[Camillo]

You don't have to go straight to subway. Surface light rail can use the same stops as buses. All you need is to lay rails on the street, and you get transit that is vastly more comfortable and inviting than buses.

Setting up dedicated lanes and then running a bus on them is just a waste.

[StudentStuff]

Right of way is the majority of the cost, but grade separation is really, really important. If you don't grade separate, every grey crossing is 1 dead person a year, and likely 2 or 3 car crashes[1]. Idiot drivers just can't be trusted around trains, and billing them damages doesn't prevent the issue from recurring (usually just drives people to bankruptcy).

What we can do is steal some of Portland's better ideas, and put up a green wall on either side of the tracks with shrubbery, bollards at every grey crossing (and gates on the pedestrian crossings) to separate the tracks cost effectively.

We can keep the body count low and trains timely, if we change minor things to effectively separate the rail from other modes of transit.

1 - http://www.king5.com/news/local/suv-crashes-into-sound-trans...