The Trouble With BRT

If transit planners could really sit down and say, well, we could spend $2 billion on a rail system or $2 billion on a really awesome BRT system, then I can imagine that in many cases the BRT system would be better. You can build a not-quite-good-as-a-train system which would have the added benefits of additionally flexibility. You could build a core system with its own right of way over large parts of it, yet retain the abilities for the buses to head off onto normal streets elsewhere. But what happens when really awesome BRT systems are proposed is that people start chipping away at the stuff that makes them better than typical bus systems and eventually you're just left with a bus. Buses are great - I take them all the time - but absent the additional money spent you don't get the potential additional benefits that rail systems can offer.