[Declanomous]

This is really cool, and I wish we had more traffic-segregated bus services in the US.

I found this paper from the university of Washington which has a bit more information (DOC warning) https://faculty.washington.edu/jbs/itrans/adelaide-o-bahn-pa...

The 12 km busway cost $97 million in 1999 AUD, which is ~$119 million USD 2018. I have a feeling that a similar project would end up costing something like $75-80 million per mile, just based on transit projects in the US.

Chicago spent $41 million building 8 bus stations and painting a mile of street red. [2] It was billed as BRT, but plans for multi-door boarding, and off-bus fare collection were scrapped.

Projects like this aren't happening in the US because there is no political will. If you are going to have bus lanes you need to have enforcement. Buses should have cameras ticketing other vehicles in the bus lanes. Turn lanes should not merge into bus lanes, drivers should be forced to wait for a green arrow to make a turn across the bus lane.

There is definitely a need for service like this in the US, but we seem to think that the best option is to have people like Elon Musk build private tunnels that wealthy individuals can bring their private cars in. No matter how you design that system there is no way it can provide the same capacity as BRT. It's just another road with low-occupancy vehicles.

[2] https://chi.streetsblog.org/2018/10/17/foia-ed-documents-sho...

[bobthepanda]

It is worth noting that part of the reason it was so cheap was because the government had already purchased the required land for a freeway. Land acquisition, as many infrastructure projects like CAHSR or Texas Central can attest to, is easily some of the most costly and risky part of these projects, even if you do decide to use eminent domain.

BRT has notable disadvantages; buses can move from side to side unlike rail, so the tunnels and bridges have to be bigger or use proprietary guided technology like this one. In general road surfaces wear away much faster than rails. And rail vehicles perform much better once you factor in labor costs. BRT is useful in some cases, like where there is no dominant trunk line and buses can leave the roadway to serve different destinations; but eventually the common trunk gains enough critical mass and you convert to light rail anyways, as Seattle and Ottawa have discovered, and LA is considering for the Orange Line BRT.

[Declanomous]

BRT would actually be amazingly useful in Chicago because a massive number of people commute to central business district (The Loop).

Chicago owned all of the land used for the Loop link and it still cost $41 million, and has little of the benefits of actual BRT.

People here get incredibly upset when any road diet is discussed. Our politicians rarely ride public transit, and laws and engineering guidelines prevent projects which would reduce the volume of traffic carried. It's absurd.

[bobthepanda]

It costs a lot to modify an existing street vs build a brand new road, mostly because you have to modify drainage (Loop Link had concrete boarding platforms in the middle of the street that certainly would've disrupted existing drainage), bring the street up to modern standards, and keep the existing street open during the work for all the buildings that front it. It's really not all that simple.

In fact, the fact that it was on an existing street would make it very expensive to modify; look at a picture of the O-Bahn and there's plenty of space for construction vehicles and staging to set up, no one to get in the way of, etc.

[greenknight]

> Projects like this aren't happening in the US because there is no political will. If you are going to have bus lanes you need to have enforcement. Buses should have cameras ticketing other vehicles in the bus lanes. Turn lanes should not merge into bus lanes, drivers should be forced to wait for a green arrow to make a turn across the bus lane.

I can probably speak to a bit of this as I am from Adelaide... and have also driven in the USA before.

The driver mentality in Adelaide, compared to USA (and even the eastern cities of Australia like sydney / melbourne), is a lot more laid back. Adelaide feels more like a really large country town rather than a city. Speeding isn't that common (still happens but its not every single person) & cutting people off doesnt happen as much in america.

The O-bahn, is mostly designed for only specific public transport busses. About once or twice a year a car or mini bus (usually driven by tourists) gets stuck on it and has to be lifted off. They recently did an extension to connect it into the city via a dedicated bus lane that turns into a tunnel. I drive along this stretch of road every day, and I think i see about 1 or 2 people a month driving in the dedicated bus lane, usually because they didn't know what was going on rather than doing it on purpose.

The O-bahn services about 26% of the workers in Adelaide City.

[gwillz]

That's a really cool insight to driving habits. I always thought Adelaide had the worst drivers in the country. At least, that's what the statistics say.

Maybe we don't cut off people as much, but we sure can't do a zip merge without someone getting upset.

[013a]

Indianapolis approved and is constructing the Red Line, which is a traffic segregated bus lane that connects the downtown core to some of the outer burbs [1]

It makes a ton of sense for medium/large cities with sprawl (versus super-large cities like New York). That traffic segregated lane can also be used by emergency services, and buses can leave it if they have to for parts of their route.

[1] https://www.indygored.com/project-overview/project-info/

[stdplaceholder]

We are building a pretty long BRT in Oakland and San Leandro, California. Yeah it’s costing a billion dollars. It does not have a true dedicated right of way since cars can theoretically block the box in front of the bus. But it does have all-door boarding, proof-of-payment with off-vehicle fare terminals, and signal priority.