Imagine boarding an express bus just a short walk from your home. Your monthly pass eliminates the need to carry exact change. As you settle into your comfortable reclining seat, with a power port to plug in a laptop computer, a reading light, and overhead storage bins, the bus reminds you of an airplane cabin - except it's not cramped like today's aircraft. With traffic lights that stay green for buses and a bus/carpool lane on the highway to cruise past solo drivers, the bus whisks you quickly to your workplace. You arrive on-time and ready to start your day, happy that your days of battling traffic are over.

An express bus system can often serve as a very cost-effective transit option for many metropolitan regions of the country. In addition, although they are often perceived by the public as poor substitutes for trains, buses with a slew of amenities would more closely resemble airplane cabins, except they would be more spacious than today's jets.

Particularly in more dispersed suburban areas, express buses are sometimes faster, less expensive, available sooner, and can carry many more people than new rail extensions. Express buses are already in use in some regions of the country and are so successful they are covering all of their operating costs.

Express buses or vans are becoming more and more attractive as metropolitan areas complete HOV networks now. However, there are still often key gaps in regional bus/carpool lane systems that would force buses to inch along with all other traffic. This problem can be overcome by strategically converting existing regular "mixed flow" to HOV lanes (during peak hours) rather than adding expensive new lanes. Conversions should be done on highways that already have at least eight lanes. This would provide the region with an integrated express bus web at extremely low costs.

The Benefits Of Regional "Express Bus Webs"

• Low capital costs save taxpayer dollars. Unlike building new highways or rail lines, which entail huge sums, these buses make use of existing infrastructure.
• Use it sooner. Rail extensions and highway projects typically take ten to twenty years to move from concept to final product. The bus web could be operational within six months, as the only required elements are new signs, new buses and the re-striping of existing highway lanes.
• Travel faster. By using bus/carpool lanes, buses can move along unimpeded by traffic congestion, while simultaneously reducing highway congestion for drivers in the remaining mixed-flow lanes.
• Modular. The bus web can be created in stages and put into place in the most congested areas first to get the maximum payoff.
• Adaptable. Routes can be reconfigured as needs change over time. Vehicle size can be adjusted to demand, increasing from vans and mini-buses to full-size or even articulated buses as demand along a route increases. This ability to match demand keeps operating costs low.
• More people can walk to the bus. Buses, unlike rail, get close to where people live. This proximity decreases the need for short, "cold-start" car trips, which are the most polluting. And because people can walk to them, buses donŐt require large parking lots.

Adapted from the Bay Area Transportation and Land Use Coalition's "World Class Transit." For more information about express projects in the San Francisco Bay Area, visit www.transcoalition.org