How Highways Could Create AMAZING Transit

Seattle's light rail expansion plans get all the attention, but it's working on another major transit project that could transform transit across the entire country. Let's talk about Stride!

Special thanks to @TheGreaterDiscussions for some of the amazing Vancouver footage used in this video!

Map Data © OpenStreetMap contributors

[paulrussell]

I live in Seoul, here the buses are color coded. Green are your neighbourhood buses that go down smaller streets and have a lot of stops. Blue buses are on the busiest routes through the city and are extremely high frequency. Red buses are highway buses. Along with their subway system it works really well. They have massive island stops usually on top of a major subway station, sometimes with 5 to 10 buses lined up at any one time, the blue buses come literally every 5 minutes, if you are connecting between 2 blue buses usually you wait 2 or 3 minutes. The green every 10, some of the red buses are every 15.

[dylanluhowy]

Buses have a stigma in North America that doesn’t apply to trains. Buses are seen as transport for people who can’t afford a car, while it’s a status symbol to sit in your car stuck in traffic.

[VikasArun-bs]

As a Seattle resident who works in a suburb and takes these express busses often I just want to highlight how well done these busses are. The 545 and 542 express busses runs every 6 min during peak hours and is about 30 min from downtown Redmond to downtown Seattle. The center running bus lanes and transit stops keep it very competitive with driving. Ignoring parking time, this drive takes 25 min with no traffic but 50 min during peak times with traffic. Because it’s competitive with driving, the busses are jam packed (you sometimes can’t get on the first one at rush hour). Outside “peak” hours my family/friends often take the bus express to Seattle rather than drive because parking in Seattle is (strategically) difficult. In fact this route actually turns a profit! The STExpress system only launched in 2000 so it’s incredible to see how quickly it’s become an irreplaceable part of the transit system. Sound transit gets a lot of (well deserved) criticism for how they do certain things, but the express busses and light rail have completely changed the transportation culture in the city!

[POINTS]

I often wondered if running buses on the highway would be a good way to make use of the existing highway system to move more people and reduce traffic. HOV/bus lanes and even shoulder lanes are good ways to do that. Thanks for showing some examples of this in practice.

[AustralianRestorationFront]

Every time RMTransit uploads I become 0.3% stronger

[Fanw]

Thank you Reece for another very clear and informative video. I particularly liked the section at about 5 minutes where you explain how Seattle succeeds in getting buses into dedicated bus lanes running down the MIDDLE of a multi-lane highway rather than using bus lanes on the edge of the highway.

[ttlam]

In Hong Kong, taking a highway bus is often seen as a fast and comfortable option for transportation, bus companies are usually happy to operate these routes as they often charge higher price than normal routes.

However in North America, these kinds of highway routes are absent in many cities. It's a huge waste that we have the highway network but never use them for public transit.

[stevenchoi]

Highways are generally hated on in urbanist circles, and there's certainly a lot of negative things to say about them. But instead of simply tearing highways down, you're showing how we can take a strength (and sunk cost!) in our North American transportation system and repurpose it to make the system as a whole less car-centric.

As someone in the comments already mentioned, the 401 in the GTA would be a great application for this idea. Maybe also the Sepúlveda Pass in LA!

Great video, Reece!

[VinceMcLennon]

Metro J-Line in LA immediately came to mind. It's seen as lesser than the E-line to Santa Monica because it's a bus, and it runs through lower income areas. But it's secretly way faster because it runs in a killer express lane.

[DanielBrotherston]

You hit the nail on the head with the challenges section. It is utterly infuriating that the GO bus from KW to Mississauga can sometimes spend five minutes trying to turn left from the highway exit ramp into the utterly massive and expensive busway station...like...instead of spending 50 million dollars on seating and paving for cars, spend just a tiny amount creating a bus ramp so that passengers don't have to wait so damn long for their bus.

[genethebean]

Every time I see anything related to busses on highways, especially with this particular color scheme, I can't help but be reminded of the Onion's "Obama high-speed busses."

[PattheMan-qfro]

Houston actually has a fairly robust express bus system that takes people from many places within the county, using HOV lanes to get the bases moving faster. The one to Katy even has two lanes allowing for inbound and outbound buses all day. Right now the system needs to expand so that in can reach cities outside the county such as Sugar Land, Galveston, Pearland and The Woodlands as well as later times.

[kirillboyko]

Yes, omg, yes! Rapid buses on the highways, the simpliest idea ever, but no one talks about it! Thank you Reece!

We in Washington metropolitan area have a fantastic beltway highway, and an equally busy i-270. There is a bridge between MD and VA that is backed up night and day. There is not a single bus that connects MD and VA across that bridge, which is so not right.

Not to mention that the busiest portions of washington beltway are undergoing massive expansion with express lanes being added. The planners didn’t add option for heavy rail, so i really hope the highway buses will use the express lanes going forward.

[Matthew-zvqe]

Northen Busway - Auckland is probably one of the best examples of this.

[KrishnaAdettiwar]

Awesome video. I LOVE that you mentioned all the amazing work Seattle is doing and how it is helping other cities rethink their bus networks!! Seattle has an awesome (and imo underrated) bus system and Stride is going to make it even better. I can’t wait until it’s all done!!!

[Norfirio]

My primary issue with the highway buses in Seattle is that, due to the heavy weight and high speeds, any little imperfection in the roadway surface can cause the bus to jolt up and down. It's not very comfortable. That said, the speed at which I can get from Seattle to the east side is valuable (I did this when East link opened a month ago and have taken a similar trip many times in the past getting to work everyday).

[jonom]

We had a replacement bus in Melbourne that ran down the highway shoulder express to the city from the outer suburbs. It was faster than the limited express train.

[jonistan]

Even though Switzerland is seen as a country with great public transport, it still gets annoying when you're trying to do a non-radial trip in many places.

[TheFlyingMooseCA]

Great take - don't think I've ever seen a video examine both transit and highways through the lens of complementary radial/orbital layouts :)

[lwpdhofgh]

I’m in the greater Seattle area and I’m so glad you touched on this. I didn’t know about that new Stride line. I think busses using the interstates are a huge step into getting us less car dependent.