SEPTA releases plan to implement bus only lanes in Philadelphia, relying on regular drivers to respect the rules of the road
The city of Philadelphia announced earlier today their new plan to have “Bus Only” lanes painted red, in different locations around the city with the goal to speed up route times.
The first location will be on Chestnut Street between Broad and 2nd. While this seems like a good idea and something would speed up travel times, I think SEPTA missed out on one key point with their bus only idea. It appears they are relying heavily on other non-bus riders and drivers to “respect the rules of the road” and keep the red bus lanes clear.
SEPTA transit planner Dan Nemiroff told the Inquirer the following:
The long-term viability of a transit lane is reliant on people obeying the rules and cars staying in their lane, because you’re not going to have police out there 24/7.
After reading that statement, it’s safe to assume that no one from SEPTA has ever driven in the city of Philadelphia and have zero clue about the 24/7 madness that takes place on city roads.
You have Uber, Lyft, delivery trucks, regular drivers, and who knows what else driving through center city all of the time and now you want to pitch an idea to limit a road down to one lane for a bus only option? It really doesn’t sound like the smartest plan.
I literally have witnessed a friend of mine throw the flashers on outside of my other buddy’s apartment in center city for HOURS on end and no one said or did anything about it. There are people pulled over and parked all over the streets and sidewalks, even more so now with the commonly used trick of fucking over the PPA by removing or covering your license plate and/or car tags.
(The PPA can’t touch your car, so they can’t ticket you if they don’t know who it belongs to)
Point being, thinking that people in Philadelphia are simply going to abide by the red-painted bus only lane seems ridiculously optimistic. I wish that wasn’t the case and that people would behave better while driving but that’s not the world we live in.
