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Biden admin aims to boost funding for 'rapid' buses
The Transportation Department plans to fund city bus networks, in a bid to cut car traffic and planet-warming pollution.
CLIMATEWIRE | Americans in cities around the country could soon enjoy "rapid" bus systems that resemble light rail, as the Biden administration deploys billions of transit dollars from the 2021 infrastructure law.
The Department of Transportation laid out its plans for new bus networks in its annual report to Congress on large capital projects. The report — which accompanied the administration's fiscal 2024 budget request — recommends $4.45 billion for 18 large transit projects in 11 states. Seven out of the nine new projects would help midsize cities establish bus rapid transit (BRT) as a way to cut carbon emissions and support economic development.
Rapid buses not only run on dedicated bus lanes but often have enhancements for speed and rider convenience such as elevated platforms, arrival time announcements and traffic signal priority that allows them to bypass traffic. Transit officials say BRT networks offer many of the benefits of light rail, but cost significantly less and can be built much faster.
“For the vast majority of corridors in the United States where transit demand is not nearly as high as it is in cities like New York, Boston or Chicago, BRT is going to make a lot more financial sense for most agencies,” said Joshua Schank, a former Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority chief innovation officer and a senior fellow at UCLA.
Such medium-density cities will likely be the beneficiaries of the federal grant money for BRTs. A list of potential recipients in the DOT report includes transit authorities in Monterey, Calif.; Raleigh, N.C.; Charleston, S.C.; Salt Lake City; Denver; Minneapolis; and Houston.
The report is one that DOT's Federal Transit Administration sends every year to Congress, laying out the details of projects it will prioritize in the next fiscal year through two discretionary grant programs: Capital Investment Grants and Expedited Project Delivery.
Congress will determine the projects' final funding through the annual appropriation process. The infrastructure law locked in $1.6 billion of funding per year from fiscal 2022 through 2026, on top of Congress' annual appropriation, according to the report. In previous years, the projects that FTA recommended secured funding with minimal cuts from Congress.
This year's report reflects the Biden administration's focus on building up local transit systems as a way to tackle carbon emissions from the transportation sector. Last fiscal year alone, DOT infused $20 billion for transit funding, a record amount made possible through funding in the infrastructure law.
Through these annual reports, "they’re trying to bind the future Congresses into prioritizing these projects above everything else,” said Jeff Davis, a senior fellow at Eno Center for Transportation.
At the core of federal and local interest in BRT systems is its low cost. BRTs cost from $10 million to $100 million per mile to build, according to a 2020 report from LA Metro. In comparison, New York City’s second avenue subway cost $2.6 billion per mile and San Francisco’s central subwaycost $920 million per mile.
Inez Evans, president and CEO of the Indianapolis Public Transportation Corp., said the city built one of its rapid bus lines for about $90 million.
“If you had done this with light rail, you might have to add a zero onto that, ” Evans said in a promotional video filmed by the agency. “Many cities believe that they have to have a rail line to say, ‘We've made it,’ [but] having a true transit network that moves the city is what counts.”
BRTs are not only for medium-sized cities. Sprawling big cities operate rapid buses in corridors that are not dense enough to justify a full-service subway or light rail. LA Metro, for example, runs two BRT lines, with nearly 30 lines proposed for future construction, according to an agency report. The city's G Line bus takes less than an hour to run its full 18-mile track, delivering services to more than 3 million passengers in 2022.
“[In Los Angeles,] BRT was selected instead of rail because we could have three BRT projects instead of one rail project,” Schank said. “That is better for our area.”
Rapid buses make transit more attractive, reducing the need to own a car, Schank said. They are also flexible, with no tracks binding them to a fixed route, and easily adjusted to fit the needs of a local population, he said.
“You might have [buses] every two, three minutes on that trunk route where you got the platforms,” Schank said. Those buses can scatter in less dense areas in outer rings of a city “like a sprig of broccoli, going to different places and service lots of different people.”
