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Originally Posted by Dyingyak
The Morgantown PRT System is very cool but I think the effectiveness is related to the completely unique situation of separated campuses and physical orientation of the city. You're definitely right though that Tuscaloosa should be looking into an alternative transportation system.
You know...those are some really poorly designed stations, considering how limited build-able space is in Morgantown, they sure did devise some real estate hungry stations.
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You know, I was wondering the same thing about the massive stations... Only thing that I could come up with is that maybe the city and university wanted to get away from the massive asphalt highways and show what they could do with the same amount of space, while improving transit at the same time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ttownfeen
Agreed. There appears to be a good distance between the denser central campus and the more sprawled-out outer campus. For now, the Crimson Ride bus system works well for the size and density of the UA campus.
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I don't necessarily agree that the Crimson Ride is adequate. Maybe the year it was implemented it was efficient, but now it takes longer than walking.
A personal example of mine:
I have Urban and Regional Transit Systems in Farrah from 9:30 to 10:45. Fifteen minutes after that class gets out, I have my history section in ten Hoor. If I leave Farrah at 10:45 for ten Hoor, I'll be five to ten minutes late. Why is this? The sidewalks are fine, and they provide direct routes, BUT, University Blvd is so congested that you have to wait for two or three minutes to cross the street. There has never been a Thursday where I've been on time to my History section.
Another. This past spring semester, I had a Tennis class at 9:00 at the Rec. Getting there was fine, cause obviously, I could leave anytime before 8:40 and make it on time. However, I got out of tennis at 9:50, and 10 minutes later, I had to be at BB Comer at 10:00 for Italian. Obviously, I was never going to make it to Italian on time, even though I rode my bike every day. My professor was fine with me being five to ten minutes late twice a week, but I wasn't. Italian is my minor, so I didn't want to miss the beginning of that class twice a week. I eventually gave up on riding my bike, realizing i was never going to make it to class on time anyways, and took the bus, which took roughly the same amount of time (15-20 minutes). So, seeing that I was fighting a losing battle with Father Time, I dropped tennis...
I remember at Bama Bound being told,"Oh yes! you can walk ALL the way from one end of campus to the other within 10 minutes! And taking a bus would take even less time!" And that used to be true... My freshman year, I could make it in ten minutes. But, two years and 4,000 students later, it's impossible.
The buses help reduce vehicle traffic. BUT, they don't do much for pedestrians unless you just simply don't want to walk.
I think it would be a great idea if they made two bus lines that ran north to south and east to west. What would be different is that they would construct special bus lanes, like a two lane road, just divided. These routes would avoid the most pedestrian congested and vehicle congested parts of campus, so as to reduce travel time.
Yes, I do realize that is pretty much impossible
