Quote:
Originally Posted by ryan_mcgreal
The people most affected by the process of a rush-hour bus-only lane along a major transit corridor are the transit users who currently suffer an overburdened system of overstuffed buses that frequently pass bus stops because they can't afford to carry any more passengers.
Business owners will be affected marginally if at all by the loss of one lane during rush-hour on a street with vastly excessive lane capacity, and their concerns are mainly parochial. They should not be allowed to unduly influence the city's reasonable efforts to meet the demand for better transit.
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Bus-only lanes will have at best a marginal impact on the issue of overcrowded buses, so that straw man argument can be tossed aside quite easily.
I am not sure of the motivation for constructing an either/or dynamic here. The business owners are not saying the bus lane cannot be put in, they simply have concerns over how it will impact how their businesses operate and want to know how those concerns will be addressed. This is a valid request no matter how parochial you judge the request to be.
Transit is funded principally through the municipal budget and these business owners are part of the revenue stream that funds the budget, so their input into the process should not be considered undue influence, and it certainly does not deserve to be summarily dismissed by anyone who takes civic engagement seriously.