We live in an age when the most unobjectionable and necessary ideas for progress can give rise to paranoia and fear. If the most innocuous, unoriginal possible idea can fuel paranoia, how can we hope to have a sensible discussion about the future of our places?
We already do in many places, they sound good in theory, but in practice aren’t much better. The problem with “express buses” is that they still have to sit in traffic. Really we need different modes of transportation, such as light rail, subways, dedicated bicycle paths, and so on, which do not share the road with cars. Otherwise, it’s much more difficult to make a value proposition for public/alternative transportation to those who can afford cars.
Bus rapid transit (lanes/roads entirely for buses) is cheaper than a subway, but provides many of the same benefits.
I wonder what it would be like if we planned out cities to have underground transport from the get-go? Basically leveled an entire area, built tunnels for all sorts of infrastructure in a meaningful way (imagine building the perfect city in sim-city approach) and then built everything on top of that again. Basically instead of digging tunnels we’d basically let the ground floor be tunnels and build on top.
Obviously wholly infeasible, but if you were to build a city for 1-3 million people it wouldn’t be unreasonable.
Agreed, a mix is absolutely the way to go. Dedicated bus lanes and signalling are also a great lower cost alternative to new hard infrastructure. There’s often extra driving lanes that can, for the cost of a quick paint job, become a bus lane bypassing all that traffic. Pair that with a safe and smart bike network and places to park bikes near where folks want to go and you’ve got a great core built ready for heavy rail, light rail, etc!