Bus Rapid Transit ADDS to Local Bus Service
On May 14, 2019 at the downtown Senior Center, the city of Madison had yet another in a series of public meetings on a hypothetical regional transportation system. This time, the meeting was about Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). A video of the meeting can be seen here . Much of the public meeting was spent by city staff talking about their mostly-developed plan for a 14.6 mile east-west starter line. Based on a 2012-13 “ corridor study ” that looked at northern and southern routes in addition to the ones for the east, west and downtown, the latter ones were selected to start with because they were estimated to experience the highest ridership. For the plan to be actualized still depends both on 1) capital funding from a yet-to-be awarded federal grant and 2) dedicated funding from a currently-illegal Regional Transportation Authority. Once built, actually operating the starter line will cost an estimated $3 million annually in additional funds, fundthat will come from Metro's budget...