Comment 105364

By jason (registered) | Posted October 14, 2014 at 14:04:30 in reply to Comment 105360

I continue to remind everyone that the ultimate 5-line LRT line includes 3 lines on the Mountain. The Mountain is proposed to see more LRT options than anywhere in the city. We can't build all 5 lines at once though. Need to start with the busiest.

Furthermore, if we utilize bidirectional BRT lanes at stations along Upper James, we could develop a BRT line at quite a low cost per km by simply repainting the lane width along the street. See Figure 5 on page 4: http://www.apta.com/resources/standards/...

Repaint Upper James lanes to be LA style 9 or 9.5 foot wide lanes. 2 NB and 2 SB for cars. That's 38 feet. Now, two 11-foot bus lanes in the centre of the street. That's a total of 60 feet. I don't know the width of Upper James from Fennell to the HSR depot, but if Main St is 50 feet, Upper James sure looks to be 60+.

Approaching signalized intersections, the bus lanes merge into 1-lane servicing the station. New BRT buses have doors on both sides allowing for this design. This creates room for auto turning lanes in both directions. Buses cross the intersection and then separate into 2 lanes again until the next intersection.

For the cost of paint, stations, transit signals (this is how the buses are kept out of the shared lane) we could see BRT-lite from Fennell to the HSR depot, and if we wanted to, along Mohawk Rd connecting with Limeridge Mall.

Eugene, OR spent $3million/km on their BRT line. Upper James 5.5 km could cost us $20-$30 million. Do some bus lane work downtown on James or John S and this could be a great way to initialize future LRT on the A-Line much sooner than thought.

The Fennell Ave link to Mohawk College would seem to be able to be a simple design using bus-only lanes in each curb lane for the block from Upper James to the college.

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