Bus Rapid Transit comes to NAU

New to NAU on a year-round basis, the University has implemented its first ever stretch of one critical element of Bus Rapid Transit.

Bus Rapid Transit is a transit modality using buses as the transport vehicle but incorporating many of the advantages of a Light Rail transit system.

The feature most often associated with Bus Rapid Transit is either a busway completely segregated from and having little contact with other roadways, or a lane on existing roadway dedicated only to buses.

Today, NAU got the latter.

Open for the first time is a dedicated Bus Lane running westbound on Pine Knoll from the Forestry entrance driveway to McConnell drive.

Now when traffic congests along this stretch, our transit bus schedule will not be impinged. Riders upstream will get to their destinations faster; those downstream will see a bus arrive at their bus stop sooner.

These Bus Rapid Transit features, in combination with traffic police at key intersections, the implementation of Bus Staging at key bus stops, and the additional buses and vans now in service, will hopefully translate into greater service levels for our customers.

If this Bus Lane proves to be an asset to transit and NAU in general, a goal after traffic patterns and demographic futures can be assessed might be sectional expansion of Bus Rapid Transit in other areas of campus where needed.

MCT recognizes and thanks Project Manager D.H., the Grounds Crew who erected the signage, the Paint Crew who striped the roadway, and all others who contributed to this exciting development for University transit.

If you are interested in learning more about Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), please click on the appropriate links in the right column under "Connections."