El Paso looks to mass transit to redevelop aging neighborhoods

Investing in Bus Rapid Transit

Alex Wukman, Jan 03, 11.

El Paso is facing a tough realization, the interstates have not been kind to all of the city’s neighborhoods. Thoroughfares like Alameda Avenue and Montana Street were home to thriving commercial districts and residential neighborhoods throughout the 1940s and parts of the 1950s, but when the freeways came they bypassed those areas and left the businesses and homes behind. Now El Paso’s City Council is turning to mass transit in hopes it will serve as the engine to move the economies of struggling areas into gear.

Unlike Houston, Dallas or Fort Worth El Paso has chosen to go with bus rapid transit, also known as BRT, and, according to the El Paso Times, is preparing to spend approximately $50 million to open two lines. The first line, along Alameda Avenue, is slated to cost $30 million and is expected to be operational as soon as next year. The second line scheduled to be completed will run along Mesa Street near the University of Texas-El Paso and will cost $21 million.

The decision to use BRT is part of a broader redevelopment project, known as Plan El Paso, taking place throughout the city. Urban planners involved in the project view Plan El Paso as a continuation of the vision first created by famous landscape architect George Kessler, who’s designs for the city included parks and walkable neighborhoods. El Paso City Representative Beto O’Rourke told New Urban News that, with the expansion of Fort Bliss, the city will be receiving increases in transportation dollars and that ‘We can continue to build controlled-access freeways that will allow drivers a beautiful view of the next Target Superstore, or we can use the concepts developed in this plan and build boulevards that people want to spend time on, that local entrepreneurs want — and still move cars, along with buses, people and bicycles, to their destinations effectively.”

A report entitled Connecting El Paso was released in December by the members of Plan El Paso and in it they state “the singular approach of building wider roads and additional elevated expressways is likely to have reached the extent of its potential when considered in relation to accompanying costs.” As part of El Paso’s move to more pedestrian friendly, mixed use development the city adopted a SmartCode in 2008.

The City’s SmartCode “offers an alternative to existing zoning, placing emphasis on urban form over land use,” reads the report. As they explain in the report, city planners are looking towards Transit Oriented Development, or TOD, as part of the plan to remake El Paso. “Transit-Oriented Development is a design and development strategy that links higher-density, walkable neighborhoods to transit stations,” reads the report.