They didn’t, and it’s typical of the kind of bait-and-switch that’s standard practice when implementing a BRT system. You start out with Curitiba and after everyone’s objections are taken into account, you wind up with a bus that’s just like the old one but painted a different color.

People need to stop fixating on BRT or LRT or whatever the mode-du-jour RT is being pedalled. There are plenty examples of half empty streetcars operting around the country, as there examples of BRT running not very rapidly. Any alternative will only be successful if it is supported by and part of a wider range of policies that promote sound planning with tangible benefits to all!

There are some big problems with what you are saying and the comparisons you are making. First because of the limited width of the street in the outer borough BRT corridors and the fact that most of them are two-way, you cant fit boarding islands and more radical measures into the right of way. Both Geary and Van Ness have tremendous rights-of-way that don’t exist on Nostrand Avenue, for example. And the more dramatic the plans certainly the more radical the opposition.

Second, the comparison to San Francisco is ludicrous given that we want to push NYC to do things dramitically and fast. Look at those links and the history. Geary alone is a 3 year study and AFTER those three years then the EIS process will begin. From study to target for “Phase 1″ (a likely limited implementation, not what you see in the renderings) you are talking about 2004 to 2011. Add this to the fact that the Geary corridor was supposed to get BART train service in the original 1970s plan and we are talking about a municipal failure to provide mass transit here nearly on the scale of the 2nd Avenue subway. They’ve been talking BRT for Geary through the late 1990s. What’s the big delay? Well, basically because parking and car loving NIMBYs have ridiculous amounts of power in San Francisco despite the look-at-me-liberal talk. All the processes they are doing is to get around them/convince them/keep their lawsuits from freezing everything (look at the non-implementation of the SF Bike Master Plan as an example.)

Thankfully, in New York, NIMBY’s generally don’t have that kind of power so if the City gets the right push and advocates out-organize them, they can be beaten.

Please find a better example than SF to compare NYC to. How about LA’s MetroRapid — that is an impressive story. If NYC had a fancy rendering like SF would that make you happier?

I know you’re a busy guy, but I’ve posted this link here before, and I’m hoping that some day a transit advocate that supports BRT will tell me why it’s wrong:

http://www.lightrailnow.org/facts/fa_brt.htm

We are hoping that new MTA and new NYC DOT leadership will review the city projects and focus on getting a few really good models in place. There are some win-win outcomes that can be achieved that get beyond saying Queens residents are jerks for defending their parking spaces. Note that the SF options which the planners say work the best do not take any curb lane space at all.

The downtown bus bulbs are a good development but shouldn’t be seen as something that alone delivers “rapid” bus service. They in fact could and should be implemented on every bus route in the city.

Those San Fran BRT plans look a lot like what I saw in Paris. The Parisian BRT guys were saying that the BRT lines that run down the middle of the Avenue, two-way, with a station in the median right in the middle, were the corridors that were performing best, by far.

Indeed the NYC BRT designs do not seem to be all that ambitious by comparison but do you see any amount of advocacy changing the plan or the design at this point?

a lot of queens doesn’t have subway service. bus rapid transit can help ALLEVIATE the attending problems. these kinds of complaints are *the* reasons why streetsblog and streetfilms are so important.

Meanwhile, the situation continues to spiral down the drain.

DOUBLE PARK TO SEE THE DOCTOR??
most doctor visits include at least a half hour in the waiting room!!!