Life, food, events, and community in Albuquerque, NM

Green Line

Hopefully the folks at Abq ride read these postings. Here's my two cents for the red line and the new green line:
1 - When the Red line begins it route at the Uptown bus station, get rid of the bus stop in front of the Marriott. Why is Abq ride catering to the rich folks that stay there?! They can't walk a few blocks to a bus station?! Can I have a rapid ride stop closer to my house?

Then have the bus go south on Louisiana to Central, turn west and begin the route at Lousiana instead of hopping on I-40 in order to go down Wyoming. It's a waste of time.
In the aftenoon it's an even bigger waste of time waiting for the bus to make it through a few cycles of the light at Central turning north onto Wyoming.
And then the poor drivers have to wait and wait and wait and wait until they can get over three lanes of traffic at the light at Wyoming and Lomas to hop on I-40 to Louisiana..(because we all know how rude drivers are and even if you have a turn signal on they don't let you over)
That whole loop making it's way to Uptown is stupid.
2 - A longer left turn bay would be needed at Lousiana and Central if the bus turned north on Louisiana.
3 - Keep the Red line running all the way to Unser.
4 - Have the Green line run Central from Tramway to Unser.
5 - Again, I'd like to say, get rid of the Wyoming loop. It's a big time waster.

6 - In case any of the drivers read these postings; Thank you for what you do. I see the crap you have to put up with from the drunks and/or dirt bags that have no manners and do nothing but give you a hard time. Sorry you have to put up with that in your job. If it means anything to you just know that there are a lot of us who ride your buses all week long and we feel for you and we send our good vibes your way. oxoxo

So when we will finally know what the routes are?

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Permalink Reply by Dave on May 25, 2009 at 9:52am: There is also a good argument for having a Rapid Ride stop at the Marriott. According to the American Public Transportation Association, more than half of vacationers use public transit http://www.apta.com/media/releases/090520_green_travel.cfm, including large numbers who make vacation decisions on being able to use local transit systems. Having the red Rapid Ride line cover both hotels and tourist spots will appeal to these people. I am one of these people; I usually vacation is cities, and having access to public transportation is part of my decision in where I go.

As someone who lives in the foothills, I would rather the red line stays on Wyoming. The average local bus travels 12 mph, bus rapid transit averages about double that. So when you live on the outskirts of the city and travel long distances on a bus, the sooner you can get on a faster one, the better. I know there are good arguments for moving it to Louisiana, but don't overlook the importance of pushing faster service as far out from the city center as possible. Another argument against Louisiana; what will happen during the state fair? The red rapid ride would be stuck in gridlock.

I agree that intersections are a problem for the rapid ride. In theory bus rapid transit is supposed to have dedicated bus lanes and priority at traffic signals, but this doesn't seem to happen in practice (I also observed lack of these when I used BRT in Los Angeles). The only intersection I am aware of that has priority signals is...Wyoming & Lomas. I have noticed recently that drivers are not always using the bus lane here; if they did, they would have priorty getting into the left lane. Signal priority should be added to left turn lane from Central to Wyoming or Louisiana, depending on which route the red line takes. It should also be added at University and other busy intersections, to give the bus more time to make it through these clogged intersections without having to wait through multiple light changes. And where there is always congestion, like between University and Nob Hill, there should be a bus lane.

My slight preference for the green line is downtown to Tramway, and keep the red line Uptown to westside. Again, this is mostly to have a single line covering major tourist spots and hotels, for the benefit of visitors.

As it seems we will not have a streetcar any time soon, I hope ABQRide keeps expanding rapid ride service to cover more areas of the city. 24 mph is not great, but it certainly beats 12 mph local buses.; ▶ Reply to This