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Nantes Busway, for example, runs in mixed traffic. So I guess from that standpoint, people actually prefer regular buses as having higher quality because Nantes is fake BRT, again, according to Internet posters.
The only thing the Nantes Busway won out on, according to the link was comfort and security. Security might be from neighborhood location as Rozenn said. This wiki article says the Nantes busway runs on a dedicated way not mixed traffic:
Swift BRT (Snohomish County, WA) runs mostly in mixed traffic and is called BRT as well. RapidRide (King County) however, does not use the BRT moniker in its name. RapidRide is, however, referred to as BRT by FTA, King County Metro, etc. I don't have great familiarity with the system, but it's predominantly maybe even exclusively run in mixed traffic. Again, some Internet posters definitely call it out as being fake BRT but I'd go with FTA and King County Metro.
As an aside, Nantes tramway is 2/3rd the length of Sacramento's light rail but has a bit over five times the ridership.
Well, yes. But like most light rail projects, Sacramento would have probably been better served by running buses. Only in the past few years did the cost per boarding and cost per mile of light rail become cheaper than the cost per boarding for the bus system overall. There's a few heavily used bus routes, but the majority in Sacramento run pretty empty.
Nantes is more the opposite. It's been so popular that there's a good likelihood that it will eventually be replaced with tramway due to capacity.
It isn't exactly that simple estimating demand and future development/demand. Nantes very much underestimated how popular the BRT was whereas Sacramento overestimated.
Well, yes. But like most light rail projects, Sacramento would have probably been better served by running buses. Only in the past few years did the cost per boarding and cost per mile of light rail become cheaper than the cost per boarding for the bus system overall. There's a few heavily used bus routes, but the majority in Sacramento run pretty empty.
Nantes is more the opposite. It's been so popular that there's a good likelihood that it will eventually be replaced with tramway due to capacity.
the bolded should read: like most light rail projects in the US. Nantes doesn't seem unusual for European light rail. Canadian light rail seems to come closer to European light rail ridership than western American ones. I thought one of the main benefits of light rail (or BRT for that matter) is speed and reliability of being mostly grade-separated. This requires road congestion and a corridor that's sufficiently busy.
Boston's light rail seems similar in Nantes in ridership and size. Except Nantes appears to be better at grade separation and signal priority except for the center city where Boston's light rail runs underground. Boston and Nantes are probably more similar in layout to each other, at least in the places their light rail system go than Sacramento is to either of them.
Weirdly, the public transit agency of Nantes is partially privately owned. I don't think public transit is profitable in Nantes. So an agency that gets government funds has private shareholders? Don't get how that works, maybe it's an arrangement normal in France.
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