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Madison Rapid Transit The City of Madison is growing, and desirable things placed farther out need to be reachable by transit, rapid transit. Rapid transit also benefits downtown by making transit attractive and keeping cars out of crowded streets. Transit-oriented development is not possible without the expectation of good, efficient transit. Bus rapid transit, or BRT, could make other parts of the city reachable for the crowd that travels on foot, and so, can lead to redevelopment of such places as Mineral Point Road and East Washington Avenue.
Starter Line Full system download an enlarged version (1.3MB) Why Bus Rapid Transit? There has been a lot of talk about different forms of transit for Madison, especially rail. The argument is, basically, that people like trains, and if you want to get people on transit, give them trains. That is not totally correct. What people want most of all is good service. They equate good service with rail because just about any rail transit system is going to have good service. The reason is that rail is expensive, so if you're a big city like Chicago or New York, you can afford to build the rail system and stock it heavily with trains. Thus, rail service equals good service, and people are attracted to that. Financially, rail starts making sense as the capacity of the system gets large since you can run multiple cars with only one driver, the most expensive part of the train. Because of Madison's relatively small size, the critical element is the minimum level of service. That is, we won't be writing timetables based on the capacity requirements, we'll be writing them to provide a reasonable amount of service. For rapid transit, 10 to 15 minute service is really the minimum amount of service for a system to be truly rapid transit. Longer headways mean people need to plan their trips with schedules, which most choice riders are reluctant to do, and waiting that long for a vehicle makes the trip not seem "rapid". So, in Madison, bus rapid transit gives us the most service for our money, and service is what attracts riders. These maps connect the naturally occurring corridors in Madison. With rapid transit, people will realize that they can quickly and conveniently get from one point on a corridor to another, something conventional buses don't allow. Madison could start a system like this with the red line, and gradually add other lines that connect. In time, I expect ridership to grow, and when bus rapid transit can't keep up with demand, we can upgrade to light rail. BRT is a lot like light rail, but without the expense of the infrastructure. Buses could be electric with overhead wires (called trolleybuses), will benefit from signal priority like a train, and such features as automated ticket vending for convenience and speed. The most speed is attained from having limited stops and operating in bus only lanes. This is the normal process for upgrading transit in cities around the world. Bus Rapid Transit could come to Madison soon, and be the catalyst for Light Rail Transit. Here are some examples. Get more information on Wikipedia
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