When 'Bus Rapid Transit' Slows Buses, Portland Goes Back to the Drawing Board

"A $200 million project to improve bus service and change zoning through Southeast Portland and Gresham is in limbo after project managers realized that it wouldn’t actually make it faster to ride the bus," reports Michael Andersen.

Powell-Division Transit and Development Project will now be up for revisions by the regional transit agency Metro. A January article by Andersen argued that the proposal's lack of a dedicated bus lane on 82nd Avenue meant "the proposed 'bus rapid transit' would actually travel more slowly there in 2035 than the #72 bus does today."

Andersen reports that some of the impetus for sending the project back to the drawing board is a desire to qualify for matching grants from the federal Small Starts program. Andersen also describes in detail each of the six alternative options that Metro will consider for the project as a result of this change of direction.