Cheap East-West BRT

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JBmidtown
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Cheap East-West BRT

Post by JBmidtown »

Hi, I'm new on this forum and also have no experience with professional engineering, urban planning/design, architecture, etc. but I use the bus system in Kansas City as my sole form of transportation...and it sucks. I came up with some very general and unrefined fantasies of what I think would drastically improve transit in the urban core and was hoping to run it through the crucible of opinion, so here goes.

I'm a fan of the streetcar, I really am, and I hope that it gets expanded at least north and south of the existing route and I think that's a real possibility soon. However, I just don't see current density or budget constraints supporting new streetcar lines east or west within the next couple of decades. But current east west bus routes and feeder bus routes in Kansas City are so insanely inadequate that anyone who relies on public transit in Kansas City are screwed, especially if they are relying on the bus system to get them anywhere in under a 1 hour time frame. Comparing this with other major cities' transportation schemes, this is laughable. And...it sucks.

Currently the two existing BRT lines in Kansas City operate with a few tricks that give them extra mobility and efficiency. These are semi-dedicated lanes and a rudimentary signal priority system. These allow these routes to operate with quicker speed and frequency, which is a nice relief from the other routes. My idea is to expand the east west bus capabilities with BRT systems, but utilize cheaper components/infrastructure/concepts so that the idea is more digestible to voting Kansas Citians, particularly lower income residents who rely on public transit the most.

The first infrastructure fix would be utilizing Cisco's Smart City data-gathering-"lab"-concept to drastically improve signal priority. Data from the buses (ridership, alighting time, etc) as well as intersections (traffic, pedestrians, etc.) would be relayed to the buses to provide real time signal priority that would dictate the signal cycle of the intersections as well as give drivers an accurate prediction of what to expect in each stretch of route. The buses would never have to worry about being stuck at a light.
Second, the new BRT east-west routes would be streamlined much like the current north south MAX routes. Instead of stopping every two blocks, the would stop at only high density areas (within reason to at least allow walkability to where the normal routes would have stopped). The stops themselves would be more streamlined than the current MAX stops, since real time information kiosks are no longer necessary with internet capable phones and their accessibility to all income groups.
Third, the stops would have curb level alighting abilities (not sure what the technical term for that is) with the bus to decrease alighting time.
Fourth, the east west routes (and all existing and future north south BRT routes and streetcar lines) would have offboard vending to decrease alighting dwell time. Besides developing the Smart City signal priority infrastructure, this would probably be the most expensive as far as engineering and maintenance, but ballparked the cost of implementing these based off of Houston's recent purchase of said units and found that the initial cost isn't too terrible.
I don't think dedicated lanes would be necessary considering the lower density away from Main St.

With these improvements, I think it would be nice to see 5 new BRT lines on Independence Ave, 18th St (connecting the westside to 18th and Vine or further), 31st St, 39th St and Swope PKWY. The city could purchase 15 new compressed natural gas buses equipped with the new technology, removing the buses currently serving these routes to bolster all auxiliary/feeder routes, an added plus in itself. The speed of these routes, feeding in to and dynamically coordinating with existing and future north south routes, including an extended streetcar, would make transportation within the urban core more efficient by increasing speed, which could also allow these buses to run at great frequency. And extended schedules for late night workers and party peoples! I'd also like to see a new Prospect Ave BRT line, a Westport to Crossroads BRT line and the streetcar being extended down Main St using the existing semi dedicated lanes to slightly improve the streetcar's speed.

I did some eyeballing of the numbers (but I'm not expert so I dunno) but it seemed like with the new buses, vending machines, cheap bus stops and branding, and data gathering infrastructure it would only cost about $40 million, sans southern streetcar extension, which is much more friendly than the $500 million price tag for the original streetcar extension plans.

I know it will be a little bit before the current city administration pushes for transit improvements because of the August election, but I think improving the bus system would make streetcar extensions more likely to be voted for as well.

Ok, tear me a new one with all the reasons this is not feasible.
JBmidtown
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Re: Cheap East-West BRT

Post by JBmidtown »

No bites?
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Re: Cheap East-West BRT

Post by flyingember »

First off, the last streetcar election included one major bus improvement. So there's real world history to work with.
The yes vote along the bus was almost half that of where people would pay more in property taxes. train and more taxes = higher yes vote than bus and less new taxes. Not kidding one bit.

Start with the money. You need to fund labor too and the KCATA is already under funded in that area. Unless you want ~$10 per trip fares. Labor is the big expense. Your 15 busses for 16 hour coverage (5am to 9pm) 7 days takes no less than $10 million per year in new labor costs because you didnt replace service, you added a large amount of staff. Hours of coverage makes or breaks affordability long-term. It's why you want to improve service, because lines were cut where we couldn't fund coverage. Remember, you want 7 new bus lines with frequent service. For these 15 busses

To build, Prospect MAX was a $43 million plan. 12 miles. So that's $3.5mm/mile. That's a good cost per mile to work with for faster not brt.
I'm calling this a 35 mile idea. So $120-150 million. I would guess that's well above the east sides share of the last TDD in taxes.

And if you think 15 busses will provide more frequent service run the numbers. at a fast speed of 15mph that means a bus can travel 1 mile in 4 minutes. you need 2x buses per 16 miles, one bus each direction. Except not really with lights, call it three. and 5000 hour yearly coverage is a lot of wear so make it four per corridor. And you need time for refueling across the city. And for busses to return to the maintenance yard for staff changes. So call it 5.

So now that we know it's close to 35 miles, that's 2.3x 5 busses. Or 12 busses. Not a bad estimate for 15. It's a good eyeball starting point

A minor quibble, but you assume that people on the east side all have Internet capable phones or that they want to use limited data on for bus information. And to cut the signs is disrespectful regardless. It says these areas are less important to the city. Perception matters. Troost has them, why shouldn't Indep Ave?
Last edited by flyingember on Mon Feb 02, 2015 11:18 pm, edited 4 times in total.
JBmidtown
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Re: Cheap East-West BRT

Post by JBmidtown »

Damn, all of those are really good points. Never thought of any of that before.
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Re: Cheap East-West BRT

Post by flyingember »

yeah, labor costs is the killer part of bus service improvements. there's grants and such limited term taxes that can be used for big scale projects. but then one has to pay drivers to drive the busses.

If you're talking about commuter service the math gets worse, because you have busses no picking up new fares for a long distance. You need the terminus to provide a large influx of riders.
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Re: Cheap East-West BRT

Post by DaveKCMO »

like many cities, KCMO can (and will, with streetcar) own/operate its own transit routes that connect regional routes. as long as they don't wholly duplicate existing service (which they are not with streetcar), then they would be fine. as a certified grant recipient, the city can now receive direct federal transit funds.

however, any city of a certain size that runs fixed route service must also run complementary ADA paratransit service in the same corridor and for the same hours with a fare of only double the regular service. unfortunately, that prevents a lot of cities from doing just that (it's also preventing johnson county from treating their metcalf service like a true fixed route -- versus commuter only).

a gap in the urban core was identified during the phase 2 streetcar study: connecting 18th & vine and southwest boulevard. most of that corridor is not served at all today by fixed route service.

on signal priority, travel time is not an issue outside of downtown. our signals are already working well for moving vehicles and the "rudimentary" system in place for MAX is expensive given the limited benefit. true signal priority (which is not what MAX has), is currently reserved for emergency vehicles. if you talk to KCATA staff, they will tell you fare payment and passenger boarding are the source of delays (as well as the number of stops). that's why they are looking at offboard fare payment for prospect MAX because even a dedicated lane and signal priority didn't produce enough travel time savings to score well for federal funds.
JBmidtown
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Re: Cheap East-West BRT

Post by JBmidtown »

I just wish there was a way to cover all the sprawl of the urban core more comprehensively. It seems like an almost insurmountable feat
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