DOT Bus Rapid Transit Pilot Project to Serve Bed-Stuy?

BRT, or Bus Rapid Transit, is one of the more popular transportation concepts in planning circles around the country and the NYC Department of Transportation is jumping on the BRT bandwagon with a pilot project involving five bus corridors, one in each of the five boroughs. Bedford Avenue/Nostrand Avenue, which passes through the heart of Bedford-Stuyvesant, has been selected as the Brooklyn corridor. What does the BRT pilot project mean for the Bed-Stuy Gateway district? According to the article:

Stops would be spaced from one-half mile to a full mile apart. The bus lanes would be painted a special color, and the buses would get a distinctive paint job, to differentiate them from their pokier cousins. Cameras would be mounted on buses and bus stops to photograph trucks and cars blocking the bus lanes, so tickets could be sent to the vehicles’ owners.

To help speed buses along, on some of the routes they will have devices that transmit their location to a computer system that controls traffic lights: a green light could be kept on a few seconds longer, or a red light could turn green a few seconds earlier, to let the buses pass. At some bus stops, passengers would pay their fare at sidewalk turnstiles rather than on the bus, to make boarding faster.

Link: 5 Bus Routes Picked for High-Speed Runs - New York Times.