Quote Originally Posted by dtowncitylover View Post
We can either have dedicated lanes for the buses which will make them have faster service and have signal priority or we can have them mixed in with traffic which will make them slow in the heavy traffic you describe. Your pick.

How is having express buses "rapid" when they're going to be plain old buses mingling with the rest of traffic either on a major thoroughfare or on a congested freeway?
Just so. This sort of thing requires hard decisions, and this is one of them; we can't violate the laws of physics. If we decide we want improved transit, we either have to take space away from cars or take space away from something else.

Besides, think about this: the BRT corridors are no longer the major auto thoroughfares in their own direction. I-75 carries the bulk of the N-S traffic that once used Woodward; I-94 carries the bulk of the Gratiot and Michigan Ave traffic, and so on. The old spoke roads are relegated to the status of major collector roads - still very important, but not carrying the commuters from their downtown jobs to their houses in Royal Oak, by and large.

If there is one single thing that is going to make BRT in Detroit a success or failure, it is going to be how much R is in BRT, and the single most important factor - there are others, which I and some of you all have discussed - is separating the buses from the car traffic.