Celebrate SWIFT Tomorrow

Tomorrow Community Transit will be opening the State's first Bus Rapid Transit Route.

Join Transportation Choices as we celebrate SWIFT's opening with our friends at Community Transit. We will be handing out stickers, chatting about transit, and signing people up as members during Community Transit's celebration from 2-4 Crossroads Swift Station at Highway 99 and 196th Street in Lynnwood.

For more information see Community Transit's SWIFT project page.

Stop by tomorrow, take a ride on BRT, grab a sticker, and say hello to Jenn, Rob, and Andrew from TCC.

Seattle Times Sends Praise to Community Transit's BRT Line

The Seattle Times has a in-depth Op-Ed today on Community Transit's soon to be opened SWIFT Bus Rapid Transit line.

For those of you who attended our visioning Town Hall in June you heard from SWIFT project manager, June DeVol, about the project.

I had the chance to tour the vehicles and the corridor with CT's director of government affairs, Todd Morrow, in the spring. I've posted the pictures from that tour on facebook here, check them out to get a sense of how SWIFT will feel and look.

As an organization Transportation Choices Coalition is excited for the opening of the SWIFT BRT project. I think more than anything this is a great example of how transit agencies can leverage local investments (the cities paid for the BAT lanes that will be for bus and right turn access only) and state and federal grants, to produce a high quality transit service.

As I was reading the opinion article I was worried that the light rail skeptic Seattle Times might turn a pro-BRT story into an anti-light rail story.

"Projected savings for BRT over light rail can be dramatic, and they were appealing in the middle 1990s as Puget Sound debated a regional transit solution. They came up again in 2005 as the community pondered phase two of Sound Transit. How to get across the I-90 bridge: light rail or BRT?

Early on, U.S. cities that embraced BRT went for separated guideways. Those plans — and eventual expansion — came with their own expensive right-of-way issues, same as light rail.

Thankfully, the piece alludes to the that long-term operating costs are on rail often justify the high upfront price tag and make more sense in many high density corridors (such as connecting Seattle to Bellevue over the Lake).

High-capacity rail is expensive to build but spreads those capital costs over a long timeline. Moving lots and lots of passengers along dense corridors makes the most sense. I do not see transit agencies hiring armies of bus and van drivers with medical and pension plans to cover.

Community Transit's Swift is truly a model of bus rapid transit, not simply shaving time off express bus runs. I want this effort to thrive and be instructive.

Dickie got it right. Washington State residents need more transportation choices across the board, that is why at TCC we wake up every day to deliver just that. We need fast, efficient, and easy to use BRT and light rail corridors across the state. Local BRT stretching down 99 from Tacoma to Everett would compliment a regional commuter rail and light rail system. People need more high frequency convenient transit, whether its to travel 2 miles down the street to the grocery store or 30 miles to visit family or commute to work. This fall I look forward to taking our first ride on SWIFT, Washington's first bus line with dedicated branding and right of way, hopefully other transit agencies can secure local and state funding in order to replicate Community Transit's Bus Rapid Transit Model.

Bus Rapid Transit and Climate Change in the New York Times

The New York Times has an in depth article today discussing the connection between climate change, transportation sector emissions, and how Bus Rapid Transit systems can help solve the problem. It is well worth a read.

The story states, "in the booming cities of Asia, Africa and Latin America account for a rapidly growing component of heat-trapping gases linked to global warming. While emissions from industry are decreasing, those related to transportation are expected to rise more than50 percent by 2030 in industrialized and poorer nations." Often times climate change related emission reduction efforts are focused on power and efficiency, both of which are very important. That said, this statistic reasserts that transportation planning is a crucial component to greenhouse gas emission reduction worldwide (in Washington State's transportation emissions account for 47% of emissions).

The article points to Botoga's highly acclaimed BRT system, TransMilenio , as an successful example.

Bus rapid transit systems like Bogotá’s, called TransMilenio, might hold an answer. Now used for an average of 1.6 million trips each day, TransMilenio has allowed the city to remove 7,000 small private buses from its roads, reducing the use of bus fuel — and associated emissions — by more than 59 percent since it opened its first line in 2001, according to city officials.

1.6 Million trips per day just on their BRT system is phenomenal. Bogata is quite a bit bigger than Seattle, but to give you an idea metro's systemwide ridership on an average weekday in 2007 was 365,000.

The story goes on to get into a few stories of what TransMilenio has done for commuters and discusses the diffrence in branding between buses and true BRT:

Mr. Peñalosa noted that the negative stereotypes about bus travel required some clever rebranding. Now, he said, upscale condominiums advertise that they are near TransMilenio lines. “People don’t say, ‘I’m taking the bus,’ they say, ‘I’m taking TransMilenio,’ ” he added, as he rode at rush hour recently, chatting with other passengers.

Jorge Engarrita, 45, a leather worker who was riding TransMilenio to work, said the system had “changed his life,” reducing his commuting time to 40 minutes with one transfer from two or three hours on several buses. Free shuttle buses carry residents from outlying districts to TransMilenio terminals.

For a great video on how TransMilenio works check out this Streetfilms video.

As someone who has experience South American BRT personally , I am continually impressed how large South American cities especially Bogata continue to highlight their success with a fast and efficient BRT systems. Both the Quito and Bogata systems function better than any attempts at BRT regionally so far for two key reasons:

-True right of way that is dedicated solely for Bus Rapid Transit and not shared with other buses or cars. These lanes have controlled access like a rail line and never get stuck in traffic.

-Stations that function and feel like a rail line where you buy a ticket to get into the station and you can not pay onboard (Swift is going to be the first BRT system in the region that has this benefit to speed up boarding).