Part of the story that we were told when the city decided to build the BRIO system was that the busses needed special stops because of their length and the damage that their weight would do to the streets at the bus stops.
In Brio madness getting worse we wrote about the new busses that only carry 10 more passengers than our regular busses and how the new ones cost $260,000 each more than the regular ones.
Not really
While downtown the other day I saw one of the new articulated busses arriving from El Paso’s east side. The bus was painted blue and white and did not have the Brio designation on it.
I then saw the bus stop at regular stops, not the Brio stops.
Now we know that the special Brio bus stops were not necessary. In fact being about a mile apart they serve to reduce ridership. If the city wants to increase bus usage they should put more regular busses on their route so that the busses arrive more frequently.
We deserve better
Brutus
Mass transit works whenever the transit takes you from an area of low population density to high work density, such as from suburbs to a real downtown area. El Paso has no such set up. It is from areas of low population /work density to other areas of low population/work density, and unless you live close to a bus terminal and are dropped off within walking distance of your work, then the system is useless and will always be used by few riders. Who the hell wants to ride a bus for several hours and then have to walk anoother 30 minutes to work?
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Answer: New Yorker’s.
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NYC has better transit art.
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New Yorkers use the Metro.
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Precisely. Thank you.
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some preferred contractor had extra cement but not a tape measure in sight
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Why did they name the system Brio?
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Frequency is everything! But even if frequency is increased, the sprawl here will make it impossible to have a public transit system that most of us can use on a daily basis, particularly beyond commuting. My nearest bus stop is a mile away, and the bus comes there once an hour. It would take me downtown; if I really need to go somewhere else, I’d wait for another bus and..you do the math.
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I believe the was and is Federal Grant Monies for mass transit….working as well say AMTRAC….
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Yes, but the Alameda corridor will be local money.
Brutus
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