Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Charlotte Transit

Sometimes I wonder if I should just become the 'BRT guy'. Lots of competition to be the 'TOD guy', (most notably Calthorpe and DPZ).

From my NITC Charlotte BRT Report:

This study examines Charlotte’s bus rapid transit line. More properly, the project is an ‘open busway’ without inline stations, served by a two-way exclusive bus-only lanes in the center Figure 1: Example corridor, buffers, and LED census block points of Independence Avenue. While Charlotte has a number of experiments with best bus and bus plus systems, such as Sprinter bus and the Gold Rush Trolleybus, both fail the critical test of a Bus Rapid Transit System: Dedicated guide-way. Charlotte’s bus rapid transit makes use of underused HOV lanes the center of Independence Boulevard. In addition, it enjoys the use of queue jumpers at certain intersections. The 2-way HOV lanes provide 2.6 miles of dedicated right of way. The right of way is typically used by express buses. Buses traveling the corridor originate in the southeast corner of the metropolis, and ends slightly inside the I-485 beltway. 

Charlotte also has LRT

This study examines Charlotte’s light rail line, the LYNX. It is a 9.6-mile light rail corridor that began service on Figure 1: Example corridor, buffers, and LED census block points. The corridor chosen for analysis was part of the South Rail Line. For a Comparable corridor, the planned Blue Line/North East extension along the existing railroad to UNC Charlotte was used. Both corridors are existing rail right-of-ways running through the central business district (CBD). Figure 2 shows the transit and comparable corridors as well as the location of LED points.