BRT Hits 400 Corridors and Systems Worldwide
Source: The City Fix, by: Ryan Winstead (August 31, 2015) Last week, bus rapid transit (BRT) reached a global milestone, as the number of mapped BRT corridors and systems in BRTData.org’s database broke 400. As an online resource, BRTData compiles and tracks the development and progress of BRT projects globally. Additionally, the tool allows users to […]
New ‘Gold-Standard’ BRT in Yichang, China Leads The Way For Mid-Sized Chinese Cities
Source: ITDP (July 15th, 2015) Today, the city of Yichang, in China’s central Hubei province and the site of the Three Gorges Dam, opened a major transportation and urban development project largely funded by an Asian Development Bank loan. The Yichang bus rapid transit corridor, initially on Dongshan Avenue in the city center, will serve half […]
New Tools for a New Era of “Open” Transportation Planning
Source: One Step Blog – By: Chris Zegras (Octuber 6th, 2015) A major U.S. “big box” store has been running a radio ad lately in which the idea of Boston as a “city of firsts” figures prominently: the nation’s first city police department, the nation’s first subway (i.e., the “T”), etc. Considering transportation more generally, […]
Integrated Real-Time Transit Signal Priority Control for High-Frequency Transit Service.
Abstract Bus bunching affects transit operations by increasing passenger waiting time and variability. To tackle this phenomenon, a wide range of control strategies has been proposed. However, none of them have considered station and interstation control together. In this study station and interstation control were tackled to determine the optimal vehicle control strategy for various […]
Cycle of Technical Talks at the Chilean Senate: BRTCoE director participates in debate on the future of metropolitan transport
With the presence of Senator Manuel José Ossandón, member of the transport committee of the Senate; Deputy Leopoldo Perez; the Transport Regional Ministerial Secretariat for the Metropolitan Region, Matías Salazar; among others, the speech by our BRTCoE Director, Juan Carlos Muñoz, was held in the former National Congress of Chile. The meeting was attended by […]
8 million people. No subway. Can this city thrive without one?
This story by PRI.org extensively quotes our BRTCoE member Dario Hidalgo, who presents facts of BRT in Bogotá, Colombia. Source: PRI – Public Radio International by Jason Margolis (October 21, 2015) Every large city has traffic headaches. And at some point the debate begins: to build or not to build a subway. In Bogotá, they’ve been […]
Opinion Pieces: Infrastructure NSW may have finally got it right
Opinion Pieces: since 2007, Prof. David Hensher has written an opinion column in the Australasian Bus and Coach magazine, where he monthly discusses a lot of different transport-related hot topics. In this section we are revisiting these columns. November 2012 We are used to a continuing stream of government reports on transport futures, visions, plans […]
Using Legos as a Legitimate Urban Planning Tool
MIT wants to make transportation planning more transparent—and a bit more fun. Source: CITYLAB by Linda Poon (October 16th, 2015) MIT researchers unveiled something earlier this month that will please toddlers and serious urban planners alike. It’s a model of Dudley Square—a neighborhood in the greater Boston area—about the size of a kitchen table. The roads, […]
Juan Carlos Muñoz, Director of our BRT Centre of Excellence, joins BRT Standard Technical Committee
The BRT Standard is an evaluation tool for world-class bus rapid transit (BRT) based on international best practices. It is also the centerpiece of a global effort by leaders in bus rapid transit design to establish a common definition of BRT and ensure that BRT systems more uniformly deliver world-class passenger experiences, significant economic benefits, and […]
BRTCoE Book will be released at TRB Annual Meeting
The book «Restructuring public transport throught Bus Rapid Transit – An International and interdisciplinary perspective» was launched on Thredbo 14 and will be released on January 11th, 2016 during the TRB Annual Meeting. Edited by Juan Carlos Muñoz, our director, and Laurel Paget-Seekins, member of our Centre of Excellence, the book is divided in three […]
BRT: Successful seminars on Bus Rapid Transit organized by the K2 – Swedish Knowledge Centre for Public Transport in association with the VREF, on September 30 and October 1
Source: Volvo Research and Education Foundations (VREF) – Octuber 8th, 2015 An International Competence Day on Bus Rapid Transit followed by a Research Seminar on the same subject organized by the K2 – Swedish Knowledge Centre for Public Transport, on September 30 and October 1 in association with VREF encoutered success due to the growing […]
Mexico City’s Metrobús celebrates 10 years of service
The city’s BRT network has expanded sustainable mobility options to millions Source: EMBARQ at WRI ROSS CENTER FOR SUSTAINABLE CITIES (June 23rd, 2015) Line 4 of Metrobus in Mexico City. Photo by EMBARQ Mexico. Location: Mexico City/Mexico DF. On Friday, June 19, Metrobús—Mexico City’s bus rapid transit (BRT) system—celebrated its tenth anniversary. Since opening in […]
How science can stop buses from bunching
Research by our BRTCoE member Ricardo Giesen, from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, is mention in this article about how to avoid bus bunching. Source: Graham Southorn on HERE 360 (October 1st, 2015) Buses not arriving on time and then arriving all at once is a headache for passengers and for transit companies. You might not believe it, […]
Greater Boston could benefit from more bus rapid transit, report says
Source: The Boston Globe – by Nicole Dungca GLOBE STAFF (June 20, 2015) Imagine a bus that sails past cars stalled in gridlock during rush hour. A group of mass transit specialists and community activists convened by the Barr Foundation want that to be a reality for Greater Boston. According to a recent study from the […]
Papers from our BRTCoE among the outstanding papers of Thredbo 14
As tradition, on the final plenary of the 14th edition of the International Conference Series on Competition and Ownership in Land Passenger Transport (Thredbo 14) were presented the best papers among all the workshops of the Conference. Among the four selected articles, , there were two research projects of Juan Carlos Muñoz – Director of […]
Opinion Pieces: Crowding on Train Networks in Metropolitan Areas have become more important than travel time and fares
Opinion Pieces: since 2007, Prof. David Hensher has written an opinion column in the Australasian Bus and Coach magazine, where he monthly discusses a lot of different transport-related hot topics. In this section we are revisiting these columns. Octuber 2012 Crowding in public transport is becoming a growing concern as demand grows at a rate […]
Day 2 of Cities & Transport International Congress: New Climate Economy, Planning for Safer Roads
Source: The City Fix, by Ryan Winstead (September 11th, 2015) Today marked the second and final day of the Cities & Transport International Congress in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where more than 1,000 participants and 130 speakers gathered to share their experiences and ideas on how to forge sustainable cities. The main stage featured talks […]
Day 1 of Cities & Transport International Congress Talks Climate Action, Inclusive Development
Source: The City Fix, by Ryan Winstead and Alex Rogala (September 10th, 2015) Home to billions of people, cities are often the source of our most urgent problems–but they’re also where we find some of the most promising solutions for the urban century ahead. Today, over a thousand people and 130 speakers gathered for Day […]
Live from the Mayors’ Summit: Why We Need Bold Leadership for Sustainable and Equitable Cities
Source: The City Fix, by Ryan Winstead and Alex Rogala (September 9, 2015) “Something is happening in cities. Every day, 1.4 million people are added to the global urban population.” With these words, Andrew Steer, President and CEO of World Resources Institute (WRI), kicked off the Mayors’ Summit today in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Bringing […]
BRT in USA: Reflections in Light of the Boston BRT Study Group Report
In honor of the released of The Boston BRT Study Group final report, BRTCoE member Chris Zegras posted this blog update: Source: Chris Zegras – One Step Blog (June 19th, 2015) I first “discovered” the idea of bus rapid transit (BRT) when I learned about the famed Curitiba example in 1991 (although at the time […]
Analysis of Real-Time Control Strategies in a Corridor with Multiple Bus Services
Abstract Control strategies have been widely used in the literature to counteract the effects of bus bunching in passenger‘s waiting times and its variability. These strategies have only been studied for the case of a single bus line in a corridor. However, in many real cases this assumption does not hold. Indeed, there are many […]
Understanding the Relationship between Voting Preferences for Public Transport and Perceptions and Preferences for Bus Rapid Transit versus Light Rail
Abstract This paper provides evidence on the key perceived barriers that mitigate against support for BRT in the presence of LRT options. We develop best–worst preference experiments, one associated with design characteristics, another with service descriptions associated with BRT and LRT, and an experiment that focuses on voting preferences more generally. The focus of this paper is establishing a […]
Applied Choice Analysis: New Edition
Applied Choice Analysis, Second Edition, a major revision with almost totally new material has being published on June 11, 2015 in the UK and Europe. The book authors are David Hensher (BRTCoE member), from the University of Sydney, John M. Rose, from The University of South Australia, and William H. Greene, from New York University. […]
Thredbo 14, organized by the BRT Centre of Excellence, brings together members of the Centre and Global Experts in Santiago, Chile
Our director of the Center of Excellence Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and deputy director of the Centre for Sustainable Urban Development (CEDEUS) Juan Carlos Muñoz leads the welcome of the 14th International Conference Series on Competition and Ownership in Land Passenger Transport (Thredbo 14). This meeting held in Santiago brings together local and global experts […]
TRANSURBANO 2015: First International Encounter for Public Transport and Intermodality in Chile
The Association of Urban Surface Transportation Dealers (ACTUS for its initials in Spanish) is an entity that brings together six of the companies providing Transantiago’s bus services for Santiago, Chile. This organization will hold Transurbano 2015: the First International Encounter for Public Transport and Intermodality, an unprecedented experience of debate and analysis in the country. […]
Generation Heuristics for Zonal Express Services
Abstract A methodology is presented for designing zonal services for a bus corridor, in which buses visit all stops in a route’s initial and final segments, skipping all stops in between. Two heuristics are described, one for congested (binding capacity) and other for uncongested cases. An experiment on a bidirectional corridor shows that the heuristics […]
BRTData on the Brazilian Press
Last Month, O Globo, the newspaper of the most prestigious communication group in Brazil, Organizações Globo, published the next opinion article by our BRTCoE member Luis Antonio Lindau’s that highlights our BRTdata.org in Brazil. Source: O Globo (in Portuguese) – May 25th, 2015 The New Era of bus The BRT network, composed of several corridors […]
BRTCoE Director will participate in Roundtable on Quantifying the Socio-Economic Benefits of Transport: Travel Time Variability and Wider Economic Benefits
This roundtable will be held during November 9th and 10th, at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris. This event is organized by the International Transport Forum (ITF) of OECD. The Roundtable will focus on four subtopics: Valuation of travel time variability; Monitoring of travel times; Models and Handling travel time variability; […]
Opinion Pieces: What is happening with bus contracting?
Opinion Pieces: since 2007, Prof. David Hensher has written an opinion column in the Australasian Bus and Coach magazine, where he monthly discusses a lot of different transport-related hot topics. In this section we are revisiting these columns. August 2012 There is a new wind blowing in metropolitan Australia linked to a new suite of […]
3 Ways Mobile Technology is Transforming Bus Travel
Source: The City Fix (May 22, 2015) by Erin Kenney In the last fifty years, bus systems have evolved significantly as a mode of public transit. From the onset of bus rapid transit (BRT) in the mid-1970s to the growing variety of alternative fuel options—including cooking oil and human waste (known as the Bio-Bus)—there have been […]
CoAXs: interactive mapping for measuring and communicating transit’s accessibility impacts to support co-creative planning
Abstract When evaluating transport projects, accessibility measures provide insights into the potential for wider economic benefits that may accrue through agglomeration effects; these measures are recognized as a way to connect land use and transportation planning. Similarly, emerging evidence suggests that accessibility measures can effectively connect complex technical analyses with narratives more easily understood and […]
Opinion Pieces: A reminder that the real enemy to the use of public transport is the car and the political will to reform road pricing
Opinion Pieces: since 2007, Prof. David Hensher has written an opinion column in the Australasian Bus and Coach magazine, where he monthly discusses a lot of different transport-related hot topics. In this section we are revisiting these columns. July 2012 Road pricing reform is much touted by economists and others who see the current charging […]
BUZZ: APP ALLOWS TO PLAN TRANSIT AND BIKE TRIPS IN SANTIAGO, CHILE
Preliminary tests are being conducted for Buzz, a free mobile application that plans routes to travel in Santiago, Chile through the combination of different modes of sustainable transportation, such as bicycles and transit. The mobile initiative –which has the support of the Innova Corfo and the Fund for Promotion of Scientific and Technological Development (FONDEF […]
NYC Council approves creation of citywide bus rapid transit plan
Source: silive.com (April 16, 2015 ) – by; Anna Sanders «People in outer borough communities of all types, from Staten Island to southeast Queens to the eastern Bronx, lack mass transit options at a time when we need more mass transit options,» said the law’s sponsor, Councilman Brad Lander (D-Brooklyn). «Bus rapid transit is a smart, […]
Quantifying the effects of driver non-compliance and communication system failure in the performance of real-time bus control strategies
Abstract Control strategies that prevent bus bunching allow for improvement to the level of service offered by a transit corridor as well as reducing travel time and its variability, thus providing higher reliability to the user. Several optimization models based on the use of real-time information have been shown to achieve this, through the planning […]
Following the Centre’s recommendation, a BRT corridor and a significant urban transformation is being pursued in the main Avenue of Santiago, Chile
Santiago in Chile launched an international public competition for an urban design of its main corridor involving a BRT according to the BRT-ALC Center of Excellence’s recommendations. The BRTCoE Director, Juan Carlos Muñoz, will be part of the panel of judges that will decide which design will be implemented in the Alameda and Providencia corridor. Luis […]
Demystifying BRT: workshops bring together journalists and academics in Rio
Meetings explored the features of BRTData.org Source: Embarq Brasil (7/April) Photos: Mariana Gil /EMBARQ Brasil The BRCoE Director was one of the participants of the meetings organized by EMBARQ Brazil and the BRT Centre of Excellence in partnership with Fetranspor. In these two workshops the BRTData.org platform was presented to both journalist and academics. Brazil […]
Opinion Pieces: What’s in a name?
Opinion Pieces: since 2007, Prof. David Hensher has written an opinion column in the Australasian Bus and Coach magazine, where he monthly discusses a lot of different transport-related hot topics. In this section we are revisiting these columns. June 2012 It is difficult to sell the idea of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in some cities […]
Istanbul’s Metrobüs bus rapid transit system receives international recognition from sustainable transport experts
Source: WRI Ross Center for Sustainble Cities (March 31, 2015) Metrobüs receives BRT standard silver rating, still eyes room for improvement Istanbul’s Metrobüs bus rapid transit (BRT) system serves 800,000 people daily and reduces time spent traveling by 52 minutes for the average rider. Photo by Adriana/Flickr. In 2007, Istanbul added the Metrobüs bus rapid […]
BRTS buses win battle with cars in Indore
Source: Deccan Herald (February 25, 2015) By: Dario Hidalgo, member of our BRT CoE. After five years of construction, Indore opened one of the few Bus Rapid Transit Systems (BRTS) in May 2013. Operations started with a fraction of the total fleet planned, and yet, passengers exceeded 30,000 a day, a fourfold increase compared to the […]
Ridership Response to Incremental Bus Rapid Transit Upgrades in North America: Demographic and Network Effects.
This paper explores ridership increases in response to incrementally upgraded bus services in U.S. and Canadian cities. Current guidelines for developing bus rapid transit (BRT) corridors reveal a tension between comprehensive implementation of full-fledged corridors on the one hand and incremental, flexible development on the other. A review of the literature discusses this tension, various […]
New York City Rolls Out Its Best Bus Corridor Design Yet
Source: City Lab (March 25, 2015) by: Eric Jaffe It’s not quite BRT, but the Woodhaven Select Bus Service plan is clear progress. New York City may never get true world-class bus-rapid transit—major transformations to a street network that mature are just so expensive—but its own modified version, Select Bus Service, is proving a worthy alternative. Along […]
Trunk and feeder services regulation: Lessons from South American case
Abstract Many cities in the developing world are engaged in efforts to reconfigure their public transport systems and improve qualities of service. With some notable South American exceptions, a characteristic shared by these cities is heavy reliance on paratransit services, which are often poorly regulated and operated as informal businesses. Current projects and initiatives aimed […]
Transport Planning (book chapter)
Book’s Abstract This Handbook provides comprehensive coverage of all of the major factors that underpin our understanding of urban and transport planning in the developed world. Combining urban and transport planning in one volume, the chapters present the state of the art as well as new research and directions for the future. It is an […]
High coverage of BRT CoE research in Thredbo 13 proceedings
A few weeks ago the Journal Research in Transportation Economics released the selection of papers from the Thredbo 13 Conference “Competition and Ownership in Land Passenger Transport”. The volume 48 (dec 2014) is already available online and was edited by John Preston, David A. Hensher and Ruth Steel. We are glad to comment that it includes 11 articles of recent research done by members of […]
Released: New version of BRTData.org
After a hard work lead by BRT CoE’s member EMBARQ, the site www.brtdata.org is now fully updated! On one side, the database itself was expanded, including today 189 cities in 42 countries. That means detailed indicators about 4.907 km of Bus Rapid Transit lines around the world serving more than 31,3 million passengers per day! On the other […]
Director presents strategies to improve bus regularity at Etransport
Last week the Director of the BRT Center of Excellence Juan Carlos Muñoz was invited to participate in the Etransport Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He participated in the Panel named “Excellence in Transport: BRT – Best Practices”, which discussed the best practices of BRT systems around the world. The presentation of professor Muñoz was «Driving […]
Transform Access – VREF 2014 Workshop
Between October 28th-30th the building of the Ford Foundation in New York hosted the 2014 Workshop of the Volvo Research and Educational Foundations. The name of the meeting was «Transforming Access, Mobility and Delivery in Cities – Turning Knowledge into Action». This Workshop gathered attendees of its 9 Centres of Excellence across five continents, together with many researchers […]
CUSTRec International Workshop in BRT
Guangzhou, China was the stage last October 20 and 21 of the «International Workshop in Bus Rapid Transit». The event was organized for the first time together in what is hoped to be a long term relationship, between the BRT Centre of Excellence and the CUSTReC Centre of Excellence of the Chinese Academy of Transport Science. Juan Carlos […]
News on Thredbo Conference 14
14th International Conference on Competition and Ownership in Land Passenger Transport 30th August to 3rd September 2015. Ritz-Carlton Hotel Santiago, Chile. Call for Abstracts is now open and it will close on Friday 12th of December 2014. More information and applications here. The conference will review the latest international developments in competition and ownership in land passenger […]
