Plan For Bus Rapid Transit To Be Unveiled
UPDATED 08/17/11 9:07 a.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) -- An ambitious plan to bring rapid transit bus service to Chicago will be unveiled later Wednesday.
As CBS 2's Kris Habermehl reports, the plan by the Metropolitan Transit Council calls for starting a network of 10 new Chicago Transit Authority bus rapid transit routes, covering about 95 miles made up mostly of bus-only lanes, the Chicago Tribune explained.
Bus stops would be set up every half mile, where passengers would pre-pay their fares like at 'L' stations, rather than paying them on the bus, the Tribune reported.
The non-profit, non-partisan transit council, which encourages public-private partnerships to spur neighborhood development, says the rapid transit buses would whisk passengers at 20 to 25 mph down major thoroughfares.
"Our model has a bus running every five to 10 minutes, and our research shows that the elimination of a lane of traffic would result in only a 1 mph change, to 16 mph from 17 mph, in traffic speed," said Peter Skosey, council vice president, in a presentation to the Sun-Times editorial board on Tuesday.
The buses' dedicated lanes could be shared by regular CTA buses, getting the stop-and-go bus traffic out of drivers' way.
The cost of constructing a bus rapid transit network is estimated at $13.3 million per mile, compared with $96 million per mile to build the rail structure for an 'L' line, the Tribune reported.
The Metropolitan Planning Council foresees linking the routes to schools, hospitals, universities, entertainment venues, shopping malls, affordable housing neighborhoods and community services such as day-care and elder-care centers.
One of the first routes that could be developed, as quickly as in two years, could traverse Western Avenue from Howard to 95th Street, stopping at DeVry Institute of Technology, Saints Mary and Elizabeth Medical Center and the Dan Ryan Woods, Skosey said.
The CTA is studying bus rapid transit routes, including on Western and Ashland avenues, but no plans are finalized, said CTA spokeswoman Catherine Hosinski.
Rapid transit bus routes would be set up along Ashland and Cicero avenues, and there would also be a route including parts of King Drive, Cottage Grove Avenue and Stony Island Avenue, Crain's Chicago Business reported. There would also be three east-west routes, on Irving Park Road, Fullerton Avenue and 95th Street, Crain's reported.
The buses would be equipped with transponders that turn traffic signals green to speed up the trip, and their platforms would be at door level to eliminate time-consuming "kneeling" that buses now do for people with special needs.
The stops for the buses are envisioned as similar to the CTA Red Line station at North and Clybourn that the Apple store renovated for $4 million — sleek, high-tech and enveloped by bike lanes, new sidewalks and landscaped greenery.
The CTA already has gotten federal money to start in fall 2012 a pilot project the length of the Jeffery bus corridor from 67th to 103rd Street, with dedicated bus lanes between 83rd and 67th streets, Hosinski said. The route would loop around on Madison and Monroe to connect to the Metra stations.
Several cities in the United States already have dedicated BRT routes, including Eugene, Ore., Cleveland, Ohio and Pittsburgh, Pa.
The Chicago Sun-Times contributed to this report, via the Sun-Times Media Wire.
