A new law calls for a minimum ridership of 6,000 passengers in the first year for new bus rapid transit lines. To date, no bus lines in the Tampa Bay region come close.
Tampa Bay’s SunRunner, the first rapid transit system in the region, could lose some of its dedicated lanes, reports Shauna Muckle in Tampa Bay Times.
Some state lawmakers claim the buses don’t have enough ridership to warrant dedicated lanes. Now, the Florida Department of Transportation is requiring new dedicated bus lanes to maintain 6,000 riders per day during their opening year. FDOT is also conducting “what it calls a routine review of lane repurposing projects around the state, including the SunRunner.”
Muckle points out that “No buses in Tampa Bay currently serve that many riders. One fare-free route in Tampa has about 5,000 riders each weekday, while other popular routes average about half that.”
According to Darden Rice, chief planning and community affairs officer for the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority, it takes years for a new line to reach peak ridership estimates as the public learns to use a new line and density along the line increases. St. Petersburg, Rice points out, has been slow to change zoning codes to encourage denser development along the SunRunner.
Even so, traffic is moving faster for both buses and cars along the SunRunner route, and crashes are down 40 percent since the service launched.
FULL STORY: Could the SunRunner lose part of its dedicated lane?
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