Measure KK

[darcydodo]

wageslave asked me a few days ago why I care so much about Measure KK, a local Berkeley measure that requires a vote before implementing the dedication of lanes on Telegraph (or elsewhere, potentially) to buses.

Since I just wrote a long e-mail to the Daily Cal about this, I figure I'll post it here, unlocked, in case anyone wants to read it.

~I disagree

Comments

[jholomorphic]

BRT systems have been remarkable successful in attracting ridership (in dozens of cities, even in Los Angeles, where there's certainly more attachment to driving) so it's not clear if your hypotheses depending on it being underutilized are valid. Part of the plans have included platforms in the street (I'm not up-to-the-minute), which among other things would drastically speed wheelchair/elderly boarding (they'd be at door level). Even without them, and even without the dedicated lane, the 1R really slashes the time it takes to go up Telegraph/International. (Of course

[fengshui]

I think the concern is that the bicycle lane would be placed between the bus lane and the car lane, not between the bus lane and the sidewalk.

[jholomorphic]

ah, that makes more sense (since I couldn't understand Darcy's irrational fear of sidewalks); i still think it's better than a line of car doors; cars already cut you off to turn left as it is, , and i suspect it won't be that much worse.

[fengshui]

Right, but parked cars don't move. It can be unnerving to have (big) vehicles moving past you on both sides as you're biking in the middle.

[jholomorphic]

They're more predictable. You still have to pay attention, for sure, but once you get used to it, I think it's safer. Parked cars give a false sense of security. (I'm usually in a situation where I bike between vehicles without having a separate bike lane--or any lane for that matter--and I worry much less since the driver a moving vehicle is generally noting its surroundings more carefully than the person swinging his door wide after stopping.)

[fengshui]

Fair enough. I can see that false sense of security.

[jholomorphic]

1. i meant that to be me, not anonymous.
2. i mean right. i'd better watch it when i get back to the us.

[darcydodo]

Actually, I did mean between the bus lane and the sidewalk - my concern is there wouldn't be a bicycle lane at all, meaning that the buses would be totally oblivious to the presence of cyclists. If there's a cycle lane (between the buses and the sidewalk) I'd be much less concerned. However, so far as I can tell that is not a part of the current proposal - one of my many reasons for wanting to be able to approve the proposal!!!

[darcydodo]

I personally find the scariest bit of my cycle to campus the part where Telegraph becomes one-way and there is no parking, because that's when there's no space between the buses and the kerb. Yes it's only an issue when the bus is going by, but I can't time my cycle ride to avoid buses! And yes, it means not having to worry about getting doored, but bus-drivers have no regard for cyclists.

Also, I'm not anti-BRT in general. I'm anti-poorly-thought-out-BRT. In LA, the Rapid buses primarily don't have their own lanes - they get places faster by, for example, having devices that keep traffic lights from changing if they're about to go through them. And LA has very very broad streets, with multiple lanes of traffic, so even if they did dedicate a lane to a rapid bus, it wouldn't affect traffic patterns too much. But in LA they actually built a whole new busway for the buses (one which, I might point out, includes dedicated cycle lanes). And in LA, they actually have the ridership to make it worthwhile. There's an attachment to

high pressure researchers

[jholomorphic]

Irrespective of the rest, we're in agreement that a lot of AC Transit drivers are scary drivers.

The most successful BRTs have their own lanes--it really makes a huge difference; there has been a lot of success even taking lanes on existing streets (rather than building separate corridors).

LA's bigger than the Bay Area, but the Bay Area is certainly large enough to make BRT worthwhile, e.g. the San Leandro-Berkeley corridor. The density of Oakland, e.g., is comprable to the LA/OC area, and Berkeley and SF are denser. I don't know the density of the whole East Bay; I did a cursory google search and wasn't patient enough to learn much more than that "The San Francisco Bay area contains the largest density of high-pressure researchers in the world."