In Albuquerque NM, they not only built world class BRT infrastructure – they leveraged it to transform old Route 66 into a safer, more people-friendly corridor. Albuquerque Rapid Transit, or ART, is already a big ridership success, but there’s so much more potential. So today we’re taking a tour of the US’s only Gold-rated BRT infrastructure and learning about urbanism in Albuquerque along the way.
This BRT route is proof that any city is not “too car centric” for transit. Once you effectively prioitize the transit and smooth out the boarding process (rasied landings, left lane priority) the transit becomes very competitive. I’m excited to see how well this BRT performs when more density is built.
Examples like these show its never to late to shift a city from a “car centric” design to a pedestrian focused design, with bus, tram, light rail, or subway routes.
Cities should be designed for people first, as opposed to cars first.
Pedestrian cities are also in a way cheaper in terms cost & mantinace of infrastructure, such as less traffic lights to maintain. Traffic lights are by far the biggest money sink for a financially struggling city, not to mention large parking lots that provides no return on investment.