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Video: simple solution for subway station

Our Director, Juan Carlos Muñoz, explains a simple solution to a congestion problem in a subway station at Santiago, Chile.

 
 
 
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Embarq Brazil’s Director Toni Lindau receives Brazilian Presidential Medal of Honor in Minas Gerais

Source: Embarq

On September 12th, EMBARQ Brazil’s Director, Dr. Luis Antonio Lindau, was awarded the President Juscelino Kubitscheck Medal of Honor, by the Governor of Minas Gerais, Antonio Anastasia, and the former president’s daughter, Maria Estela Kubitschek. The award is named for President Kubitschek, who, among other things, is credited with envisioning and building the city of Brasilia. Lindau received the award in recognition of EMBARQ Brazil’s work to improve public transport in the city of Belo Horizonte.

Lindau was named to receive one of the most notorious state honors by the governor of the State of Minas Gerais and the mayor of Belo Horizonte, Marcio Lacerda, in recognition to EMBARQ Brazil’s work in partnership with BHTrans – the public organization responsible for transport services in Belo Horizonte. EMBARQ has worked on the project since 2010, aiding with BRT project development in the state capital, which will be launched early next year.

About 60% of EMBARQ Brazil’s recommendations on the Road Safety Audit reports were accepted by the city. Thanks to EMBARQ’s work, the Belo Horizonte high capacity bus system will be safer for the population.

«I welcome this Medal of Honor with huge satisfaction as recognition for the work developed by the EMBARQ Brazil team with BHTrans in the past years to implement a high quality BRT system in Belo Horizonte,” said Lindau as he accepted the award. “It’s been such a pleasure to work in partnership with a city like Belo Horizonte, whose Mayor prioritizes sustainable transport and urban mobility with the competent technical BHTrans staff. I appreciate the honor and assure you that we will keep working to improve the quality of life for the welcoming people of Minas Gerais», thanked Lindau.

The traditional ceremony that honors the former President occurs every September 12th in Diamantina, Minas Gerais, hometown of Juscelino Kubitschek. President Kubitscheck envisioned Brasília and made it a reality in 1950. «Kubitschek led the most important structural changes in Brazilian history, especially on transport infrastructure and energy; he had those goals even before being President,» said Geraldo Alckmin, governor of São Paulo and the speaker for the occasion.

The governor of Minas Gerais, Antonio Anastasia, granted the honor to 120 people and organizations that have provided relevant services to society, contributed to the improvement of governmental organizations, and aided the City, State or Country development.

 
 
 
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Exhaust Emissions of Transit Buses: Brazil and India Case Studies

Meta-Analysis of Transit Bus Exhaust Emissions

This paper presents a comparative analysis of bus emissions associated with a variety of fuel types, specifically for developing countries. A large data set of in-use transit bus tests is compiled for commonly regulated transportation emissions including carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter. Carbon dioxide is included to help in understanding greenhouse gas […]

Integration of spatial correlation into a combined travel model with hierarchical levels

A combined travel model incorporating spatial correlation is derived from the optimality conditions of a multi-objective optimization framework, in which the trip generation and distribution steps are expressed as hierarchical logit functions. Different forms of spatial correlation are shown to be easily accommodated in combined models using hierarchical logit structures. An extension incorporates spatial correlation […]

Aggregate estimation of the price elasticity of demand for public transport in integrated fare systems: The case of Transantiago

Price elasticities of demand for public transport are a key determinant in evaluating the impact of changes in fares on user flows, yet in many integrated fare transit systems, estimating these indicators is often hampered by two realities: the fare changes for different modes are implemented simultaneously and their magnitudes are highly correlated. This strong […]

On the move: Pushing sustainable transport from concept to tipping point

Source: The City Fix, by Dario Hidalgo and Heshuang Zeng.
 
This is the third post of the “Sustainable Urban Transport On The Move” blog series, exclusive to TheCityFix. Preparation of this series was possible thanks to a grant by Shell. Its contents are the sole responsibility of the authors.

In previous blog posts of this series we focused on the need for a paradigm shift in urban mobility and the changes in the demand side for urban mobility spurred by generational changes. Starting with this post, we’ll feature selected “supply side” sustainable mobility solutions. These emerging solutions for the transport community will help address the vast challenges we are facing: increasing road fatalities, air pollution, physical inactivity, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. We’ll take stock of whether we are making progress beyond rhetoric from a solutions perspective rather than from the impact side – an approach that is heading most countries in the wrong direction.

Where are we now? Let’s use a model to answer that question.
 
 
“Diffusion of Innovation” theory as a basic framework for sustainable mobility solutions

The “Diffusion of Innovation” theory from Everett M. Rogers can serve as a basic framework for examining sustainable mobility solutions. We will locate where various mobility solutions are in the innovation adoption curve, and whether they have crossed the critical point at which implementation is unstoppable, known as the “tipping point”.

The “Diffusion of Innovation” theory is generally used to explain the process by which an innovation is communicated over time among members of a social system. The social system subject to innovation is comprised of individuals that can be categorized into five categories: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards (See Figure 1). Each category of individuals acts to influence the next group through idea diffusion.
 

 
 
Process of idea diffusion: Reaching the “tipping point”

The process of idea diffusion does not always occur naturally. In many social systems there is a gap between early adopters and early majority, which was coined as “the chasm” by Geoffrey A. Moore in Crossing the Chasm. Bridging that gap does not always happen gradually. There are cases in which the change is sudden. Once the innovation “crosses the chasm”, it is considered to have reached a “tipping point”. After this point, growth continues at an exponential rate until reaching the early majority of the population. Adoption then slows down as late majority and laggards still resist change.

This is the path the automobile followed throughout the changes of the last century. Inventions were rare during the last part of the 1800s, and only about 2,500 vehicles sold in the U.S. in 1899 by thirty different manufacturers (innovators). The tipping point occurred when Henry Ford introduced the Model T in 1908, the same year General Motors was founded. Mass production and standardization helped cross “the chasm”, and by 1913 a total of 485,000 automobiles were sold (early adopters). In 1927 the Model T was withdrawn from production, but 15 million units had already been sold: “automobility” had become a reality.
 
 
Translating idea diffusion to the scaling-up of sustainable transport

In sustainable transport development, idea diffusion can be seen as the scaling-up process that takes place across various geographies, mainly through the replication and adoption of new concepts from one city to another. The tipping point will occur when the adoption process accelerates from few cities to many cities, so that what were just a few iconic projects becomes the widespread norm.

When adapted to sustainable transport, the four stages of idea diffusion are:

• Emerging: The period when new ideas/concepts are developed and applied by one or two cities
• On the rise: The time when the new solution/ideas are gradually applied into a small number of other cities, or accepted by a small number of users
• Tipping: the period where the adoption rate changes from few cities or a small number of users per year to exponential growth
• Mainstreaming: Continuous steady growth after the tipping point

 
Where are sustainable transport solutions located in the adoption curve?

In our upcoming blog posts we will examine five areas of tranport: car restrictions and pricing approaches, mass transit, shared mobility, urban design for access, and multimodal integration. Through consulting with experts with on the ground experience in sustainable transport deployments around the world, we will determine where they are located on the 4-stage advancement curve. Although we won’t be exhaustive, we will try to represent the most relevant concepts in sustainable urban transport, with a focus on policies avoiding personal motorized transport, and shifting demand towards public and shared modes.
 

 
 
Significant literature review and web research has helped us qualify the status of these five areas of transport. Here is a sneak-peak at our research:
 

 
 
Many emerging concepts in sustainable transport that show potential to be adopted by a larger number of cities in the near future are on the rise, including congestion pricing and vehicle quota systems. Some concepts are undergoing tipping growth toward becoming mainstream, like bikesharing, bus rapid transit (BRT), and smart tickets. Still others that are already mainstream in industrialized economies are now emerging or tipping in developing regions, such as low emission zones, carsharing, and metro.

A “new normal” is underway. Most of the concepts we’ll review have or are in a process of crossing the proverbial “tipping point”. Whether this paradigm shift will maintain its momentum is uncertain, since it will require generous enabling policies and finance, as well as developments in the private sector. Keep an eye on this series to find out the latest information and discussion on sustainable urban mobility.
 
 
 
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Modelling the effects of pro bicycle infrastructure and policies: towards sustainable urban mobility

This paper aims to determine the potential of the bicycle as a sustainable mode of transport in a medium-sized Spanish city (Santander, in northern Spain) with strong inclines and relatively inclement weather. For this purpose, a general methodology has been designed that could serve as an example for other areas. First, potential bicycle users in […]

Bus Rapid Transit Workshop: Experiences and Challenges

Julio Briones*, Chilean transport engineer, discusses his recent participation in the BRT workshop at Oxford. He highlights the very comprehensive approachs presented for designing, building, and operating Bus Rapid Transit projects. He also stresses the central importance of understanding the personal motivations of metropolitan political authorities in order to successfully achieve more support for pushing bus reforms.
 
In September, I participated along with twenty-four other professionals from South Africa, Australia, the UK and Germany, in the Bus Rapid Transit workshop that the BRT Centre of Excellence conducted at St Anne’s College, University of Oxford, immediately following the 13th International Conference on Competition and Ownership in Land Passenger Transport. Seven experts from internationally recognized universities and public transport organizations gave a very comprehensive view of BRT projects, showing not only technical and economic aspects, but also political and managerial issues.
 
This is a very brief summary of the presentations, highlighting the topics that were particularly interesting for me. Darío Hidalgo, from EMBARQ, presented the historical development of BRT in various cities of Colombia, Brazil, India, and China, revealing interesting insights and lessons for adapting BRT to the unique conditions such as the availability of road surface for building this kind of projects. Nigel Wilson, an MIT professor, focused on customer experience and automated data collection, showing a very innovative methodology which he developed for Transport for London using data from electronic cards to generate matrices of trips in public transport. Juan Carlos Muñoz, from Catholic University of Chile, analyzed the problems of near-capacity operations, presenting a very practical toolkit of measures that can be employed to prioritize bus traffic and improve the level of bus services under differing conditions. Also, he presented his research on regularity in bus headways, showing through a simulation the difficulty of keeping homogeneous headways between buses and how to deal with this problem using advanced fleet management techniques.
 
Rosário Macário, from the Technical University of Lisbon, presented the regulatory and institutional framework required for successful public transport reforms, paying particular attention to the primary pitfalls of competitive tendering processes such as, over-specification of services, and the setting of very rigid contracts. David Hensher and Corinne Mulley, from The University of Sydney, presented their recent research on perceived barriers that militate against BRT projects, posing questions regarding the opportunities to gain support for BRT from users, non-users, and political authorities. Finally, Chris Zegras, from MIT, focused on the broader interaction between public transport and city form, challenging the known study by Newman and Kenworthy that high density cities work well in terms of sustainability. The problem with this view is that it assumes that people will spend less time in travelling; ignoring the fact that people will have more time to do more activities that would require more trips.
 
In the final phase of the workshop, there was a very interesting discussion on the political feasibility for BRT projects. Some participants and speakers argued that mayors should opt for BRT because of its rapid implementation. BRT can be created, executed, and delivered in one term if there is political will as evidenced in Bogotá, where Mayor Peñalosa was able to implement a BRT project called Transmilenio during his term. I think that this argument cannot be as easily generalized for at least three reasons. First, many cities do not have a metropolitan political authority. In the absence of a mayor, achieving cooperation for a metropolitan scale project as BRT will be difficult for borough authorities. Also, if there is no mayor and the national authority is responsible of transport policy in cities, the amount of effort that a leader would be willing or able to put into BRT projects will depend upon how salient public transport policy is compared to other programs like education, health, or housing, with which the president has to work. If public transport is less important than other policies, voters will not punish a presindent for lacking a good performance in this area. Second, BRT projects do not take just one term of 3 or 4 years to materialize. In my experience, this time significantly depends upon the time required for expropriations which could last between 8 to 12 months. To my understanding, this process took less time in Bogotá because the streets where this project was located were wide enough that a large number of expropriations could be avoided. Finally, for mayors, materializing BRT projects is not just a matter of political will of maximizing public interest, but maximizing political support to be reelected. If design and implementation of a BRT project takes longer than the term of the political authority of the city, the mayor will not be able to use BRT as a signature achievement for gaining support for reelection. Also, the populace is never happy when their lives are disrupted during the construction phase of a project. Hence, I think that a better understanding of private interests of political authorities is fundamental to successfully sell them feet-on-the-ground ideas of public transport reforms.
 
To sum up, this workshop was an excellent opportunity to meet, learn, and discuss with internationally recognized professors and practitioners from different countries, the real-world barriers that we have to deal with in order to promote effective public transport reforms in our cities. I sincerely recommend BRT Centre of Excellence workshops to professionals working on public transport reforms. I think that for future workshops, more time should be provided for discussion among participants. Also, metropolitan politics and governance aspects should be more thoroughly considered as they play a central role in the decision-making process for successfully designing and implementing BRT and other public transport projects.
 
* Julio Briones works for Ministry of Transport of Chile and teaches Transport Policy at Catholic University of Chile. MSc in Transport Economics, Catholic University of Chile, and MPA in Public and Economic Policy, London School of Economics.
 
 
Here you can find the links to all the presentations from the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Workshop: Experiences and Challenges:

• Workshop Introduction
• Theme 1: Technological Improvements in BRT and BHLS
• Theme 2: Automated data collection – a new foundation for analysis and management
• Theme 3: The costumer experience
• Theme 3b: Users perspective of integrated transit systems
• Theme 4: Flexible capacity operations
• Theme 5: Regulatory and contractual aspects
• Theme 6: BRT vs. LRT Moving beyond emotional bias
• Theme 7: Broader interactions, public transportation and city form

 
 
 
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Saving Lives with Sustainable Transport

The relationship between safety, capacity and operating speed on bus rapid transit

Using Empirical Bayes to Estimate the Safety Impact of Transit Improvements in Latin America

UN-Habitat launches Global Report on Human Settlements 2013: Planning and Design for Sustainable Urban Mobility

UN-Habitat launched its biannual flagship report, the Global Report on Human Settlements 2013 – Planning and Design for Sustainable Urban Mobility at World Habitat Day, in Medellin, Colombia and London, U.K. (Please see downloadable version of the Abridged version and the Full-text of the report).

Juan Carlos Muñoz and Dario Hidalgo, members of our CoE, are co-authors of Chapter 3: Metro, Light Rail and BRT.

The report is significant because it brings together in a very comprehensive manner (300+ pages and over 30 case studies), what the current status of sustainable urban mobility is. The report unequivocally makes the message that sustainable transport is not about about avoiding the negative effects of transport such as air pollution, climate change, road safety or congestion but that sustainable transport is important first and foremost because of the enabling role it has for economic and social development.

 
 
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BRT Design Workshop Gran Avenida Briefing Book

A first glimpse on policy packaging for implementation of BRT projects

Policy packaging (i.e. the combination of individual policies and measures in order to achieve a certain goal) is a common practice in urban mobility management used to create synergies between single policies or to mitigate negative effects of a given policy.
However this practice is filled with difficulties of different kinds, from conflicting measures in the same package to simply bad packaging design, disregarding synergetic effects that can be achieved with the simultaneous or synchronized adoption of more than one policy measure. This problem has long been identified and is especially intense in urban areas. However it has not yet been solved.
It is worth mentioning that there is a common perception by several authors that these difficulties are much related with the institutional design and legal framework which constitute an outset condition of the decision process. This perception will be only a departure hypothesis in our analysis, since the empirical work entailed in this research will be supported by a structured analysis of a large number of BRT implementation cases.
This work is part of a broader project about the complexity of policy design in urban mobility systems with the purpose of enhancing the adoption and implementation of BRT systems.

Expanding transportation planning capacity in cities of the global south: Public-private collaboration and conflict in Chile and Mexico

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Evolution of public transportation public private partnerships in Latin America: The Role of BRT in Mexico City and Santiago de Chile

Evolution of public transportation public private partnerships in Latin America: The Role of BRT in Mexico City and Santiago de Chile

Fostering Bus Rapid Transit in Mexico City: A Sustainable Reform?

Event wrap up: Thredbo 13

The 13th International Conference on Competition and Ownership in Land Passenger Transport
15-19 September, 2013 / Oxford, UK

This conference reviews the latest international developments in competition and ownership in land passenger transport, with reference to key political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental trends. The main emphasis is on public transport, but the role of reforms in road pricing and of other policy instruments to discourage car use as part of an integrated package to grow demand for public transport is also central to the conference.

Several members of the CoE participated in the event, that has a Workshop-based structure which “maximizes” interaction among participants. During the conference, the CoE run a workshop devoted to BRT, that provided an update on BRT systems around the world and considerations of related concepts such as Corridor Dedicated Transit. By the end of the Workshop, a plenary talk was giving summarizing the main discussion and findings. Below you can find the presentation of this plenary:
 
 

 
 
The following papers were presented by CoE members:

• Evolution of public transportation PPPs in Latin America: the role of BRT in Mexico City and Santiago de Chile. Onesimo Flores and Chris Zegras.
• Barriers to implementing BRT systems. Luis Antonio Lindau and Dario Hidalgo.
• Cost efficiency under negotiated performance-based contracts and benchmarking – are there gains through competitive tendering in the absence of an incumbent public monopolist? David A. Hensher.
• An automated data driven performance regime for operations management, planning, and control. Dominick Tribone, David Block-Schachter, John Attanucci and Nigel H.M. Wilson.
• Incentive schemes, provision of quality and monitoring: the case of the public transit system in Santiago de Chile. Patricia Galilea and Marco Batarce.
• Drivers of Bus Rapid Transit systems – influences on ridership and service frequency. David A. Hensher, Zheng Li and Corinne Mulley.
• BRT versus heavy rail in suburban Sydney: comparing successive iterations of a proposed heavy rail line project to the pre-existing BRT network. Geoffrey Clifton, Corinne Mulley and David A. Hensher.
• Comparative analysis of six Latin American transit systems. Juan Carlos Muñoz, Marco Batarce and Ignacia Torres.
• Policy packaging in BRT projects: a methodology for case study analysis. Luis N. Filipe and Rosário Macário.
• Public transport integration in Bogota and Cali, Colombia facing transition from semi-deregulated services to full regulation citywide. Dario Hidalgo.
• Transatiago, five years after its launch . Juan Carlos Muñoz, Marco Batarce, Dario Hidalgo.
• Revisiting regulatory reform for bus operations in Latin America. Laurel Paget-Seekins, Onesimo Flores Dewey and Juan Carlos Muñoz.
• Institutional analysis of urban public transport systems: the case of New York City. Maria Spandou and Rosário Macário.
• Open access for railways and transaction cost economics – Is the European approach appropriate for all of Australia’s train operations? Rico Merkert and David Hensher.
• Metrobuses in Sydney: how high capacity and high frequency services are benefiting the metropolitan fringe. Corinne Mulley and Chinh Ho.
• Exhaust emissions of transit buses: Brazil and India case studies. Erin Cooper, Magdala Arioli and Aileen Carrigan.
• Risk management in Public Private Partnerships: The case of the M4 tollroad in Australia. Demi Chung and David A. Hensher.

 
 
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Burying the highway: the social valuation of community severance and amenity

Community severance (CS) refers to the separation of people from facilities, services, and social networks within a community, and/or people changing travel patterns due to the physical or psychological barriers created by transport corridors and their use. Separation of neighborhoods and reductions of accessibility are some of the main effects of CS. These costs lack […]

Before and after: video highlights advances in Rio de Janeiro’s TransCarioca bus rapid transit system

Source: The City Fix

In anticipation of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil, host city Rio de Janeiro is hard at work expanding and improving its transportation infrastructure and urban environs for the influx of athletes, fans, and visitors.

Eager to showcase progress made in the transport sector, the Municipality of Rio de Janeiro and the Olympic City initiative recently released a video showing before and after footage of the development of the TransCarioca bus rapid transit (BRT) corridor, scheduled for completion in December of this year and set to begin operation in early 2014.
 

 
TransCarioca will be Rio’s first high-capacity BRT corridor serving a North-South axis, connecting Galeão International Airport, on Governor’s Island, with Barra da Tijuca — site of the 2016 Olympic Village — on a dedicated, 39-kilometer long corridor. In a leap for transport integration, the TransCarioca will connect BRT, subway, and train systems. Beyond the two international sporting events, it is estimated that approximately 400,000 people will benefit daily by the system, including commuters from the neighborhoods of Curicica, Taquara, Madureira, Vicente de Carvalho, and Vila da Penha.

The newest corridor will join Rio’s first BRT system, TransOeste, which opened in June 2012. TransOeste runs 56 kilometers along a roughly Northwest-Southeast axis, with 74 stations and intervals between buses averaging a minute and a half. In addition to TransCarioca and TransOeste, the city of Rio plans on seeing two additional BRT corridors to completion by the 2016 Olympics: TransOlímpica and TransBrasil, totaling 150 kilometers of exclusive lanes for high-capacity buses.

“In 40 years I have never seen so much change,” expressed Oscalina Santana da Silva, an elderly resident who lives along the corridor. When it opens early next year, the 73-year-old will no longer need to walk a long distance in soaring temperatures to catch two buses to reach his doctor’s office. The corridors represent a dramatic change in the daily commute experience of users, cutting travel times in half and offering a more comfortable urban mobility option for all.

To learn more, read the latest news, explore 360-degree views of project areas, and watch video updates, check out Rio de Janeiro’s interactive Olympic City website.
 
 
 
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Cost efficiency under negotiated performance-based contracts and benchmarking for urban bus contracts –are there any gains through competitive tendering in the absence of an incumbent public monopolist?

This paper uses data obtained from numerous sources in Australia to assess the extent to which negotiated performance-based contracts with actionable benchmarking can achieve as good as, or better, improvement in cost efficiency compared to competitive tendering when incumbents are not public operators. Stakeholders who promote the position that Government should choose to test the […]

Drivers of Bus Rapid Transit Systems – Influences on Ridership and Service Frequency

Towards a simplified performance-linked value for money model as a reference point for bus contract payments

The burgeoning commitment to contracting the delivery of bus services through competitive tendering or negotiated performance-based contracts has been accompanied by as many contract payments schemes as there are contracts. We are now well placed to design a simplified performance-linked payment (SPLP) model that can be used as a reference point to ensure value for money, given the accumulation of experiences throughout the world which have revealed substantive common elements in contracts. Whether the payment to the operator is framed as a payment per passenger or as a payment per service kilometre, the SPLP identifies efficient subsidy outcomes that are linked to a proxy indicator of net social benefit per dollar of subsidy. We illustrate how the SPLP model can be applied to obtain the gross (subsidy) cost per passenger (or per passenger km) from measures of gross cost efficiency and network effectiveness. This model can then be used as part of a benchmarking activity to identify reference value of money prospects in respect of passengers per $ subsidy outlay by adjusting for influences not under the control of the service provider. A single framework to identify contract payments to operators, and to assess (i.e., benchmark) operator performance on critical KPIs, is provided by internalising critical key performance indicators (KPIs) in the design of the SPLP. The proposed SPLP model is sufficiently general to be independent of the procurement method (competitive tendered or negotiated, for example) and of the treatment of revenue allocation (net or gross based contracts), with the additional advantage of being able to assess value for money for government.

Choosing Public Transport – Incorporating Richer Behavioural Elements in Modal Choice Models

The development of behaviourally richer representations of the role of well established and increasingly important influences on mode choice, such as trip time reliability and accounting for risk attitude and process rules, has moved forward at a fast pace in the context of automobile travel. In the public transport setting, such contributions have, with rare exception, not been considered. In this paper, we discuss and empirically illustrate the merits of advanced modelling developments aimed at improving our understanding of public transport choice, namely the inclusion of reliability in extended expected utility theoretic forms, to recognise risk attitude and perceptual conditioning, the consideration of passenger crowding and its inclusion in linear additive models; and the role of multiple heuristics in representing attribute processing as a way of conditioning modal choice. We illustrate the mechanics of introducing these behaviourally appealing extensions using a modal choice data set collected in Sydney.

Headway control with multiple bus services in the same corridor

BRT and BHLS Evolution Worldwide

El Sistema Integrado de Transporte Público de Bogotá – SITP

High Quality, Affordable, Integrated Transit Keys to Public Transport Success

Public transport integration in Bogotá and Cali, Colombia – facing transition from semi-deregulated services to full regulation citywide

Public transport reform in Latin America

Role of Transport in Transforming Cities

Tecnologías para Vehículos de Transporte Público

BRT and BHLS around the world: Explosive growth, large positive impacts and many issues outstanding

A survey of Bus Rapid Transit BRT and Bus of High Level of Service BHLS around the world indicates that there are about 120 cities with bus corridors, with 99 of the cities entering into the list in the last 12 years. The existing bus corridors comprise about 280 corridors, 4300 km, 6700 stations and use 30,000 buses, serving about 28 million passengers per day. In 2010–2011, 19 cities completed new systems − 16 in the developing world – and seven cities expanded their current systems. By late 2011, about 49 new cities were building systems, 16 cities were expanding their corridors, and 31 cities were in initial planning. This impressive growth may be attributed in part to the successes of Curitiba, Bogotá, México City, Istanbul, Ahmedabad and Guangzhou. These cities show low cost, rapid implementation and high performance BRTs, with significant positive externalities. Interesting trends are emerging, such as the implementation of citywide integrated bus systems, improved processes for private participation in operations, increased funding from national governments, and growth of bus manufacturers and technology providers. Despite the growth, there are some outstanding issues: BRT and BHLS do not have a single meaning and image and are often regarded as a “second best” as compared to rail alternatives. In addition several systems in the developing world suffer problems resulting from poor planning, implementation and operation, due to financial, institutional and regulatory constraints. The BRT and BHLS Industry are in their “infancy” and there is need for consolidation and concerted effort.

Implementation of sustainable urban transport in Latin America

Transportation provides vital support to the economic and social development of Latin America cities, but current growth patterns and trends are not sustainable. While non-motorized and public transport modes have the largest shares in passenger transport, there is a strong increase in ownership and use of cars and motorcycles. In Latin America in 2010 there were 2.5 new motor vehicle registrations for every new child being born.

Motorization results in congestion, air pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, motorization increases the use of fossil fuels and results in reduction of physical activity, which in turn increases obesity and related illnesses. Costs of negative externalities are estimated to be around 18% of the average income of 15 selected cities in the region. There is a direct relation between fatalities and air pollution with automobile use, so curbing motorization might prove beneficial for the society at large.

There is considerable evidence from Latin America that it is possible to modify motorization trends. This can be done through reallocation of resources already dedicated to transportation to emphasize the provision of access for people and goods rather than maximizing transport activity. Mainstreaming sustainable transport will benefit from cooperation among countries – as it was agreed in the Bogotá Declaration (Foro de Transporte Sostenible de América Latina, 2011). It will also require improved information and institutions, and support from the international community, through focused financial instruments, development assistance and technical cooperation.

Metrobús Line 4, a medium level BRT concept for historic districts with advanced features

Methodology for calculating passenger capacity in bus rapid transit systems: Application to the TransMilenio system in Bogotá, Colombia

Transit textbooks and engineering manuals indicate that the capacity of Bus Rapid Transit –BRT – systems does not exceed 20,000 passengers per hour per direction. The implementation of the TransMilenio BRT System, in Bogotá, Colombia, showed that the systematic combination of multiple platforms at stations, overtaking lanes, level boarding, prepayment, large buses with multiple doors, express and local services, and traffic engineering measures at intersections, allow for very large passenger throughput. Measurements indicate actual throughput of 43,000 passengers per hour per direction with average bus occupancy of 150 passengers per articulated bus, and a commercial speed of 22–24 km/h. According to special formulas developed for the analysis of high capacity BRT corridors, the critical section of TransMilenio has a practical capacity of 48,000 passengers per hour per direction with its existing infrastructure and 150 passengers per bus – 35,000 passengers per hour per direction with 110 passengers per bus. Changes in existing infrastructure, such as additional platforms, higher capacity vehicles, non-grade facilities at critical intersections, among other improvements, may increase the capacity, speed, reliability and quality of service of the system.

Metro, Light Rail and BRT

Towards People’s Cities through Land Use and Transport Integration: Review of India’s National Urban Investment Program

Between 2005 and 2012, India’s Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM) has invested US$20 billion in urban infrastructure and basic services to the urban poor. The transport program under JnNURM is a very important advance, as it helps the cities with policies and funding for moving people, not vehicles. Nevertheless, it has not sufficiently shifted investment in the urban transport sector from road widening and road expansion to sustainable transport. Based on interviews with several stakeholders, a literature review on JnNURM, and consideration of the urban characteristics and transport needs of Indian cities, the authors suggest key improvements in Indian urban transport policy: i) Reinforce the link between land use and transport in the urban transport policy vision. This will allow the preservation of “people’s cities” in the existing urban areas and development of new accessible, dense and mixed used developments around the existing cities; ii) Advance the preparation and implementation of the Comprehensive Mobility Plans (CMPs), in close connection with the Master Plans and JnNURM budget allocations, to transform them from simple lists of projects and good will, to effective planning and monitoring instruments; iii) Introduce performance measurement of key transport indicators at the city wide level: people served, modal share, travel time, traffic fatalities and transport tailpipe emissions; and iv) Develop capacity building programs for project planning and delivery at the city level and for evaluation and monitoring at the state and national level. The recommendations for India are applicable to other rapidly urbanizing and motorizing countries. The authors do not claim that road expansion is not needed, but that it should not be the only focus of public investments in the transport sector.

TransMilenio BRT system in Bogota, high performance and positive impact – Main results of an ex-post evaluation

Interview to David Hensher and Corinne Mulley: Public transport innovations offer a way out of the jam

Source: The University of Sydney News

It’s a familiar sight: roads packed to the horizon with cars barely moving at all. Whether in Sydney, Lisbon or Chile, traffic jams are part and parcel of urban life.

But now there may be an alternative, with new research in efficient and sustainable public transport being conducted by David Hensher and Corinne Mulley at the University’s Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies.

As part the network Across Latitudes and Cultures – Bus Rapid Transit (ALC-BRT), Professor Hensher and Professor Mulley are collaborating with partners from Chile, Portugal, Brazil and America.

Bus rapid transit (BRT) is a system of enhanced bus services that combines dedicated bus lanes with quality bus stations. With faster delivery and greater network coverage than rail-based transport for the equivalent financial outlay, BRT offers a sustainable solution to public transport, especially in developing countries.

In South American countries, where levels of car ownership are significantly lower than in Australia, BRT has proven popular with commuters who depend on public transport to get to work. Professor Hensher and Professor Mulley’s work in South America includes delivering workshops to ensure successful BRT implementation.

Professor Mulley says: «In the lead-up to the Olympic Games in Brazil, new BRT infrastructure has been hugely successful as it offers more reach and coverage than rail-based transport.»

Despite the success of BRT in other parts of the world, Australian cities have not warmed to it. Professor Mulley says: «There’s a common perception that light rail is better on emissions than buses, but new buses can actually be zero emission vehicles.»

Professor Hensher adds: «Our research shows that the public perceive BRT as offering much better network coverage than rail based systems.»

Professor Mulley says: «With Australia’s comparatively low-density territory and high rates of car use, we don’t get to see BRT at its best. However, BRT forms the backbone of public transport routes in places like Sydney’s M2 corridor and in Brisbane, where there is more than one bus every two minutes. The success of BRT means that we could possibly implement better public transport in areas like Sydney’s northern beaches.»
 
 
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The Metro Bus System comes to Lahore, Pakistan

Source: The City Fix

This year we celebrate a positive development coming out of Pakistan, overlooked by mainstream news: an advanced bus system in Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest city. In years past, Lahore, capital of Pakistan’s eastern province of Punjab, was a city where urban public transportation was virtually unknown. For the more than 11 million residents and commuters of the Lahore urban area, the only transportation options were motorized rickshaws, private buses, minibuses, or taxis.

On February 11, 2013, Lahore began operating Pakistan’s first Bus Rapid Transit or BRT system, officially known in the city as the Metro Bus System (MBS). A catalyst in the development of urban transport in Pakistan, as well as in South Asia, the new Lahore Metro Bus System continues the deployment of advanced bus systems in South Asia, first pioneered in cities like Jakarta, Indonesia and Bangkok, Thailand. The advanced bus system in Lahore exemplifies how knowledge sharing positively impacts urban transport.

Lahore before: a densely populated area without solid public transport

Prior to the installation of Lahore Metro Bus System, the densely populated metropolitan area of Lahore, growing in population at a rate of 3% per year, was without a solid public transport option. In the last decade and in the same region of the world, less than 600 miles away, the city of Ahmedabad, India, was already at work on establishing their own sustainable transport system. The implementation of the Ahmedabad Bus Rapid Transit System (BRT) in 2009 would then further accelerate the spread of advanced bus systems in Asia.

Lahore after Metro Bus and beyond

Opponents to the Lahore Metro Bus System originally estimated the cost of construction at RS 70-80 billion (US$ 713-815 million) and used this figure to criticize the plan to build an advanced bus system. About a year after construction began, the system has launched, and the economic reality of Lahore’s bus system is much different than what naysayers projected. The finance minister for the Punjab Region, Shahbaz Sharif, announced at the opening ceremony of MBS that the actual system cost of came to RS 29.8 billion (US$ 303.6 million), significantly lower than original estimates.

Launched on February 11, 2013, the bus system spans a 27 kilometer-long corridor linking the suburbs of Gajju Matah and Shahdra to the main city center of Lahore. A fleet of 45 articulated buses (each 18 meters long) transport up to 12,000 passengers per hour, from 27 stations on the route. With the first month of ride fare waived as a promotion, citizens lined the corridor on the opening day, in an atmosphere of celebration and fanfare. Dignitaries and officials from Metro Bus System boarded for an inaugural ride, accompanied by their counterparts and collaborators from Turkey.

Collaboration, locally and with international firms, is key to making things happen

Tasked with overseeing this project from March 2011, the Punjab Traffic Engineering and Planning Agency turned to a fellow Islamic country and world leader in the development of sustainable transport for guidance, modeling their system after the Istanbul Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS). Lahore’s MBS planners found a recognized private partner with similar experience in the Turkish al-Buraq Company. The partnership inspired investment from the Turkish firm, Platform, which has been contracted to operate the MBS in Lahore. Through its partnership with Turkey, Lahore has demonstrated the type of peer-to-peer collaboration advocated by EMBARQ and other groups.

At the MBS inaugural ceremony, Turkish deputy prime minister Bekir Bozdag expressed interest in building a stronger business relationship with Pakistan and collaborating on additional MBS corridors in Pakistan.

This type of international, peer-to-peer collaboration promises not only immediate benefits for cities developing sustainable transportation solutions but establishes long-term economic partnerships that facilitate best-practice sharing, and inspire the spread of advanced bus systems to other cities and countries.

Paving the way for advancement in Southeast Asia

Lahore’s implementation of — not only the first mass public transportation system in Pakistan, but a bus rapid transit system — signal exciting possibilities for the development of additional bus systems in Asia. Other countries in the region considering advanced bus systems are Sri Lanka (in the city of Colombo), Bangladesh (Dhaka) and Nepal (Kathmandu). As the Lahore-Istanbul relationship demonstrates, cities in the planning and pre-planning stages, such as Colombo, Dhaka and Kathmandu, should not have to “reinvent the wheel” when it comes to the implementation of advanced bus systems; rather, they should take up where their peers have left off and further research their project for the benefit of their local context and for next generations of advanced bus systems around the world.

Opportunities to share knowledge are increasing, through organizations like Asia BRTS. On the website, visitors can monitor regional developments and best-practice sharing and find more information and additional, region-specific resources for reference. Asian localities interested in the planning and construction of the Lahore MBS can find an in-depth presentation from Dr. Nasir Javed (the Urban Unit, Lahore) and additional resources from the organizers and partners of the Asia BRTS conference, such as the Center for Environmental Planning and Technology University (CEPT, in Ahmedabad), EMBARQ, and the Indian Ministry of Urban Development.
 
 
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On the perception of safety in low income neighbourhoods: using digital images in a stated choice experiment

The relationship between the environment and human behaviour has been studied in certain depth. We are now fully aware that the configuration of urban space affects individual actions. For this reason, modern definitions of urbanism include not only a responsibility for the physical aspect of the city configuration but also for the potential interaction between […]

Beyond a bus system: Complete streets to revitalize Santiago, Chile

Source: Dario Hidalgo, member of our BRT CoE at TheCityFix

In 2006 Santiago, Chile implemented a public transport reform that reorganized the capital city’s buses into an integrated system with its already successful metro. The well intentioned reform was initially a disaster. Delays, overcrowding, long waits, and unreliable service caused widespread frustration, spurring protests in Chile’s capital. The failures of Transantiago led many to abandon public transport, driving personal vehicles to work instead. As I wrote in 2007, the concept was good but “the devil is in the details.” Santiago had been ambitious, but the new system was poorly designed, ignoring basic good practices for an advanced bus system, such as median stations with advance ticketing and fully dedicated bus lanes.

Over the next few years, the Chilean government worked hard to fix its mistake – by 2010 the system was rated favorably by users. Delays and overcrowding ceased, but poor reliability, fare evasion and a bad image remained. As a response, the national government announced plans to overhaul of the surface transport using a “complete street” approach to bus corridors throughout Santiago de Chile.

One of the first corridors to implement new design concepts and participatory planning is Alameda Boulevard, the most emblematic corridor of the city and the country. The boulevard, actually named Avenue Bernardo O´Higgins, honors the leader of the Chilean liberation from Spain 200 years ago. The Chilean government is taking the “complete streets” project very seriously, as a beacon of cutting edge, multimodal integrated transport and urban revitalization.

This time, they aren’t taking any chances. Along with the newly formed Metropolitan Directorate for Urban Transport (UTPM), Chilean leaders are consulting several parties that were left out of the process in 2006, including several national government agencies and the Greater Santiago municipalities of Lo Prado, Estación Central, Santiago and Providencia.

They are also consulting urban planning and public transport experts, that were contacted via our BRT CoE, to make sure they get the “details” right. Urban design experts from Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico joined Santiago’s authorities in envisioning an urban redevelopment concept for Alameda.

Over several days focused on design, the team developed the concept for an urban project that goes beyond bus operations. Using a “complete street” approach, we envisioned an 11 km (6.9 mi) corridor that will prioritize pedestrians, bicyclists and bus users, and will be better integrated with the existing Metro Line 1. The central park, an important icon for Santiaguinos that has fallen into disrepair, will be rejuvenated; and the historic buildings along the boulevard will receive attention. Good practices for advanced bus systems have also been followed – the plan calls for relocating the bus lanes from the curbside to the median, building stations with prepayment and level boarding, and connecting these stations directly with the underground Metro.

Improved express services and systems control will enhance the passenger experience. Carolina Tohá, the Mayor of Santiago, knows that this is more than a busway. She explained, “this project can be very beneficial […] it is expected to look at the city in all aspects, not just as a public transport improvement.”

The project is expected to be ready in late 2016, and has many challenges to face before its completion. Like many other projects, this visionary new corridor will require political leadership, technical capacity, and adequate funding. When it is finally completed, it will be an example for Latin America and the world, of how a city can go beyond transit to a holistic, accessible, integrated urban space: a “complete Alameda” for the people of Santiago.

The list of experienced public transport consultants shows how serious Santiago is about getting the details right. Among the experts were Pedro Szasz and Paulo Custodio, designers of several bus systems in Latin America, Africa and Asia; Salvador Herrera, Luis Zamorano, Claudio Sarmiento, and myself from Embarq and Embarq Mexico; André Jacobsen from Latin America’s Integrated Systems and BRT Association SIBRT; and Juan Carlos Muñoz, Ricardo Giesen, Rocio Hidalgo, Margarita Greene, Juan Carlos Herrera, and Marco Batarce, professors of engineering and architecture from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and members of our Centre.

Santiago’s Directorate for Urban Transport, with the support of Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, organized the design charrette. With the help of these organizations, we walked and used the buses and the metro in the corridor, looked at the data and previous proposals to understand the issues, and then put our heads together to suggest the best possible urban project for the historic corridor. By involving multiple institutions at the national and local levels and design experts in the early stages of the planning process, Chile is setting itself up for success.
 
 
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BRT Workshop in Rio de Janeiro

Source: EMBARQ Brasil. All photos from EMBARQ Brasil.

Our Centre of Excellence hosted the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Workshop: Experiences and Challenges on July 12 in the Auditório Rio Ônibus at Rio de Janeiro. Organized by EMBARQ Brazil, sponsored by Fetranspor and VREF (Volvo Research and Education Foundations), the course brought together about 40 participants between professionals, operators, entrepreneurs and researchers of RT systems. Juan Carlos Muñoz (BRT CoE), Luis Antonio Lindau (EMBARQ Brazil) and Lélis Teixeira (Fetranspor), opened the meeting which was attended by international experts in the area.

In order to present the key issues in the design and successful implementation of BRT, the team of speakers was composed by Dario Hidalgo (EMBARQ), Luis Antonio Lindau (EMBARQ Brazil), Nigel Wilson (MIT), Juan Carlos Muñoz and Ricardo Giesen (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile), and Rosario Macario (Technical University of Lisbon), all members of our Centre.

The first speaker of the morning, Hidalgo pointed out the main features and brief history of BRT systems and BHLS the world. The expert showed how the BRT systems become popular in recent years, from data presented by BRTdata.org platform that gathers information on BRT and bus lanes around the world. Besides from Brazil, currently India and China stand out because of their investments in transportation on wheels. «However, it is interesting to note that the BRT needs to be developed in accordance with the conditions of each city» says Hidalgo to cite the Metrobus in Mexico City, where the recent Line 4 has a different concept from the rest of the system, through narrow roads with lower vehicles.

At the end of the presentation, the expert from EMBARQ praised the effort of Rio de Janeiro in the construction and service quality of Transoeste BRT and added: «We hope more mayors opt for BRT. For its rapid implementation, is a system that can be created, executed and delivered in the same term, if there is political will, of course».

Besides the quality, it is important to pay attention to safety. For Luis Antonio Lindau, a correct design of a BRT system can save many lives. «Being in a BRT today is much safer than being in a car», he says. According to the expert, well designed BRT projects can reduce 30% to 70% the number of accidents on roads where the corridors are implemented. To avhieve this goal, it is necessary to look again at the basic issues of road safety still in the design phase, many aimed at the Traffic Safety on Bus Corridors, produced by EMBARQ Brazil.

Lindau drew attention to some eminent risks as bus lanes in counter-flow and lack of signage for pedestrians and motorists. For the specialist, the solution is to prioritize the pedestrian ways at the implementation, with signs, walkways, etc.

Research to know users

Nigel Wilson, professor and researcher at MIT, talked about the importance of observing the user experience. «Customer satisfaction surveys are essential to map people’s wishes in relation to the system. Thus, we go from a the static view of the operator to a dynamic and real view of the user», he explains. For the expert, the great tool that we have today is the smartphone. The device helps to gather data and has applications that make life easier for those who use public transport systems.

Then Wilson presented comparative numbers of a research conducted in the public transport systems of London and its challenges. The expert noted that pre-payment cards such as the Oyster in the English capital, facilitate data collection and can complement field research or those made ​​via the internet.

In the afternoon, data and users continued to be the focus of the presentations. Ricardo Giesen and Juan Carlos Muñoz, both researchers at PUC, talked about the importance of uncovering and use numbers effectively. «We need to transform data into information» said Giesen. The expert showed methodologies to manage the operation of the system and thus map its efficiency as well as the behavior of users.

Muñoz presented effective solutions that make transportation more efficient, and therefore more attractive. One idea that has been adopted by some Brazilian cities is the exclusive route for public transport, taking the bus congestion caused by excessive private cars. High capacity bus, strategically placed stops and prepayment were other possible measures aimed to streamline the operation of the system. «Rethinking the system stops the bus, using express lines, can substantially improve the quality of service» said Juan Carlos. Finally, the expert showed simulation results of the vehicles frequency optimization research.

Contractual and regulatory aspects

The last presentation of the workshop was given by Rosário Macário, from the Technical University of Lisbon. The expert showed the impacts that occur in the structure of urban mobility when designing a new system, from the contractual view. According to Rosario, there are several factors that converge to a successful deployment that must be thought of holistically. «It takes a strategic view and not just operational. Integration with other modes of transport, for example, is essential to meet the need of people who use a system», she explains.

Rosario pointed to possible political challenges and economic risks to the implementation of systems. The institutional hierarchy, can sometimes become a barrier for the projects to be executed in a reasonable time and with quality. Also contracts must be conducted carefully and detailed with managers and operators to ensure the organization’s legal system.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Presentations available to download:

• Juan Carlos Muñoz: Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Workshop: Experiences and Challenges / Future of BRT: Flexible Capacity Operations
• Dario Hidalgo: BRT and BHLS Evolution Worldwide
• Luis Antonio Lindau: Bus Rapid Transit and Traffic Safety
• Ricardo Giesen: Fare Collection in the Broader Payments Environment
• Nigel Wilson: The Customer Experience
• Rosário Macário: Regulatory and Contractual Aspects

 
 
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Diseño de Servicios Expresos para Buses

Los servicios expresos, que en general se pueden definir como servicios que atienden a un subconjunto de los paraderos de un determinado corredor, son una estrategia de operación que puede ser beneficiosa tanto para los operadores como para los usuarios. Una reducción en el número de detenciones beneficia a los usuarios al reflejarse en una […]

An Algorithm for the Express Service Design Problem on a Corridor

Crowding in Public Transport: Objective and Subjective Measures

Crowding in public transport is becoming a growing concern as demand grows at a rate that is outstripping available capacity. To capture the user benefits associated with reduced crowding from improved public transport, it is necessary to identify the relevant dimensions of crowding that are meaningful measures of what crowding means to travelers. There are a number of objective and subjective measures of crowding promoted in the literature, with some objective measures being used as the basis of a standard of acceptable levels of practice. There is a disconnection between objective measures and subjective measures, the latter representing what matters to users. We illustrate the difference in a comparison of monitored crowding levels using crowding measures defined by the rail operator/authority in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, and the level of crowding experienced by rail passengers from two recent surveys to reveal the significant gap between objective and subjective measures of crowding.

O papel do transporte coletivo na visão estratégica de cidades competitivas