[flickr]photo:7137663499[/flickr]
Chicagoans inspect the presentation boards at the open house.
As part of the federal public planning process, the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) is required to hold at least one public meeting for any project funded by federal grants. This is the case with the Central Loop BRT project for which an open house was held Wednesday, May 2, 2012. CDOT requests comments about the project, to go on public record and to be included in a submission to the federal government, to be submitted by May 9.
You can email your comments to CentralLoopBRT@cityofchicago.org. To help you prepare a comment, the following materials and information is being provided:
What is BRT?
In as few words as possible, it’s a bus system that offers the some of the advantages associated with rail service.
From CDOT’s fact sheet handed out at the open house, “BRT is a term applied to a variety of bus service designs that help provide faster, more efficient and more reliable services than an ordinary bus line.” “True” or “gold standard” BRT systems include these four critical elements:
- Dedicated lanes that no other motor vehicles can use. The Central Loop BRT project will have dedicated bus lanes with tinted pavement.
- Off-board fare collection. you pay before you get on the bus to speed boarding. This will not be present in the Chicago projects.
- Signal priority at intersections, letting the bus go first when it’s green. The Central Loop BRT project will have this.
- Level boarding. No stepping up or down from the bus to the street. Of the three scenarios, the “Basic” scenario would not have this. “Balanced” and “Focused” would.
Continue reading BRT update: what you should know before the comment period ends Wednesday