BRT and Berkeley

Cancelled

From the Berkeley Daily Planet:

Bus Rapid Transit is coming, and it slows down bus service

Russ Tilleman

Friday July 22, 2016

I recently considered taking the AC Transit 1R Rapid Bus from my home near Telegraph in Berkeley to the Registrar of Voters office by Lake Merritt in Oakland. When I went online to check the schedule, I was surprised to find that the 1R wasn't listed.Here is what I found on the transit.wiki website: 

"AC Transit 1R This route has been discontinued. Canceled due to BRT construction. AC Transit 1 provides local service along the corridor between San Leandro and Oakland. AC Transit 6 provides local service between Oakland and Berkeley." 

My understanding is that this is a permanent change caused by BRT, and not just an inconvenience during the construction project. 

AC TRANSIT BROKE THE 1 IN HALF AND GOT RID OF RAPID BUSES 

So now, with the coming of BRT, instead of an express bus that ran from San Leandro to Berkeley and back, riders will have to transfer between the non-express 6 and the non-express 1. 

When I predicted that the small speed increase of BRT wasn't worth the massive cost and environmental damage, it didn't even occur to me that BRT would make bus service slower. 

Now AC Transit is spending $174 million on a project to slow down bus service. That money could have put solar panels on the roofs of thousands of homes and actually helped the environment. 

IF FASTER IS BETTER, SLOWER MUST BE WORSE 

According to AC Transit's arguments that slightly faster bus service would get drivers out of their cars, much slower bus service will presumably get people off the bus and into their cars. 

And people called me an anti-environmentalist!