Recently, FTA Administrator Peter Rogoff told transit managers, “you can entice even diehard rail riders onto a bus, if you call it a ‘special’ bus and just paint it a different color than the rest of the fleet.” Eugene, Oregon’s Lane Transit District (LTD) proved this with its EMX bus-rapid transit line.
When this line was put into operation, the Antiplanner predicted it would be a disaster because LTD had spent way too much money on buses and had built an exclusive bus lane that was so narrow the drivers couldn’t go any faster than on the crowded streets. But the project may have worked out anyway.
