Hear, hear! It's ludicrous indeed, and so obviously bad faith. Give me a dedicated way, high frequencies and predictable service over hypothetical "speed" any day.

Related: I've heard NIMBYs bringing up that "the bus is faster (may have a quicker journey time in certain conditions)" and because of this, stuff like light rail and quality BRT is a waste of time. It certainly isn't faster if you have to wait for >30 min for it though because mixed traffic is an awful environment for generating and maintaining high frequencies and patronage and thus good investment. Our value assessment frameworks need work to say the least