Students create stops for buses

Scott Bingham is an architect-in-training. He has learned about design, technology and the history of his profession.

But public speaking is something new.

Recently, Bingham was one of 12 University of Utah students chosen to present an architectural model to a group of engineers and other professionals.

It was an odd situation, he said. First the fact that it was a presentation to real clients, not an experience concocted for the classroom.

Second, it wasn't a building or bridge model he had helped to build.

It was a bus stop.

"That's one thing about the architecture program, you never know what you're going to learn next," said Bingham, laughing nervously as he waited for his group's video presentation to begin. Since January, Bingham and other students enrolled in the University's College of Architecture and Planning have been working for the Utah Transit Authority. Their charge was to design a bus station for a new form of transportation: bus rapid transit.

While new to Utah, BRT has been around since the mid-'70s, when a line was built in Brazil.

Basically, it's a bus that operates with the same consistency and speed as light rail, said Mick Crandall, UTA deputy chief of asset management.

Like light-rail, BRT can run in its own lane. Traffic signals can be adjusted to lessen delay and the cost is millions less than light-rail, which can exceed $50 million per mile. BRT is about $10 million per mile.

"It's an attempt to create something as close to light-rail with a rubber-wheeled vehicle," said Crandall.

"This is a less expensive solution to providing something that's on-time and reliable."

Four studies involving BRT are nearing completion, including one in south Davis County. Cities have put money toward the project and are looking to BRT as an alternative to commuter rail. A trolley system is also being considered as an alternative.

"I just think there's a tremendous need for it," said Bountiful Mayor Joe Johnson. "We can help decongest the highways. We're not going to solve the problem by commuter rail coming to the South Davis cities. I'm very much for it, but it's not going to help us on the south end."

But to make BRT work requires a significant marketing output, said UTA spokesman Justin Jones. People must know it is different from the bus; it must be recognized as something new and reliable.

That's where Bingham and the other students come in.

UTA project manager Hal Johnson approached U. professor Ryan Smith in November with a plan to involve students in the creation of bus stops for BRT.