Implementing a bus rapid transit system usually takes more than a year, and involves creating dedicated transit lanes and specialized bus stations.
But the bus rapid transit route planned for a portion of Florida Boulevard won’t take that long to develop, nor will it require restriping the busy thoroughfare.
That’s because the bus rapid transit route that Capital Area Transit System CEO Bill Deville announced last month won’t technically be an example of bus rapid transit. Rather, it will be a modified version of the express route that already exists along Florida Boulevard.
“We described it in the grant proposal as bus rapid transit and we have to rebrand it a different color, but it is actually a modified express route,” Deville explains. “It’s an existing express route with a new name.”
There will be some changes to the route, however. Instead of the diesel buses currently in use along the route, the rebranded route will have three new electric buses.
CATS will also construct new bus stops along the route that meet the technical requirements for a bus rapid transit system. Unlike simple benches or shelters, the new stops will be more like mini-stations with multimodal transportation hubs that can accommodate bike sharing, car sharing and Uber access.
The decision to rebrand the route as a bus rapid transit route came about because CATS had $800,000 it had previously been awarded in a federal grant to use toward the purchase of buses for a bus rapid transit route. Separately, CATS received a $2.7 million grant to purchase electric buses. By combining the two grants and rebranding the route, Deville says the agency could afford three new electric buses and live up to the terms of both grant requirements.
Deville says the buses and stations along the rebranded route will look different than regular CATS buses and shelters, with different colors and a different logo.
From passengers’ perspectives, however, the rebranded route won’t be any faster than the existing route, at least not initially. Currently, buses run on the Florida express route every 30 minutes—the same as they’ll do once the freshly painted electric buses replace them.
“Eventually, though, we want to get the frequency down to every 15 or 20 minutes,” he says.
CATS is currently putting together a procurement package for the electric buses, and is in the planning and design stage for the new bus stations. Deville hopes the new service will be operational some time in 2017.
—Stephanie Riegel
