Regardless of whether you support it as a viable alternative to light rail or not, Bus Rapid Transit is being seriously considered in many local jurisdictions as a way to move more people around.

But in order for BRT to work properly, there’s got to be an effective way to keep car drivers out of dedicated bus lanes. Which is why we found this video report from NBC4 a proper jumping point for today’s post – Tom Sherwood ventured out onto 7th and 9th Streets in D.C. and discovered that very few people, if any, were actually obeying the dedicated bus-only lanes on the far right sides of the streets. In fact, Sherwood even asked former DDOT Director Emeka Moneme whether or not it was legal for drivers to make a right-hand turn across the face of a bus if they felt it was moving too slow or stopped – a worse driving decision at a busy city corner, we can’t imagine; Moneme was similarly stupefied. The rest of the report runs how you’d expect: bus drivers dislike cars that clog the lanes and make them late, car drivers don’t like sharing the road, bus riders don’t like later buses, ad nauseum.

Just to get it out of the way: yes, we realize that Metrobus is not BRT, and that what’s being planned around the metro area is only “kinda-sorta” BRT. But one real question that arises is whether or not we can expect to see problems with lanes in areas where rejuvenated bus service has support. Prince William County, which received funding to explore BRT along Route 1 back in March, has a presentation which shows the different types of BRT lane options it’s exploring, including the curb lanes that Metro runs normal bus service on which have these pesky issues. The county’s current plan is to construct a median HOT lane, which eliminates some of the issues, but not all. What would stop some rogue driver from taking up a bus lane in a high-occupancy section of road? (Hey, if they’re willing to turn right in front of a bus on 7th Street, it’s probably not that crazy of a suggestion.)

Another spot where many have wondered about dedicated express bus lanes is Metrobus’s 16th Street S Lines that are currently under new planning – would a dedicated bus lane on one side of the street there have the same issues that the lanes on 7th Street and 9th Street have? Both are similar north-south, highly-trafficked streets.

Photo by korrileigh04.