Feds grant RTA, New Orleans $950K to plan bus rapid transit
12th November 2024 · 0 Comments
By Bobbi-Jeanne Misick
Contributing Writer
(Veritenews.org) — The Federal Transit Administration has awarded the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority, along with two city departments, $950,000 to plan a Bus Rapid Transit route that would quickly connect residents in New Orleans East and the West Bank to the city’s commercial core.
The FTA’s Transit-Oriented Development Planning Program grant will go towards the New Orleans’ Equitable Transit-Oriented Communities project, a joint effort between the RTA, the city of New Orleans’ Office of Resilience and Sustainability and the City Planning Commission to improve transportation access across the city.
“Funds from the grant will support procurement of a professional consulting team specializing in market analysis, community and economic development, engineering and public involvement,” according to a Friday (Nov. 1) press release.
Once created, buses along the 15-mile-long BRT route will travel from the corner of Lake Forest and Read boulevards in New Orleans East through the Central Business District and across the Crescent City Connection to the West Bank, ending at a park and ride facility near the corner of Wall Boulevard and General DeGaulle Drive.
Transit agencies in many U.S. cities have BRT routes that feature traffic lanes designated for bus use with priority signals at traffic lights, allowing buses to move through city streets more efficiently. The RTA’s BRT line will be the first of its kind in the greater New Orleans area.
According to the RTA, BRT would cut travel times by half for the nearly 3,000 transit riders in New Orleans East and nearly 2,000 customers in the West Bank.
“This grant will allow us to shape a vision for our city that serves the needs of all New Orleanians, particularly in historically underserved communities,” Mayor LaToya Cantrell said in the press release.
A recent report from transit advocacy nonprofit Ride New Orleans featuring analysis of census tract data found that transit riders in Orleans Parish can reach only about one-third of the jobs in Orleans, Jefferson and St. Bernard parishes in less than an hour on weekdays, while drivers can access “nearly all” of the area’s jobs within that time.
In the RTA press release, Ride executive director Courtney Jackson called the FTA grant a “massive step toward world-class transit for our region.”
“Bus Rapid Transit will meet our transit riders where they’re at and bridge the equity gap, freeing them from social and economic barriers through access,” Jackson said.
The transit agency has been trying to get a BRT project off the ground since 2018, when it identified the need to create “high-capacity transit routes” in its strategic mobility plan.
In March 2023, the City Council approved the RTA’s proposed route for the BRT line, paving the way for the transit agency to apply for funding through the FTA’s Capital Investment Grants program.
This latest FTA grant will aid in the next phase of planning, including community engagement, for the BRT route, which will feature stops through areas of the city in need of revitalization. The RTA will still need to secure funding for construction and implementation of a BRT line. A 2022 draft feasibility study estimated that it could cost between $5 million and $20 million per mile, depending on which features are adopted into the final design.
“Several of the station areas in the 15-mile, 22-station corridor are historically disinvested, are low-density, feature high rates of vacancy and traffic crashes, and high numbers of unhoused people,” the press release said. “Diligent engagement of these communities through hands-on methods will be critical to this process.”
This article originally published in the November 11, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
