Five Routes named for Bergen County bus rapid transit systemMyles Ma/NJ.com By Myles Ma/NJ.com
on June 05, 2014 at 8:19 AM
BERGEN COUNTY — Officials have narrowed a list of possible routes for bus rapid transit down to a "preferred" five.
The Bergen County Department of Planning and Economic Development, NJ Transit and a consultant team are studying how and where to create a bus rapid transit system.
While the definition of bus rapid transit is somewhat amorphous, such systems are generally specially designed to be faster and higher capacity than regular bus lines.
The five routes go 1) from the Montvale Park & Ride to Port Authority Bus Terminal 2) from Bergen Community College to Secaucus Junction 3) from Englewood Hospital to Secaucus Junction 4) from Garden State Plaza to Port Authority Bus Terminal and 5) from Broadway Bus Terminal in Paterson to the George Washington Bridge Bus Station.
Click here to view a map of the routes » [pdf]
The routes selected by the study team were created to connect key transportation nodes, like the Montvale Park & Ride or Secaucus Junction, and activity centers, like Bergen Community College or Englewood Hospital.
The study team selected the five routes based on these criteria:
• improving mobility for inter and intra county needs and destinations
• enhancing transit performance with improved bus travel times and schedule reliability
•enhancing overall system efficiency by improving utilization and efficiency of existing street networks and optimizing bus service on connecting routes
• enhancing community livability
• improving economic growth
The study team will study the five routes further to create an implementation plan for bus rapid transit.