You may not like the fact that I call cars and buses and even trains ‘people killers’ or ‘death monsters,’ but that’s how I feel about them, and it’s true even if it’s not a fair and full accounting and description of these forms of motorized transport. Even when they don’t kill us directly, they kill us indirectly, and that goes for all motorized transport - including buses and trains. They all contribute massively to pollution, and therefore should be used as little as possible.

Buses and trains cause less pollution per passenger mile and kill fewer of us directly and indirectly than does the private automobile fleet, but is that really an apples to apples comparison? No. There are only a few buses and trains compared to private automobiles. The rate that motorized vehicles kill - be they trains, buses, cars, planes, etc. - far exceed the kill rate of pedestrians and cyclists.

And this says nothing about the incredible ability of buses to scare cyclists off the road - further adding to their indirect negative externalities they inflict against society. Are buses slightly less terrible than cars? Possibly. Slightly less terrible than trains? Possibly. But what is clear is that we need to reduce their usage as much as possible - only encouraging their use if they can manage to reduce, on the whole, the total detriment to society they bring - for instance, substantially reducing the number of cars on the road. All motorized transport need to be controlled better. Pedestrians and cyclists should be given free reign of the streets. Motorized transport should be allowed to proceed if and when pedestrians and cyclists decide to allow them to do so.

Yes, the bus driver obviously did something wrong - but that does not make all buses bad. Do you want to ban all rail-based transit because they obstruct the free and clear passage by pedestrians, and in Seattle there was a problem with bicyclists riding into the flange way of the Seattle Streetcar line (more popularly known as the SLUT.) Would you rather those bus or Streetcar passengers each be driving their own car? Presumably many transit passengers aren’t going to be able to afford a Toyota Prius they’ll likely be driving an older, less fuel efficient, less clean vehicle. I’d rather have good transit.

As for “BRT”, I can tell you simply by looking at the rear of the bus that that was not a BRT system. That’s a MCI D4500 series bus - it’s similar to the kind of bus that Greyhound uses or a charter bus outfit, or a transit agency on an intercity commuter route - and not one you would find on a BRT system or a local bus route - it’s like saying that all cars are bad and showing a picture of a crash during a NASCAR race. On my bicycle, I tend to follow the maritime rule of “smaller vessels yield to larger vessels”. Yes, sometimes I might have the legal right-of-way, but I’d rather lose ten seconds of my time rather than end up in a hospital having emergency surgery and fighting for my life.

As for America, there are only three real-ish BRT systems in existence - LA, Boston, Cleveland. I don’t know the bike policies of those.

Nor do I know if they ban local bus service.

And you do realize that one of the major draws of BRTs is that they are flexible? Because buses are flexible - they can go anywhere, run over anything. It’s a big part of why I dislike buses, and BRT.

Or if you realize that BRT is completely separated from other traffic. You would not be riding your bike in a BRT lane. Seriously do you guys like having your heads up your asses? Have you ever been somewhere that BRT was implemented? Did you see cars sharing the area with the buses? Bikes? Get out of your little bubble sometime and think!
I ride a bike everyday and i would love to see some real transit created in this city, like BRT. Invest now or you will pay for it later.

What are you talking about? Have you ever been to Curitiba or Bogota? Have you even seen the Orange Line in LA? Do you even know what BRT is?

It’s one of the best, fastest, cheapest ways to fix our transportation crisis in San Francsico and as someone who claims to care about better transportation, it’s very puzzling that you’d take a negative view. I suspect you’re not really sure what it is, please do some homework man.