Background

In this section, short descriptions of background material are presented to show the range of environments in which bus rapid transit systems have been implemented in numerous cities around the world.

United States and Canada

Boston, Massachusetts

There was a need to provide better transit access and more capacity to the growing South Piers redevelopment area and Logan International Airport. BRT was perceived as providing operational and service flexibility and related benefits rather than merely cost advantages over other rail-based rapid modes.  A limited amount of bus subway (tunnel) construction provides a one-seat ride to major activity centers such as Logan Airport from a variety of locations in the western and south-west portions of the City of Boston as well as providing another link among the City’s multi-lined rapid transit system.

Cleveland, Ohio

Rail transit on the Euclid Avenue corridor has been proposed for more than a half century, but numerous rail-based rapid transit plans were never realized because of the cost involved and the declining commercial activity in the corridor. BRT was perceived to be more cost-effective and affordable, and was seen as a tool for encouraging redevelopment.

Eugene, Oregon

A BRT system was seen as an environmentally responsive way of alleviating traffic congestion without making costly highway improvements in that rapidly growing medium-sized community.

Hartford, Connecticut

A BRT line was found to be a more cost-effective, less environmentally intrusive alternative for improving mobility than either LRT or a major freeway reconstruction, and more compatible with community planning goals.

Houston, Texas

The HOV, park and ride, and commuter express bus system makes effective use of HOV lanes in radial freeway corridors thereby reducing peak-hour traffic congestion. It originated after voters rejected a referendum dealing with bond sales for rail transit yet the region still needed a high-performance rapid transit system as an alternative to pervasive traffic congestion.

Las Vegas, Nevada

The MAX line, opened in July 2005, is the first U.S. BRT system to have all six major elements of BRT, including dedicated lanes, attractive stations, specialized, guided BRT vehicles, off-board fare collection, real time passenger information and signal priority.  BRT was found to be much easier and less expensive to implement than any other rapid transit alternative in the fastest growing city in the U.S., allowing much more system to be built for the same money.

Los Angeles, California

Long delays and cost overruns led to a county referendum prohibiting future subway construction. BRT was seen as a cost-effective alternative to improving transit service in major travel corridors. It was also considered to be a strategy for offsetting a 12% decline in bus speeds in recent years.

Miami, Florida

The State of Florida Department of Transportation examined alternative ways of providing high performance public transportation on an abandoned railroad right-of-way in a highly congested, growing suburban corridor. This led to the decision to build an at-grade 8-mile busway serving the terminal Metrorail station at Dadeland south. This busway functions as an extension of the Metrorail system and is now being extended to Florida City, another 8 miles further south.

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

The region’s land use and transportation policy gave public transportation projects priority over all forms of road construction or widening. Busway technology was selected because it was cheaper to build and operate than an LRT alternative, allowing much more system to be built and operated for the same amount of money. A 1976 study found that a bus-based system could be built for half the capital costs of rail transit and would cost 20% less to operate.  It also offered a higher level of service; greater staging flexibility met the capacity requirement of 15,000 passengers per hour in the peak direction and had similar environmental impacts when compared to the rail option. BRT was also seen as a growth management tool.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Busways were found easier to implement, politically viable, and affordable relative to major highway construction or rail transit. They would benefit riders that traveled beyond the limits of the guideways. The Port Authority of Allegheny County was also able to make use of an extensive network of railroad rights-of-way to implement dedicated busways.

Seattle, Washington

In the early 1980’s, a then federal policy of “no new rail starts” required Metro to explore bus alternatives for improving mobility and addressing pervasive congestion in this rapidly growing city. The bus tunnel was selected for its ability to remove the huge number of buses crowding downtown streets while, in conjunction with that Region’s extensive HOV system, providing a high-speed, reliable one seat ride from many locations to the CBD.

Australia

Adelaide

Mercedes Benz Company’s “O Bahn” mechanically guided bus system was found to have significantly lower initial costs than light rail and reduced the need for transferring in a low-density corridor. The O-Bahn technology was selected to reduce the cross section of a completely elevated guideway necessitated by soil conditions and a constrained right-of-way.

Brisbane

The Southeast Busway was designed to increase transit level of service in a low-density corridor, promote transit-oriented development, and make use of existing HOV lanes on the Southeast Motorway heading toward the “Gold Coast” beach area.

Sydney

A suburban BRT link was built to provide better transit service to low density areas with minimum transfer and walk times.

Europe

Leeds (UK)

The Guided Bus technology provides self-enforcing (cars and truck cannot physically operate on the tracks) queue bypasses for buses at congested locations.

London (UK)

For the past several years, London has implemented a 67-corridor “Quality Bus Corridor” program. This program represents a strategy to improve all aspects of bus operation and the customer experience in the respective corridors, end-to-end. Since 1999, there has been an increase in bus riderhip of over 40% to the highest point since 1968. In large measure, the increase has been due to the implementation of a variety of corridor “BRT Light”  schemes, featuring red-paved dedicated arterial bus lanes, off-board fare collection, signal priority, real-time passenger information and an extensive fleet of 60 ft.(18 meter)  three double-stream door, low floor ”bendy” (articulated) buses. 

Runcorn (UK)

A “Figure 8”, partially grade-separated Busway was an integral part of the New Town’s basic lay-out from its beginning. It is the spine around which the community has been laid-out.

Rouen (France)

After bid for a second light rail line came in significantly over available funds, local authorities re-advertised a competition to build-operate-and-maintain a rapid transit line for which BRT was an option. The winning bid (less than half the cost of the best LRT proposal) resulted in construction of a BRT system application (TEOR), featuring modern, optically-guided vehicles, off-board fare collection, signal priority, real-time passenger information on-board and at stations and a significant proportion of running on dedicated, specially colored running ways. Fare collection and station designs are the same as for the initial LRT line.

Paris (France)

A number of segments of “semi-rapid” transit have been built as part of a belt-line around Paris. The Val de Marne BRT line is a full-featured BRT application, with operation on dedicated busways, off-board fare collection, 100% low-floor articulated vehicles and real time passenger information. Stations are identical to those used for most of the LRT segments of the transit belt-line.

South America

In South America, there has been an urgent need to improve travel conditions in congested cities with populations that are growing exponentially. There generally has been neither time nor resources to build rail transit. Busways in the center of wide arterial streets emerged as a means of increasing bus performance and capacity.

Bogotá (Colombia)

After many false starts with rail-based rapid transit, the TransMilenio four-lane median busway system was built after a three-year period to provide affordable bus rapid transit services. It uses physically separated four lane median bus lanes to service center high platforms, no gap boarding/alighting island stations. With over one million riders per day on less than 30 miles, and at least one line carrying more than 30,000 trips per hour past the maximum load point in the peak direction, TransMilenio is the busiest BRT system in the world.

Curitiba (Brazil)

Rapid transit was seen as essential to the organized, efficient growth of this rapidly expanding city. Median busways were affordable and more flexible than rail, and have been an integral part of a “structural axis” along which development has been and continues to be encouraged.

Quito (Ecuador)

Given the explosive growth of the city over the past 30 years, improved public transport became a political imperative. After a number of abortive (insufficient funds) attempts to implement a rail system in the city, the decision was made to pursue BRT. Electric trolley buses were selected for the lines serving the city’s colonial core because of the view that an increased number of diesel buses would detract from its historic heritage.

Author: Ian McNamara