Vendors Upset Over Dust From BRT
Street vendors in Berkeley are voicing complaints that a new rapid bus line is passing by too quickly, stirring up dust along the sidewalk that covers them and their merchandise.
"Philip Rowntree says every time AC Transit's new express bus speeds by his T-shirt stand on Telegraph Avenue, he gets covered with dust and filth kicked up by the vehicle's exhaust."
"Russell Chatman, who sells jewelry next to Rowntree, said the buses dirty him too and go way too fast."
"'I realize it's a rapid transit because the drivers have their deadlines to beat, but for them to come as fast as they do, it's only a matter of time before someone gets hurt,' Chatman said."
"'This is the first I've heard of anything like this,' AC Transit Deputy General Manager Jim Gleich said."
"Gleich said he is aware the newer buses have exhaust that comes out the side, 'so (Rowntree is) right about that. If they are saying the exhaust is blowing the dust, I find that hard to appreciate, I guess. It's just a tailpipe.'"
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BRT vs. RapidBus
The headling "Vendors Upset Over Dust From BRT" is misleading.
This is a complaint about AC Transit's current RapidBus express bus.
AC Transit is proposing a future BRT line on the same route, which would differ from RapidBus because it would have exclusive bus lanes.
I believe that exclusive bus lanes are part of the conventional definition of BRT, so the complaint here as not about BRT.
(The same street vendor is also against BRT, but that is another story.)
Charles Siegel