Chile Learns that BRT Requires Dedicated Lanes

Some opponents of BRT in Berkeley have said that the dedicated lanes are not necessary: we could save money by providing similar service without dedicated lanes.

Today's Chronicle has an article about the failure of the new transit system in Santiago, Chile, which proves these people are wrong. Here is the key quotation from that article:

"...despite the strengths of Santiago's subway system - it is modern, fast and clean - the new integrated transportation system ignored key elements of the Bogota and Curitiba systems that have proved essential to their success: dedicated bus lanes and easy ways to buy tickets before boarding buses..."

People do not use these buses because they do not run on time.

The entire Chronicle article is available at:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/16/MNCKTBHN9.DTL&hw=santiago&sn=001&sc=1000