Bus Rapid Transit

How substantial are the benefits delivered by federal investment in bus rapid transit projects, and how can the feds help local governments build better bus improvements? A new report from the non-partisan Government Accountability Office [PDF] looks at the results of BRT projects that have been completed in 20 cities since 2005, when SAFETEA-LU expanded federal funding eligibility for such projects. The GAO found that almost all of the projects have proven successful as cost-effective upgrades to increase ridership, but it also identified a few ways that federal policy provides incentives for local governments to avoid building bus projects that meet the standards for high-quality BRT.

When it comes to building a new Tappan Zee Bridge for drivers, the Cuomo administration says there's no time to waste and only a gold-plated, super-wide span will do. But don't ask them how they plan to pay for it, or how high tolls will be.

The Cuomo administration keeps finding obstacles to Tappan Zee Bridge transit that don't exist. Chief among them is a phony $5 billion price tag, but there are others as well.

Earlier this week, Streetsblog reported that Governor Andrew Cuomo is dishonestly overstating the cost of building Tappan Zee Bridge transit. Cuomo has repeatedly said that building a 30-mile bus rapid transit system would cost $5 billion, and that the state can't afford to spend that much. But that number is inflated by the inclusion of billions of dollars in highway improvements, like new climbing lanes for trucks, many of which are entirely unrelated to providing transit.

At the beginning of the week, Governor Andrew Cuomo launched a media offensive to defend his decision to halt all work on building new transit infrastructure across the Tappan Zee Bridge. "The bus system would roughly double the cost of the bridge," Cuomo told radio host Fred Dicker.

After reporting yesterday that the Westchester and Rockland county executives have the power to put the brakes on Governor Andrew Cuomo's plans for a new Tappan Zee Bridge built without transit, Streetsblog received an email from Cuomo spokesperson Matt Wing. Wing, who has in the past told us that we were not to contact the governor's office for Tappan Zee questions, but send them instead to the Thruway Authority, complained that we hadn't reached out to him and insisted that we include this statement:

The New York City Council has learned to stop worrying and love the bus lane. In a transportation hearing held this morning on the topic of outer borough transit, not a single person, whether on the council or testifying before it, had a bad word to say about NYC's Select Bus Service program, which has consistently increased speeds and ridership where implemented. In a span of just a few years, SBS appears to have become a permanent and popular part of New York City's transit toolkit -- and one that will continue to expand.

Select Bus Service is a big success on First and Second Avenues and 34th Street. Speeds are up, ridership is up, and the MTA is using the time savings to run even more buses along the busy corridors. So where in Manhattan is next for the popular package of bus improvements? One group of uptown transit riders hopes the answer is 125th Street.

New York City's fourth Select Bus Service route will travel down Staten Island's Hylan Boulevard as soon as this September. The improvements are expected to speed travel times by 20 percent along the island's second-busiest route, according to a report by the MTA [PDF].