Aaron M. Renn’s looks at the transit improvement plans in Indianapolis for the city’s first Bus Rapid Transit line. Indy’s system is a model for how lower density cities with auto-centric cultures can start making major improvements in their transit offerings in a capital efficient way.
Indy is upgrading its system in several ways:
- Three BRT spines totaling 62 miles and 97 stations. (Features: level boarding, exclusive lanes for a majority of the route, transit signal priority, offboard fare collection, all electric buses, 10 minute all day service, etc).
- A new, grid based bus network with several high frequency routes – a game changer vs. the current hub and spoke system with buses mostly coming every 30 or 60 minutes.
- Significantly greater spans of service, with all routes running every day.
- A new fare collection system with mobile device integration, fare capping, etc.
Read the whole piece here:
http://www.newgeography.com/content/006395-indy-s-cost-effective-transit-improvement-plan-is-a-model-low-density-cities