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BRT Planning Tools and Methodologies

Introduction

This section of the BRT Information Clearinghouse explores the various sketch planning tools available for the development of a bus rapid transit system project.

The concept of using rubber-tired vehicles to provide rapid transit is not new as there have been major plans in the United States put forth since the 1930s and that Chicago was the first such investigation (See References 1-4 at end of document). During the 1960s and 1970s, pioneering research and planning studies were also performed (See References 5-10). In the mid- to late-1970s in the U.S., the focus in transit planning shifted away from bus use and moved toward high-occupancy-vehicle (HOV) and light-rail transit (LRT). Consistent with this trend in the 60s and 70s away from BRT in the U.S., the oldest rapid bus systems in operation were implemented twenty to thirty years ago in locations around the world, outside the U.S., including 1) Runcorn, United Kingdom, 1973; 2) Curitiba, Brazil, 1974; 3) Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, 1983; and 4) Adelaide, Australia, 1986 (See BRT Resources ) . It is only over the last half-dozen or so years that bus rapid transit systems have grown in popularity and been put into operation in the United States beginning in 1998 when the FTA formedthe BRT Consortium to demonstrate the effectiveness of BRT and to encourage BRT deployment and the implementation in 2000 of the Los Angeles Metro Rapidservice along the Wilshire-Whittier Boulevard and Ventura Boulevard corridors.

Author: Mark Miller