Comment 98151

By highwater (registered) | Posted March 03, 2014 at 13:43:24 in reply to Comment 98146

From where I'm sitting, the only people I see engaging in 'all-or-nothing' rhetoric are LRT opponents who are attempting to divide the city by portraying LRT as something that will only benefit downtown. It is important to remember that B-line LRT is only phase 1. Phase 2 is A-line LRT. The best way of ensuring that the mountain and suburbs enjoy the benefits of higher order transit in the future, is to ensure that the first phase is successful. As B-line already has the ridership to justify investment in LRT, it offers the best chance of success, and thus the best chance of ensuring the expansion of LRT to other parts of the city.

While the study's conclusion that TOD's mode is irrelevant to its ROI is contentious, one thing the authors make very clear is that, rather than mode, the chief determinants for success involve strict planning policies to encourage mixed use, walkable development along transit corridors - specifically strictly limiting parking to encourage transit use - as well as the development potential of the land along those corridors.

The only way we would ever achieve an equivalent ROI from BRT vs. LRT, is if we are willing and able to make and implement what would be dramatic zoning changes (including draconian parking measures) in the lower density areas you would like to see covered in an initial phase. I would imagine support for BRT on the mountain would diminish considerably once people saw the kind of zoning restrictions and land use patterns that would have to be put in place in order for BRT to achieve the same success as LRT. The study's authors would be the first ones to agree that without those policies in place, BRT's equivalence to LRT in terms of its ROI vanishes.

Comment edited by highwater on 2014-03-03 13:55:02

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