Anaheim's new guideway plans: please make it BRT, not a monorail!
Submitted by Steven on 2 August, 2009 - 9:16am
Spokker last week attended the Anaheim Fixed Guideway Transit Corridor Study early scoping meeting. In essence, OCTA and Anaheim staff are considering building bus rapid transit, a monorail, a maglev (?!?), personal rapid transit pods, or an automated people mover. The line would run for about 2 miles and cover Disneyland, Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim Gardenwalk, the Angels Stadium, and the Anaheim Amtrak-Metrolink train station.
I have three concerns with this project:
- Local projects like this has the potential to funnel a large amount of county money into a project that benefits just one city. And Anaheim's chosen alignments for this guideway already mimic OCTA's Bravo! limited-stop bus line along Katella (see below). Why not invest in making Bravo! a true bus rapid transit system instead of creating a redundant bus system?
- Staff have already ruled out light rail transit because its "at grade crossings." This is very odd, since Metro operates light rail on exclusive tracks (right-of-ways) along freeway medians. That, and light rail can be (1) built on elevated tracks just like monorails, except light rail trains can move at a much faster 55 mph than poky monorails, and (2) be purchased at a lower cost than monorails. This leads me to believe that staff either have no idea what they're doing here have some kind of ulterior motive.
- And because OCTA and Anaheim staff have ruled out light rail, there will be ZERO integration with the Garden Grove-Santa Ana light rail project and the possible Metro Green Line to Santa Ana light rail link. I've previously posted about this at http://www.transitrideroc.com/2008/09/bravo-rapid-bus-part-iii-massive and since then, another joint Metro-OCTA study came out in favor of light rail.
Overall, I'm happy that Orange County is thinking transit. It just feels like OCTA and Anaheim are making this a redundant, cost-ineffective project.
Anyways, here's Spokker's thoughts on the subject with the corresponding Transit Coalition forum discussion:
I attended the early scoping meeting for the Anaheim Fixed Guideway project today to see what was going on with it and here are some thoughts. I forgot my damn camera so I don't have any pictures.
While there was no town hall style Q&A session, I did talk to one of the project's team members. He was a very nice, older gentleman who worked on other projects in California.
They are down to four alternatives. They are maglev, PRT, people mover and monorail.
Light rail has been thrown out because they didn't want to take away lanes from cars and streetcars would be like a "bus on rails."
I told the guy that when I see stuff like maglev, monorail and PRT that I get visions of waste, that light rail can not only do the same things those modes can, but can integrate much better into the surrounding areas. It's versatility means it can be at-grade, aerial or underground if they so desired.
Also, light rail can integrate into a larger OC rail system in the future, like the long dormant Centerline and whatever Metro has up its sleeve with the Santa Ana Branch project. He said I was thinking beyond the study area, though he understood what I meant.
He said that demand is not there for light rail and that a people mover or monorail is the way to go. But demand may be there in the future if it's part of a larger system. Myself and another gentlemen, a real old timer who knew his stuff who joined mid-conversation, advocated for steel-wheel on steel-rail technology despite the fact that monorails and maglevs sound sexier.
I noticed that another plan presented for the Resort Area included widening some streets in the area from six lanes to eight lanes, or four lanes to six lanes. If the goal of this project is relieving congestion in the Resort Area, why are we widening already wide roads and inviting more cars in? Wider roads also make it more difficult for pedestrians and cyclists to get around.
Also, if light rail was bad because of grade crossings, won't more lanes invite more cars, which means more accidents?
It seems like this project is primarily for tourists coming from high speed rail to get to Disneyland. That's perfectly fine, but I was disappointed by the limited vision of Anaheim and the OCTA in not making this the start of a larger system that serves places like Santa Ana. I thought the proposed station locations were a little daft and unsurprisingly there's very little involvement from Disneyland.
I doubt monorail or maglev lines are going to be built all over Orange County. I think the money saved by going light rail could be used to build a system that serves far more people. The old timer said, "Make use with what you've got." The guy's correct and I'm starting to change my mind on another big project in California...
You can find more information about this project — along with slides from the presentation — at http://www.anaheimfixedguideway.com/ . And, for your reference, here's Anaheim's map of the existing transit service in the area:
Comments
Why in a million years would
Why in a million years would you want to push BRT foward rather than a monorail? We have enough street traffic already, and if LA would of went forward with a monorail network when it was originally proposed in the early 60's, it would probably would of expanded already down to Anaheim and up to Santa Clarita by this point.
I think a monorail is a very forward thinking proposal and something that I would very much look forward to. The LAST thing I would want to see are more busses on the already over crowded streets.
Out of all the options
Out of all the options they've chosen, BRT is the only one that's most likely to integrate with the rest of Orange County's transit network. If they're so concerned about traffic on their 10-lane local roads, Anaheim could create elevated roads for their buses and use the same decor as monorail stations — the only difference would be the vehicles that run.
Monorail would run a little too slowly (~25 mph), can't do simple things like switch tracks (if you had, say, more than one line), and would be more expensive to expand throughout the region. It's hardly used anywhere except Disneyland, Disneyworld, and Seattle. In fact, even Disneyworld refuses to expand its monorail network, opting for the Disney Transport bus network within Disneyworld.
Um, no
The possibility that this network will be expanded outside of Anaheim any time in the near future is minuscule. Building a monorail would be a huge step away from road transportation and might wake some OC residents up to the fact that not all transit has to travel on asphalt. If OCTA ever decides to implement BRT it could easily connect to a monorail, but tearing up a few streets in Anaheim so a bus can run circles around the Platinum Triangle is ridiculous and subjects the bus to traffic issues. Additionally, why is traveling "only" 25 miles per hour an issue here? 25 miles per hour on an elevated track from Angel Stadium to Disneyland would take maybe 5 more minutes than a bus, but what happens when there's an accident in an intersection that BRT runs through?
Just curious, why consider "accidents"?
I sense a theme going on here. Someone else commented on accidents happening at intersections. The likelihood of an intersection being blocked due to an accident is negligible and shouldn't be factored into this project.
With intelligent traffic engineering like that on Los Angeles's bus rapid transit (the Orange Line and the Silver Line), these buses can travel up to 65 mph.