Albuquerque to Bring BRT to Historic Route 66

[thelakelander]

From The Grapes of Wrath to On the Road, historic Route 66 has occupied a singular place in the national culture since it was designated in 1926. As home to early roadside service stations, motels and restaurants, it was also a harbinger of the sprawl that would come with interstate highways. While Americana enthusiasts cherish the stretches of open road between Chicago and Los Angeles, sleek buses may soon join vintage cars plying the largest urban stretch of Route 66, on Albuquerque, New Mexico's Central Avenue.

The major corridor connects many of Albuquerque's oldest neighborhoods as well as the University of New Mexico to downtown. Along the way, it features plenty of Route 66's trademark neon signage. Following an aborted attempt to bring a streetcar to Central, ABQ Ride, the city's transit agency, recently proposed Albuquerque Rapid Transit (ART), essentially a BRT. Central is home to the busiest bus lines in town, responsible for 42 percent of the entire system ridership, and also intersects with the Alvarado Transportation Center downtown, where city buses, Greyhound, Amtrak and a relatively new commuter rail, the Rail Runner Express, all intersect.

Full article: http://nextcity.org/daily/entry/new-mexico-route-66-bus-albuquerque-public-transit