Does the Drag Need Bus Lanes?
Several weeks ago, I got into a Twitter argument with several Austin urbanists over whether we, as transit advocates, ought to push for bus lanes on the Drag. (Or as we call them in Austin, “transit priority” lanes.)
The context: The city released a conceptual makeover for Guadalupe Street, perhaps the single most gridlocked street in Austin, that would add curbside bus lanes as part of the 2016 Mobility Bond renovations. However, the proposed lanes have seemingly been dropped from current construction plans. It seems the city’s transportation department is content with business-as-usual on the Drag.
Last month, both AURA — Austin’s leading urbanist organization — and the city’s transit-friendly Urban Transportation Commission called for transit priority to be reinstated. More recently, Jack Craver on his Austin Politics blog lent his support, too.
Bus lane backers argue that giving transit priority on Austin’s busiest street is a no-brainer. The lanes would zip bus riders through traffic, draw people out of their cars and onto Cap Metro, and move more people than car lanes do on the scarce space of Guadalupe Street. (All while halting climate change and saving the whole damn city — or something like that.)
To a certain extent, that’s true — curbside bus lanes would certainly do some good for transit. The question this skeptic is asking is how substantial that benefit would be.
Would bus lanes be effective?
After all, let’s not forget that bus lanes would still be shared with right-turning traffic, plenty of which is present on the Drag, especially at 21st, 24th, and Dean Keeton Streets. Also, the Drag is so narrow that bus lanes would also act as bike lanes, which would force buses to share the lane with slow, unpredictable cyclists (i.e., UT students on B-cycles). You can refer to the performance of the existing curbside bus lanes on Guadalupe and Lavaca Streets as evidence.
Finally, buses would be unable to pass each other in the bus lanes, which would lead to backups at stops that MetroRapid does not share with local buses. Take northbound UT/West Mall as an example — the MetroRapid stop is on the far-side of a pedestrian crossing while the MetroBus stop is on the near-side. If a MetroRapid bus arrives just ahead of a local bus, there’s no problem, but if the order is switched around, then the MetroRapid bus gets stuck behind a local bus while that local makes a stop.
This too is a common problem with the existing bus lanes, and it would most likely be exacerbated on the Drag. You can rest assured that no driver would surrender the only car lane to yield to a bus passing another bus.
Cap Metro’s staff estimate, conservatively, that the lanes would save just one to three minutes per direction per bus run, which doesn’t seem very impressive considering my Airport Flyer routinely runs over fifteen minutes late. But as always, faster service is cheaper and more attractive service (yada yada yada), so the lanes would also save up to $1.3 million in annual operating costs and draw 850 more riders each day.
But I wouldn’t call that significant when the FY 2018 operating budget totals $250 million and weekday ridership stands at about 68,000. You have to wonder if those relatively measly benefits are worth fighting for road space for.
Perhaps bus lanes are more about making a political statement than pumping up ridership and lowering costs. After all, supporters argue, they would be the unmistakable “stake in the ground” that signals Austin is finally getting serious about public transit.
And so, my second question is if implementing bus lanes would make for good politics.
Would bus lanes boost public transportation, or kill it?
In the spirit of Jarrett Walker’s latest Human Transit post, let me remind you that “politics” is not some nebulous force that stubbornly opposes all progress. It reflects the popular will of our elected officials and the people you know and interact with everyday.
Perfectly reasonable people who simply cannot imagine the Drag losing half of its automobile lanes.
Remember that no matter how progressive Austin aspires to be, driving everywhere is the status quo. Even for college students. In my time at UT, I have met plenty of Austin-loving, California-hating, tree-hugging, bag-reusing, straight-Democrat-voting, Dallas-or-Houston-exurb-originating students who love the idea of a traffic-beating bus or train in theory, but would never support axing two lanes from Guadalupe to build it. They simply couldn’t imagine it; it’s baked into their DNA.
You and I and every other pro-transit person know they’re wrong, but understand — that’s just the way most freedom-loving Americans think.
Would implementing bus lanes spark a paradigm shift and convince Austinites put transit before cars? I’d like to think so, but bus lanes always create backlash. Inevitably, business owners complain (wrongly) about lost patronage, parking, and delivery spaces. Motorists write letters and op-eds moaning (wrongly) about “empty” bus lanes. And sometimes, conservative transportation departments see the loss in traffic flow and declare (wrongly) the bus lanes a failure.
That’s exactly what happened in Los Angeles back in 2006, when Wilshire Boulevard — the busiest bus and auto corridor in the city — lost its pilot bus lane because the city’s department of transportation threw a hissy fit over increased travel times. LADOT went on to stonewall new bus lanes in Los Angeles for nearly a decade.
Could something similar happen in Austin? My sense is that Austinites are willing to lose 1/3 or 1/4 general-purpose lanes on the Guadalupe/Lavaca couplet, but not 1/2 on the Drag, which has few north-south alternative routes. Even if the lanes are a success and they stay put, the backlash might be enough to torpedo any large-scale transit investments, like the initiatives that will eventually emerge out of Project Connect.
My point is — bus lanes would do some good, but if you’re going to pick a fight with hostile motorists, hit ‘em hard. Make the benefit be something truly transformative that everyone can agree is worth the trade-off, like quality light rail or bus rapid transit on a dedicated guideway.
Does the Drag need bus lanes? Maybe so. But why fight that fight when a vastly improved transit system is just around the corner? As far as the build-roads-and-nothing-else camp is concerned, public transportation is down 3–1. Austin transit advocates would be wise to save their strength and pass up this battle.
