BOHICA - IT'S BRT TIME!

[Ocklawaha]

The BRT has reared it's ugly head again as the premiere transit trunk line in JTA's arsnel. Another round of dog and pony shows is scheduled

TIMES UNION - last Friday.

On Monday, November 10, JTA is holding two public meetings at the Gateway Mall stage:
At 4:30 (until 6:00) will be a "Public Hearing for the proposed North Bus Maintenance Facility adjacent to the intersection of Golfair Blvd. and Davis Street." Formal presentation at 5:30.

Immediately following, will be a Public Meeting about the North BRT corridor, from 6:00 to 7:30. Typical Open House format, with maps, drawings, and engineers.

They will repeat the North BRT Corridor Open House on the 17th at FCCJ North, also from 6:00 - 7:30. This is billed as a "kick off" of the study.

Materials are available on both topics (starting today, the 20th) at the JTA Offices on Myrtle or the Tax Collector at Gateway.

How to get the point across to redirect the lines? BTW, Cleveland built LIGHT BRT and guess what? It came in at $30 Million a mile. Certainly Commuter Rail and Streetcar are cheaper (by far) and Skyway or LRT are no more then equal at worst. Build the Rail and feed it with BRT.

OCKLAWAHA

[Joe]

Ugh. Gross. I can't believe that the City and JTA are still going through with this stupid mess. It's more expensive and less effective than numerous alternatives. Plus, these absurd (expensive) flyovers basically kill the flexibility that BRT supposedly has.

I'm not one for conspiracy theories, but I'm really starting to believe that this is just a giant charade to fund HOV freeway lanes. Because that's exactly what this system is going to turn into if built.

[thelakelander]

Well it does make sense as a HOV lane project.  Unfortunately, you would be using money set aside for mass transit to fund construction.

[TheProfessor]

If there is any conspiracy, it is with the concrete supplier.  In order to build the ugly BRT it will require absurd amounts of concrete and rebar.

[Joe]

Well it does make sense as a HOV lane project.  Unfortunately, you would be using money set aside for mass transit to fund construction.

I guess that's my point. This BRT proposal is just so bad, and so illogical on so many levels, that there must be alterior motives. And I'm sure that there are plenty of local officials who are more than happy to convert mass transit spending toward more highway construction. Even JTA is still fundamentally a road construction agency at its roots.

I really think that sometime back in 2003 there must have been a series of conversations like this:

Official 1: "This is Jacksonville. Mass transit will never catch on. If we build a rail system, we'll just have another Skyway disgrace on our hands. We can't have another train to nowhere."

Official 2: "Well, BRT runs on its own road lanes. When the system inevitably fails, we could just turn the lanes into HOV or toll lanes, and people will applaud us for thinking ahead and being flexible."

[Lunican]

The main goal of BRT is to use money designated for transit on road construction. There is no other way to explain it.