Quote:
Originally Posted by Acajack
How exactly does a rail-based system take up less space than BRT?
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As usual, it depends.
If the transit RoW is entirely separated from the road system (e.g. à la Transitway or Rapibus) then a BRT system needs to have some shoulder room for it to function reliably. For reference, the approximate standard of the Transitway is 4 m per bus lane and 2.5 m per shoulder, coming out to 13 m. By contrast, a rail system basically just needs enough space for the tracks and wherever the catenary is installed, and that total can be quite small in places where the catenary can be supported off things like trench walls or other supports outside the RoW.
On street, things are a bit different. The buses no longer need their shoulders since they have access to the adjacent regular traffic lanes, but the bus lanes still need to be pretty wide if high speed running is the goal. Trains, not having lateral movement issues, don't need as much space, though they might still need some buffer zone to avoid having others intrude into their space. Catenary can likely be dealt with as part of the usual street light infrastructure. I would note that on-street LRT in which the tracks are laid in some kind of driveable surface but are otherwise separated from the rest of the street might become rather tempting to cyclists (smooth surface with infrequent vehicle passage whose lateral movements are restrained), so some other kind of cycling treatment might be advisable.
The biggest challenge in all cases are stations and the amount of space they can take up.