Stop 2700 Sloat

Proposed monstrosity at 2700 Sloat Blvd.

The perils of bus rapid transit

Van Ness today. Note the traffic jam, made worse by the loss of a traffic lane.

From Randal O'Toole:

Ten years ago, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (Muni) decided to build a two-mile long busway on Van Ness Avenue, dedicating two lanes of the six-lane street exclusively to buses. The project was supposed to cost $125.6 million and make transit more attractive by speeding up buses....

The busway opened for business last week after more than a decade of planning and six years of construction. The final cost turned out to be $345.9 million, a mere 175 percent cost overrun. Ridership on Muni buses is currently about half what it was before the pandemic....

Since this is just two miles long, the average cost was $173 million per mile. That would have been considered unthinkably expensive for light rail a couple of decades ago. The idea that mere bus lanes should cost that much is ridiculous.

See also This just in: Van Ness BRT project is a fiasco!