Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in Raleigh

[keita]

@Jake

Perfect, it’ll only be 2 generations behind from what is actually needed lmao. I’m really not optimistic about this at all [because I think] further BRT lines will get canceled, then this New Bern BRT line will eventually [halt, and] this whole charade will start over and waste another lifetime of essentially zero public transport […]

Sorry to be so negative, but it’s objectively embarrassing for a city of our current size and growth rate to lack any sort of urgency on providing legitimate public transpo.

I think you are being negative - but also, I’d be lying if I said I’m not pissed, too

I think the broader issue, here, is more about how local governments are forced to work these days is something that we, the people, technically brought onto ourselves. (The Ezra Klein Show podcast that @evan.j.bost posted a while back should be required reading for anyone in this conversation, if you ask me!)

Because of this, I genuinely don’t understand how you could make our transit projects happen any faster unless you either:

1. Have Elon Musk-levels of “fuck you” money to do hostile takeovers of hundreds of properties throughout the Triangle. Then, if you somehow survive the avalanche of lawsuits that doing so would bring unto you, you could “just” build what you see as the “perfect” transit solutions yourself, and no one could stop you, I guess.

2. Get the state to grant total immunity from environmental or civil rights lawsuits for transit agencies, cities etc. to bring about public works projects. (Good luck getting anyone to agree to that!)

3. Nationalize all public transit projects so that the federal government can centralize project management and optimize supply chains. This way, construction projects for Raleigh’s BRT lines could benefit from economies of scale from being bundled up with other, similar projects across the country. (if you thought the previous point screamed “dictatorship”,… lol)