turn left. You have a lot of drivers who make right hand turns into businesses and come into conflict with this SBS lane. If you have a four or five lane road, you could turn two of them in to two SBS lanes one in each direction with a plaza set up near SBS stops to pool bus riders,"

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