NACTO Presents: The Orange Line - Bus Rapid Transit and Bicycle Path, Los Angeles, CA

[hmasonhicks]

Exclusive bus right-of-way... Have you REALLY saved money by not going ahead and building a light rail line? Right away, you could have saved at least a third of your ROW cost because required rail ROW would have been more narrow... Assuming that the ROW was already available, your operating cost for operating electric trainsets would have been significantly less, as would be the maintenance of the ROW... The other side of the equation would be system electrification...

[Rickyrab]

@hmasonhicks The problem with this line wasn't money but NIMBYism. Seems like certain Orthodox Jews became a bit too puritanical about Jewish Law and started chickening out about any on-ground or above-ground rapid transit line. So laws were passed in an attempt at getting a subway. Then someone fired back at the first law by passing a law banning the use of money for a subway in the county. That led to the Bus Rapid Transit line's creation.

[Rickyrab]

@Rickyrab Those Orthodox Jews were being moronic. Jewish law had been extended to banning any use of electricity on Shabbat due to electricity being a halakhic form of fire, which was a form of work. The problem here was apparently that some people considered heeding electric crossing signals to be a use of electricity (never mind that the electricity use in question would be automatic, a kind of clockwork, and thus shouldn't have been banned or been a problem).

[utterbullspit]

This is BRT done right.

[PanzerVIZeke]

@utterbullspit No, this is what should be light rail done wrong.