Dear Cleveland: This Is Not BRT 

When they meant BRT, they meant they run Gillig BRTs on this route.

That's six hours per day more dedicated bus lane than all three 'called a BRT' MAX lines in Kansas City have put together.

Stephanie Tubbs Jones served as the representative for Ohio's 11th congressional district from 1999 until her death in 2008. She was the first African American woman to be elected to Congress from Ohio! Public Square was part of the Connecticut Land Company's (never forget the tale of Long Connecticut and CT's true destiny) original plan for the city, which were overseen by Moses Cleaveland in the 1790s. Cleveland was modelled after New England, and the square is signature of the layout for early New England towns. In 1879, it became the first street in the world to be lit with electric streetlights, thanks to arc lamps designed by Cleveland native Charles F. Brush! What's now North Olmsted was originally called Lenox in 1823. In 1806, the vast tract of land comprising present-day North Olmsted, Olmsted Falls and Olmsted Township was purchased by Aaron Olmsted, a wealthy sea captain. In 1826, his son Charles offered to donate books from his father's personal collection in Connecticut if the residents agreed to change the name to honor his father! His collection became the Ox-Cart Library, now located in the North Olmsted Branch of the Cuyahoga County Library!

You really let your intrusive thoughts win with this Gordan Ramsay takedown of the Cleveland State Line and poutine! Yes, this is just an express bus, not BRT. Having bus lanes just during certain hours of the day is unreal, let alone the fact they're not enforced properly during said times it's supposed to be a bus lane! And hourly headways on weekends for an express bus is horrendous...they do know people DO stuff on weekends, whether it's activities downtown, church, or errands, right? They just dumped fancy shelters, some signs, and called it a day. Poutine was created in the 1950s in the Centre-du-Québec region, which include Drummondville, Victoriaville, and Bécancour. This region is known as the breadbasket of Quebec as it's big on agriculture like poultry and more importantly, the dairy industry. Hence having plenty of cheese curds!

As a Clevelander, it uses 60ft New Flyer buses on weekdays, but RTA has a limited amount of those buses that are also used on the 22 Lorain route. And there are zero plans to order new 60ft buses except for the Healthline (RTA just actually announced it would be replacing the 6 non-CSU line New Flyer 60ft buses with 6 40ft Gillig's in 2026). There are some blocks that use 40ft Gillig's because those stay out late and RTA likes to have the 60ft buses off the roads by 7-8pm. On weekends they use only Gillig's and no 60ft buses are on the road except for the Healthline because the 55 bus flips with the 90 downtown on weekends. On weekends RTA like's to utilize buses that flip, the 25 & 22 flip at Westgate, the 55 & 90 flip downtown, the 45 & 83 flip at Parma TC & the 26 & 26A flip at Crocker Park.

Some places called painted buses, and nice shelters BRT I bet it doesn’t even meet the lowest ITDP standards, right? The Healthline got a lot of points because it has nice branding but I don’t know how it got enough points to be rated silver. This doesn’t make the list.

I always thought clifton blvd was so wide because it used to have streetcars. But looking at old maps the streetcars went down detroit and madison aves as well

Dude, they run the long articulated buses like they have on the Healthline on the Cleveland State Line on weekdays. But yeah, it’s true, it ain’t exactly BRT. RTA used to be a way better system 25 years ago, but state budget cuts have pushed them into a death spiral, so service keeps getting worse. We’ve lost a lot of routes.

I am not a transit professional (well, unless you consider the ones with wings) but to me BRT should be dedicated busways and essentially a sort of 1 to 1 replacement for light rail for reasons of cost or right of way challenges. Or at a minimum should be dedicated lines, perhaps even with a barrier. As an aside: I enjoy your Cleveland videos. I got sent there for my prior employer for a few months to help correct their operation at the airport. I kinda like Cleveland.

During the morning rush hours with the dedicated lanes it still barely qualifies as an express bus. The 26 runs parallel and is as traditional of a city bus as possible. In the morning they are almost the exact same speed. In the evening, yeah the 55 is notably an express.

North olmsted Not stead.. You disappoint me young padawan

line with a branding and special buses = BRT

Ahhh the Gillig DE40. Not my favorite bus, but the one I know the best. Fun fact, the power steering unit in the thing is in the back right corner…. Just about as far as you can get from the operator steering wheel or the steering wheels.

Just took this bus today, as I always do to get to work/school. Today, while running every 15 minutes the 55B was running 15 minutes late at 8am, in peak commuting hour. It was untracked and arrived in a convoy with the 55 arriving at almost exactly the same time. Very BRT!

I'm not a fan of BRT, as it's basically a very expensive bus line that should have been light rail and prevents places with less budget from making buses actually work. I live in Barcelona, a city with an extensive transit system with everything from metro, trams,suburban/regional trains, intercity/medium/long distance/high speed trains, 2 funiculars (3, but one is not part of the system and more of a touristic and expensive one connecting to the Tibidabo amusement park) and plenty of buses. There are 100+ urban bus lines and in 2012 an important change was made to the network (that was a large scale of a small test called RetBus). The city converted a number of old style routs into a grid type system that was opened in stages and includes 8 horizontal lines(marked with H+even number), 17 vertical (marked with V+odd number) and 3 diagonal (marked with a D +20/40/50). This network is set in a grid, as much as possible, with easy changes between the lines (and other transport means), increased distance between stops (but not too far) and they added bus lanes, to those that already existed. It is called by many BRT, but it's not as it uses normal stops (which, unless not possible, use a basic shelter, maps of routs and a basic digital next bus sign), other regular buses use the same stops and bus lanes (and taxis also use those lanes) and during the weekend people can park on those many of those lances (but not at /near the stops). This provides a good and reliable system that is easy to use and faster than normal but is far less expensive to implement and prefers actual service, like frequency (5-8 minutes on work days, 11-20 minutes on Saturdays, Sundays and Holidays - depending on the day and line), quality of buses (they are now converting lines to fully electric) and increased speed. All of those things are basic and should be implemented for all buses but instead one "special" project gets a huge investment while the rest stays horrible. I understand that in the US it's hard to get funding for public transit which is why the focus should be on making the system usable without the bells and whistles of titles like BRT. I live in the city center, I have to main metro stations next to my house and now i prefer buses because they provide a good service and they are easily accessible everywhere.

also, the bus lanes on clifton blvd are peak direction only during rush hours

Yes the 55 uses the gilligs on the weekends. Only uses the Cleveland State Line buses Monday - Friday. And also the 55 when it gets downtown, it switchs over to the 90 bus ( Broadway - Libby) to the summit county line. Same thing with the 90. Gets downtown, switchs to the 55 to Lorain county line.

my city (Calgary) does the same thing with their BRT, we have two types, the BRT and the MAX, the BRT is pretty much just a limited stop route and the MAX gets fancy shelters and some bus lanes

Agreed - systems like this give BRT a bad rap and only make it more difficult to expand/fix things

Not a single person in Northeast Ohio who doesn't work for RTA thinks this is just like the Healthline. BTW, the Stephanie Tubbs Jones transit center looks like it'll be the new terminal for Greyhound and Barons Bus when they redevelop the site of the soon-to-be-former Greyhound station.

That reminds me of the bus lanes on Sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles, they're only effective during rush hour to and from downtown. But I don't think any of those busses claim to be BRT.

Not a bus, but a "bus rapid transit vehicle"

What's the typical stop distance of the 55 and what's of the other lines? Because if it's between 300 and 500 m, the 55 is just a bus line as I (German) know it.

So: I used to ride this thing's predecessor on approximately a daily basis, and back in those days there was a 55, a 55B, a 55C, and a 55X for eXpress. And I 100% agree that the so-called BRT is basically just that service. The designating it as BRT and selling off the naming rights was simply a cash grab. I also had a buddy who worked for RTA with a real enthusiasm for transit, and the inside scoop is that the reason Cleveland has anything called BRT in the first place is that the then-head of the RTA wanted to get a reputation as a great BRT guy so he could be hired in a different city that could pay him better. So any benefits to Cleveland residents were basically entirely optional.

Watching from Ontario 🇨🇦

Sydney says hold my cake: its T80 Parramatta - Liverpool via T-Way is proper BRT, mostly in its own roadway with intersections only. Every intersection has a massive sign saying AUTHORIZED T-WAY VEHICLES ONLY. DEMERIT POINTS AND FINES APPLY. T-WAY IS CAMERA MONITORED. Elsewhere there are bus lanes in most places. We only got caught in traffic on a half block outside Parramatta's city centre, where the bus lane ended for a left turn beside a school. Now we're talking (by the way the route is just listed under Buses on Transport for NSW's website!

How long ago were the streetcar tracks paved over?

That route 2 bridge always made me nervous feels a couple feet of concrete between you and 100ft drop. Also route 2 between edgewater and where it joins i90 being a wide freeway is one of Clevelands problems

I thought for sure, maybe it only runs hourly on the weekend, but its 3 routes interlining right???. Thats 20min service. No the B and C routes dont run AT ALL on the weekend. Then I checked weekday. B and C only run during rush hour in the peak direction. The regular 55 is 30min service on weekdays. The B and C are hourly, only from 5/6am to 8am. The combined section is thus every 15min (at rush hour, in the peak direction only). Honestly, no its not BRT, but I get it. They want to funnel college students downtown, the B and C routes help collect extra ridership area. When its combined together at rush hour, the bus lanes help, but at hourly or 30min service the bus lanes aren't really necessary. I imagine traffic in Cleveland is like St. Louis. Very light except for like 2 hours around rush hour.

If you have a chance check out Richmond, VA. All their busses are free and they have a real BRT. Also the Amtrak station is nice.

Am I crazy for thinking that you're better off having a tram system? Or any form of a railroad system?

That is, unless my WiFi is working

In Summit County Ohio we would NEVER call that BRT… We call it Metro

they usually just run the brt’s on weekdays

BRT Creep at its finest... Seriously, from the perspective of NZ, this wouldn't even be considered an express bus. Highway running buses are still numbered as normal buses. And peak-time bus lane buses are still numbered like every other bus. The only difference in designation is that the high frequency buses (i.e. the ones with bus lanes) have 2 digit route numbers and maybe a letter while everything else has 3 digits. The only buses which AT call "express" are the ones that run on the busway or along bus lanes on the motorways. Edit: Looks like I forgot about the 72X, 309X and 333X which are "express" limited stops or highway-running versions of the base route. Either way, AT is not pretending that normal bus routes are "BRT"

Bruh......you did it. You found the Fyre Fest of Bus Rapid Transit.

Yup, this is just like the Albany, NY BRT that isn't. I ride it to work and other than a couple bus only traffic lights, it's an express bus. But try to tell CDTA that.

its just an extra regular bus with an (express) happy hour

Might as well put in regional rail

I'm pretty sure they call it BRT because they got grant funding that was designated for BRTs.

You could say the same about Boston’s SL4 and SL5

At this point in cities like this the only way to have actual bus lanes would be a full wall

BRT in this case probably stands for Barely Rapid Transit.

3:00 lmao I’ve never heard him raise his voice

Great video, any other US cities that have fake brt?

Also I live in SF now

Caleb you look like Stu from The Hangover

ב''ה, what's the fare out there? I'm not picky, so this being aspirational to painting some diamonds on the lanes and dedicating it.. cities have to work with what they've got. Climate might appreciate Illinois' push-for-heat system if it can avoid vandalism and burning down neighborhoods.

Healthline MENTIONED ✅✅✅ It’s not perfect but I love my bus

Fun Fact, The metrohealth line will become real BRT in the future

Not gonna lie the 55 is good but its too long plus it goes to the lorain County line

If they want to have a fancier express bus, just call it an express bus. Don’t call it BRT.

What’s BRT?

It's Bus Rapid Pulse Rate, an illness commonly caused by inappropriately named transit. Hopefully Kalkedan was able to sing you to sleep🙂

Low expectations is part of life around here.

Unless a bus route is physically separated from other traffic, it’s not a true BRT. A painted bus lane would only work if everyone obeyed traffic laws- and that’s certainly not the case.

bus lanes reserved only for peak directions of travel is pitiful

Its a gillig BRT!

Not really a BRT, and honestly it's BARELY an express bus. It is however, at least in my opinion. The most scenic of all the RTA bus lines.

Once per hour is embarrassingly bad.

Come on Caleb! The capital of Colombia is BO-GO-tah.... not buh-GO-tuh.

Time-based "rapid transit" infrastructure, my favorite! Gotta cater to those suburban commuters. But like WTH...I'm in San Diego where we have many "Rapid" buses that have actual dedicated bus lanes and still dont call it BRT. Even several local routes jump on the highway for a bit and start their routes as an "express bus" of sorts, and MTS doesn't advertise it as anything special.

Hey classy whale the Cleveland state buses run Monday thru Friday. Just to notice on trips Sat and Sunday it runs from near Ontario as a start point also 55 used to be called the gold coast line until it became a brt 55A 55B 55C those are rush hour only routes 55 runs then it switches in to a 90

LETS MAKE you Really crazy Look at HART brt

Classy🐳 😃

Clevland line uh oh

✌🏾

And the most pathetic thing is they put the MetroHealth line on the metro map... SMH Tbh It may not be actual BRT but the CSL is definitely a good bus service... brings me directly to campus with almost no extra walking.

only in Ohio 💀💀🥶🥶