I am following the saga of the bus rapid transit system that isn't.

I mean, it isn't going to be rapid, unless there are separate corridors for buses. A bus system that uses diamond lanes on existing roadways is really just an upgraded express-bus system.

Newer buses, improved scheduling and newly designed bus shelters will definitely improve the present system, but let's not get carried away with pretty pictures and no substance.

Orysia Tracz, in her letter to the Free Press  on May 30, made a very interesting suggestion: The persons on the transit task force should actually ride a bus everywhere they go for a few weeks. (I suggest that if they can't take the bus, they must pay for a taxi — no private car use allowed.) With this hands-on experience they will be better able to understand what transit users face and require on a day-to-day basis.

To me, the transit task force's made-in-Winnipeg plan to use diamond lanes on existing roadways to improve the transit system could be interpreted to mean a cheapest way to upgrade our present bus-system plan. But they insist on calling this glorified express-bus system a rapid-transit system.

I believe Winnipeg is entitled to the real thing — a public transportation system that is indeed rapid. It appears the task force has not really considered a light rail system (the most expensive). A bus system on existing roadways just cannot be considered rapid transit. Separate bus corridors could give us a public transit system which would likely be rapid. Corridors would be more costly initially, but would not the cost of regular maintenance and repairs on streets with the proposed diamond bus-lane system quickly balance out the costs of both systems? Also, as a bonus, with separate transit corridors, the city could give us those bicycle paths they have so long talked about.