[PRCo] Re: PATransit East Busway

[Herb Brannon]

Yes there are lots of busways, shortcut tunnels, HOV lanes and transit
by-passes but not much real Bus Rapid Transit as defined by the American
Public Transit Association in the APTA Manual of Standards. APTA considers
the following as BRT systems:
* Boston   Silverline
*Cleveland   Healthline
*Eugene, OR   EmX
*Everett, WA   Swift
*Kansas City, MO   MAX
*Los Angeles   Orange Line/Metro RapidBus
*Las Vegas   MAX
*Pittsburgh   East Busway/West Busway  (Sorry, not the South one)
*Oakland, CA
*York, ON
*Ottawa, ON

>From the APTA standards these items are "some" (not all) of the things
which set the BRT service apart from regular bus service:

2.2.3 Elements of the BRT system:

The physical elements of the overall BRT system have a major impact of the
brand or image of the system. These physical elements may include the
following:

*Rapid Transit type vehicles (buses)
*Station design and configuration
*Running way, including grade separation, exclusive lane
*Fare collection on-board or off-board
*Traffic signal prioritization
*Level boarding
*Use of advanced ITS features

Like I said, all I wanted was a general figure of average daily ridership
on the Pittsburgh East Busway.






On Sat, Dec 17, 2011 at 12:50, John Swindler <j_swindler at hotmail.com> wrote:

>
>
>
> What about the Providence tunnel??
>
> And South Busway preceeded the East Busway.
>
> There was also an El Monte busway, but memory is failing with that one.
>  Fred????
>
> Also Harrisburg had a busway, but taxpayers didn't pay for it, and the
> merchants had it converted to parking 15-20 years ago.  This is another one
> needing clarification from  Fred.
>
>
>
> > From: fwschneider at comcast.net
> > Subject: [PRCo] Re: PATransit East Busway
> > Date: Fri, 16 Dec 2011 21:42:29 -0500
> > To: pittsburgh-railways at dementix.org
> >
> > Herb:
> > Pittsburgh's East Busway was far from the first......
> >
> > The earliest that I can think of was probably the conversion of the
> Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Company's line from Llanerch to
> Ardmore to a reserved bus highway. When? Perhaps sometime in 1967. Does it
> work? It is still exclusively a SEPTA facility but that route, since it's
> conversion, has become one of SEPTA's least popular services. Off peak
> weekdays is hourly. Rush hour frequencies ... 15 to 30 minutes. It uses the
> smallest vehicles in SEPTA's fleet. You will probably find more people
> bicycles and skateboards on the busway than actual buses.
> >
> > http://www.septa.org/schedules/bus/pdf/103.pdf
> >
> >
> >
> > Shirley Busway (Shirley Highway) out of Arlington, Virginia was probably
> the first busway in 1969, 15 years before PAT East Busway. It simply became
> an HOV lane open to buses and high occupancy motor vehicles. It has been
> underutilized for years, probably because the Metrorail blue line also goes
> to Springfield and perhaps the riders feel the subway offers a more
> comfortable / dependable ride that a bus on the interstate. I saw a recent
> number of 7700 riders but it was a spot survey and I don't know if it was
> all day or just peak. The excerpt below from Wikipedia explains....
> >
> >
> > HOV facility
> >
> > Cars on I-395, leaving Washington, D.C.(in distance) and passing by the
> Pentagon inArlington, Virginia.
> > I-395 contains a reversible, barrier-separated HOV facility, also known
> locally as the "express lanes", with its own entrances and exits, provided
> as a third roadway of Interstates 395 and 95 between South Eads Street near
> the Pentagon in Arlington County and State Route 234 in Prince William
> County, Virginia.[2] During rush hour, the HOV facility operates in the
> direction of rush-hour traffic and is restricted to vehicles containing
> three or more passengers. Motorcycles, alternative fuel cars, hybrids
> registered in Virginia before July 1, 2006, and federal law enforcement
> vehicles are also permitted to use HOV lanes, even if carrying only one
> occupant. At other times, the facility is either open to all traffic in one
> direction or closed to all traffic.[3]
> > The facility was initially constructed with a single lane as the first
> busway in the United States before being expanded and converted to HOV use.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > El Monte Busway (Southern California Rapid Transit District) opened in
> 1974. I found a patronage number of 40,000 a day. That busway lane has also
> become a HOV lane. This is in the San Bernardino Freeway (Interstate 10).
> The Southern Pacific, now BNSF, is in the middle .... it is actually the
> old Pacific Electric line to San Bernardino. The freeway lanes flank the
> railroad with the busway (HOV) lanes closest to the railroad.
> >
> > I wrote a issue of Headlights back in 1974 comparing light rail and
> busways. John Swindler will probably recall that it got us a lot of hate
> mail. One of the chaps who was most vocal actually owned several buses so I
> asked him why he was so upset. His response was that he wanted his trolleys
> and his buses kept separate and they should not be compared. :<) I recall
> making a statement in that article that the automobile clubs / concrete and
> highway lobbyists will probably be delighted with the busway concept
> because when it fails, they will get an extra freeway lane free. Well ...
> they got an extra lanes on both I-395 and I-10 for the taking.
> >
> >
> > On Dec 16, 2011, at 8:34 PM, Herb Brannon wrote:
> >
> > > That's a good enough answer. I was discussing Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)
> with
> > > a couple of my TTC friends. They came up with several BRT systems and
> the
> > > average ridership but did not mention Pittsburgh's Busways. The East
> Busway
> > > was one of the first in North America being opened in 1983 and I just
> > > needed a very average figure to put along with my mention of the East
> > > Busway. In fact I reduced the passenger count down to 24,000 weekday
> > > riders. I'm sure the 30,000 figure was during the economic "good
> times" of
> > > the 1990s.
> > > If anyone wants to do the finite research then have at it. It would be
> > > interesting to see what the figures are now.
> > >
> > > On Fri, Dec 16, 2011 at 14:24, Derrick Brashear <shadow at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > >
> > >> you found an answer which may have been correct for some point in
> > >> time. there's no date there.
> > >>
> > >> On Fri, Dec 16, 2011 at 1:22 PM, Herb Brannon <hrbran at cavtel.net>
> wrote:
> > >>> Found the answer on the "Pittsburgh Highways" website:
> > >>> This busway serves downtown Pittsburgh, East End, and the eastern
> suburbs
> > >>> of Allegheny County. The average rider ship for routes using the
> busway
> > >>> are 30,000 daily and 7.5 million a year. It is designed for speeds up
> > >> to
> > >>> 55 MPH, lower speed limits are applied in some twists in the valley.
> > >>>
> > >>> On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 17:09, Herb Brannon <hrbran at cavtel.net>
> wrote:
> > >>>
> > >>>> There still has to be an "average" number of passengers carried each
> > >>>> weekday on the East Busway on all routes. The average number of
> light
> > >> rail
> > >>>> passengers (from all rail routes) is over 24,000 per day. I just
> need to
> > >>>> know the "KISS" rough average of all passengers carried on the East
> > >> Busway.
> > >>>> Where they come from makes no difference.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> The PATransit website gives light rail and "total" bus (all routes
> > >>>> systemwide) figures for each day but does not break down the
> difference
> > >>>> between local bus, express, and Busway daily totals.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 15:18, Fred Schneider <
> fwschneider at comcast.net
> > >>> wrote:
> > >>>>
> > >>>>> That would be difficult to ascertain because, unlike the Newark
> City
> > >>>>> Subway today and more like the subway as original configured, the
> East
> > >>>>> Busway is a funnel for many routes in the east end.
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> Are you trying to find a number for simply the passengers who
> board at
> > >>>>> stations along the busway, or board downtown and get off along the
> > >> busway?
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> Or are you looking for a total of all riders on the routes that
> use the
> > >>>>> busway, which would be much larger number? If you want everything
> > >> using
> > >>>>> the busway, you have to consider multiple agencies Herb.
> Westmoreland
> > >>>>> County Transit Authority buses running into Pittsburgh also use the
> > >> busway.
> > >>>>> It is not limited to just PAT routes.
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> On Dec 15, 2011, at 12:23 PM, Herb Brannon wrote:
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>> Does anyone know the average daily ridership on the East Busway?
> > >>>>>> --
> > >>>>>> Herb Brannon
> > >>>>>> In Cuyahoga Valley National Park
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>
> > >>>>
> > >>>> --
> > >>>> Herb Brannon
> > >>>> In Cuyahoga Valley National Park
> > >>>>
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> --
> > >>> Herb Brannon
> > >>> In Cuyahoga Valley National Park
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> --
> > >> Derrick
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Herb Brannon
> > > In Cuyahoga Valley National Park
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>


-- 
Herb Brannon
In Cuyahoga Valley National Park