LRT > BRT

Found this fantastic illustration created for the city of Waterloo, Canada. I'm personally against BRT to the extent it's being proposed for our city. There's no single solution to this growing transportation quandary as it will take a combination of technologies applied in contexts best suited to their respective strengths. I'm losing faith that the COG understands this and there's no question that the board at Rio Metro don't have a clue as to what their role is...

edit: The graphic doesn't seem to work so I added a link up top to the website. Have a look see. I'd love to hear other thoughts on the matter.

You Say Fiscal Challenge, I Say Lack of Leadership

In the Sunday Journal, Mayor Larry Abraham, also the vice chairman of the Rio Metro RTD, wrote about how it was our fiscal responsibility to cut weekend service. He went on at length to explain how it was inevitable given falling tax revenues and ending government subsidies. This is the typical, exhausting, lazy leadership we hear excuses from time and time again.

What about the money that 4,000 plus people save on a daily basis. Their money in turn goes toward purchasing more goods and services in the community rather than paying for gas (which in turn doesn't nearly pay the price of roads). Then there's vehicle maintenance. Did I forget air quality? The railrunner has spurred development in downtown Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Los Lunas, Belen, etc. Does that economic development get counted?

With real leadership at Rio Metro, we'd have more transit oriented development around our stations, which would lead to a more viable system that is more useful to greater amounts of people as well. This eventuality is the only means to making this system truly viable.

Thanks for taking the lead on that questionable vote, next time keep your hand down. Thanks. Perhaps next he'll suggest an enlarged 4th Street through Los Ranchos?