[The Transportation and Mass Transit Megathread]

Hey, I agree that busses have drawbacks. I do believe the app being developed to communicate 'real-time' information regarding bus location and time to arrival has great potential to address many of my issues with the existing service.

On average the travel time, on either the '3' or '5', from Broadway and 9th N to West End and Cherokee Blvd take me 17-20 minutes.

Do you have any numbers detailing travel time for the same route on the proposed EW-BRT? I fear that the with the EW-BRT planning stops 0.5 mile (on avg.) apart, actual time (including walking to the closest origin stop - riding the BRT - and walking from a terminus stop to you final destination) has the potential to be much greater that existing service.

I'm with you. Several of the virtues of BRT can be accomplished without ripping apart West End for dedicated lanes - e.g., more/nicer/cleaner/quieter buses, better/fewer bus stops with real-time information, easier fare collection, and increased marketing. I don't think we should even get to the question of whether Metro can afford the BRT if we are paying $150 million to shave a couple minutes off a commute.

Currently, getting across the river takes a stupid amount of time because of the required transfer at the downtown terminus---you sit idle at the station longer than in traffic. So, at the BRT forum, I'd like to see what we're actually paying for---i.e., a cost benefit analysis that addresses how much trip time the proposed East/West BRT would save from White Bridge to Five Points versus creating a direct route without dedicated lanes. If there is a significant improvement over the hypothetical direct route without dedicated lanes, then it would make the BRT proposal more attractive (to me at least).

[The Transportation and Mass Transit Megathread]

I mentioned this in the forum meet thread, but I wanted to bring it up over here. A couple of weekends ago when I was in town, I wanted to catch a bus on 21st in Hillsboro Village to downtown. Unfortunately, on a Saturday in the middle of the day in a section of town with one of the highest levels of pedestrian activity, not to mention tourists, the bus only ran once an hour. The freaking suburban commuter trains in Philadelphia run more often than that, and the transit agency running those, SEPTA, is renowned as one of the worst in any major city in the US. On top of this, had I decided to try and get one, I would have been completely ripped off. I could not locate a ticket counter or machine anywhere near where I was, and was going to get screwed over if I paid with the $20 in my pocket due to the fact that change was given on a transit card. Frankly, I could have called a cab and been downtown and back for $20.

No wonder ridership is so terrible in Nashville. What do you expect when it's so inconvenient?

Next time you're in the situation, try the 11 bus that picks up at 21st and Blakemore. Its supplements the frequency of the 7 bus (or infrequency on the weekends). Also, did you consider making change at the regions bank or any of the shops in the village? As for ridership comment, just wanted to point out that the MTAs ridership is increasing rather dramatically, which hopefully leads to more frequent service in the future.