The controversial $119 million Albuquerque Rapid Transit bus project along Central Avenue (aka Route 66) began operation 13 months after construction began. Reporters and dignitaries boarded one of the all-electric buses for its maiden voyage Saturday.
One of the buses running Saturday was a Route 66-themed vehicle. Mayor Richard Berry, who shepherded the ART project to fruition and leaves office later this week, said construction finished a few weeks early, and not all the new buses have arrived in Albuquerque. He told KOB-TV he anticipated the rest of the buses would arrive by the end of the month.
The buses contain many features, including a prepaid ticket system, free Wi-Fi, docks for charging smartphones, lots of security cameras and on-board officers, comfortable seats and larger windows.
Here’s the full video report from KOB:
The Albuquerque Journal also produced this video of ART’s first run:
That doesn’t mean construction is over along Central. This update from the city shows work remains to be done. But it also makes clear road-work constrictions will fall this week.
The city recently produced this video on how drivers on Central should handle the new system:
More information if you’re a passenger:
Despite high marks on its first day, ART remains controversial among many people. The project entailed dedicating two lanes of almost 10 miles of Central for buses, sparking fears the reduction would cause traffic jams for regular drivers.
More than a year of construction proved terrible for almost all businesses on Central; some reported revenue drops of 60 percent.
Some also fear the radically changed structure of Central will diminish its Route 66 history and allure.
Proponents said ART is a way to draw more higher-density development to the city’s core and entice more millennial residents and high-tech companies. The younger generation drives less and is more apt to use mass transit such as ART.
I remain agnostic about ART. Its construction indisputably hurt business along Albuquerque’s Route 66 corridor, and I remain skeptical whether the city’s population density was high enough to justify ART. However, I’ve appreciated well-run mass transit systems in cities such as St. Louis, San Francisco and Chicago, and surveys have shown the millennial generation is much less attached to cars than earlier ones.
Time will tell whether the outgoing mayor eventually will be regarded as a visionary, or whether ART will be renamed Berry’s Folly.
(Screen-capture image of an ART bus at a newly completed station from an Albuquerque Journal video)
Wot no comments yet? The bus appears to go through a red light at the start of the video. Does it? Also, what is the meaning of there being “on-board officers”? Police officers? Armed police officers? Or just civilian employees of ART? If the last, then they are just that: civilians, little different from the typical passenger. And, if the last, will they be armed? With guns?
I have considerable experience with mass transit buses, both as a passenger and an employee. It will be interesting to see how ABQ-ART actually works out. Each city with mass transit has its unique system and therefore different experiences with their respective systems. Like it or not, public mass transit of all types is the wave of a future that approaches discernibly by the month. Rising population and continuing population shifts toward urban areas, the increasing scarcity and cost of fossil fuels, and other factors make the personal motor vehicle an ever less attractive option. In my city, the daily volume of vehicular traffic frequently approaches the saturation point and near grid-lock. There simply is no more space for more automobiles, neither to drive nor to park on. Naturally, local political and civic leaders, in their unwavering commitment to mediocrity and their own wasteful addiction fuel guzzling SUVs, refuse to acknowledge the problem or their own contribution to it. This will continue indefinitely, even though adequate (and, in some cases, generous) public mass transit options are already in place.
I’m sorry that this has so negatively impacted Central Avenue businesses. To a certain extent, it couldn’t be helped; not, at least, during construction. Business revenues along Central Ave should be monitored to see if they return to pre-construction levels or, hopefully, increase. Whatever benefits ART brings to Central Ave are almost certain to redound upon local businesses
All I can say is that I plan to drive the Old Road next June. I will certainly take time out to ride ABQ-ART.