San Francisco Bike Blog

There are all sorts of crazy and conflicting stories coming out of Delhi, India about their pilot/trial BRT scheme. People do seem to agree about two salient facts, however: 1) the BRT trial has many problems, and 2) pedestrians have been killed and remain in danger on the BRT corridor.

A recent article talks about some of the problems with the pilot BRT program. There’s an assorted list - some seem like they can be addressed, and others - not so much. The article includes the gargantuan photo (below) of what part of the BRT corridor looks like and lays out some of the problems with it explicitly. You’ll notice that the picture looks an awful lot like what some of us might call a ‘highway’ - it looks very similar to the Bogota BRT highways in that there appear to be lots of motorized vehicles which can kill you.

Click the picture once or twice to see what folks want Geary and Van Ness to look like.

See all those people in the middle lanes? They’re the people that have been getting injured and killed. There are very few places for them to cross - and even fewer ‘flyovers‘ - pedestrian bridges that allow people to cross the road and stay in one piece. I wonder what color our flyovers will be?

One thing you should notice, however, is way over there to the left - that’s some tree landscaping and directly adjacent to the trees are bicycle and walking paths that are physically-separated from traffic. We’re not going to get the physically-separated bicycle path in San Francisco — only third-world countries get luxuries like that. See a video clip of the bike and walk paths here.

You’ll probably notice when watching just about any video of actual BRT-type footage - not pie-in-sky simulations - that BRT systems are extremely loud - that’s because they’re highways, of course.

You’ll also notice that the much of the video footage of the Delhi BRT, like that of the Bogota BRT, seems to be shot mostly in non-residential areas. I’m not sure if this is intentional or not, but Geary and Van Ness are very residential, and if we calmed those places down a little instead of revving them up with more and bigger and faster buses, we could probably expect even more residents, more lively atmospheres, better places, more livable streets, etc.

The inhumane chaos of the cars and trucks and buses and horns and engines and exhaust along these BRT corridors - you just have to feel for the people who have to deal with it. You have to feel for the people who walk and bike along those BRT roads - it just seems so anti-human that I can barely get through watching a video, never mind actually experiencing that psychic trauma first-hand.

Indian BRT proponents point to Paris and New York as two ‘modern cities’ that have rolled out BRT (even though neither has). American BRT proponents point to Bogota. Bogota pointed to Curitiba. Curitiba didn’t have to point to anyone.

Listen, I don’t care so much if Penalosa and Lerner travel the world and preach the BRT gospel - there are suckers and schemers in every town who will want to drink that BRT poop stew. Penalosa and Lerner can get wined and dined, collect their speaking fees, whatever - more power to them - let them do the best they can to keep the auto industry alive and well by whatever means necessary.

But when they come to my town with the intention to trash it, that’s when I have to object. In the e2 series Bogota episode, Penalosa says something about not wanting to set an example for other cities, but instead just wanting to do what was best for Bogota with the limited resources they had available. I’m with that idea, as I’m sure most people would be. But I also know, as do Penalosa and Lerner, that unless they come out and say, “BRT is not for every city,” then BRT will be forced down the throats of every city and town in the world that can’t muster the political might to effectively fight it off — and that’s not right. Here in San Francisco, I’m not worried. If we end up with BRT, then we deserve it. But there are so many other cities and towns around the world that don’t have what we have in San Francisco - namely, a very high degree of political freedom. And that makes Lerner’s role in the BRT fraud all the more dubious.

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