Bus Rapid Transit
Streetsblog Basics
American BRT: A Rapid Bus Network Expands in Las Vegas
Last month the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy released its report, “Recapturing Global Leadership in Bus Rapid Transit” [PDF], which proposed a LEED-like rating system for bus rapid transit projects and laid out a strategy for American cities to build systems as good as the world’s best BRT. While more than 20 American bus projects have claimed the BRT mantle at various times, the ITDP report named just five American cities with bus corridors that made the grade and earned the title “True BRT.” Streetsblog is pleased to publish a series of case studies from ITDP examining these innovative transit projects. We started with Pittsburgh and Cleveland, and today, we look at Sin City -- Las Vegas.
July 11, 2011
Cleveland’s Center-Running BRT Route, the HealthLine, Sparks Development
Last month the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy released its report, “Recapturing Global Leadership in Bus Rapid Transit” [PDF], which proposed a LEED-like rating system for bus rapid transit projects and laid out a strategy for American cities to build systems as good as the world’s best BRT. While more than 20 American bus projects have claimed the BRT mantle at various times, the ITDP report named just five American cities with bus corridors that made the grade and earned the title “True BRT.” Streetsblog is pleased to publish a series of case studies from ITDP examining these innovative transit projects. We started with Pittsburgh and today, we focus on Cleveland.
July 5, 2011
Profiles of American BRT: Pittsburgh’s South Busway and East Busway
Last month the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy released its report, "Recapturing Global Leadership in Bus Rapid Transit" [PDF], which proposed a LEED-like rating system for bus rapid transit projects and laid out a strategy for American cities to build systems as good as the world's best BRT. While more than 20 American bus projects have claimed the BRT mantle at various times, the ITDP report named just five American cities with bus corridors that made the grade and earned the title "True BRT." Streetsblog is pleased to publish a series of case studies from ITDP examining these innovative transit projects, starting with the country's first BRT routes, in Pittsburgh.
June 20, 2011
ITDP: American Bus Rapid Transit Can Catch Up to the Rest of the World
Attempts by U.S. cities to build Bus Rapid Transit systems tend to get stymied by a Catch-22: Most Americans have no experience riding great BRT, so mustering the political will to build full-fledged systems -- and reallocate the necessary street space from cars to buses -- is often fiendishly difficult. The results -- incremental bus improvements sold to the public as BRT -- are too watered down to showcase the full extent to which bus-based systems can attract riders and get people to switch from driving to transit.
May 26, 2011
Count It: First and Second Avenue Redesigns Are a Success
With results like these, it's hard to understand why the city isn't rushing to complete the redesign of First and Second Avenue all the way up to 125th Street. According to DOT's presentation to its community advisory council Wednesday night, both the bus improvements, which go the length of the corridor, and the protected bike lanes, which run from Houston to 34th, are improving safety and mobility for all New Yorkers. Here are the highlights:
April 29, 2011
With No Separated Busway on 34th Street, What’s Next for BRT in NYC?
The walkback of the city's plans for 34th Street from a physically separated transitway to a package of painted lanes and bus bulbs was unquestionably a defeat for bus riders on the extremely congested street. While features like off-board fare payment, scheduled to go into effect this summer, will provide a speed boost to buses, riders won't be able to go crosstown as quickly as if they had lanes free from encroachment.
April 1, 2011
Guangzhou, China: Winning the Future With Bus Rapid Transit
Guangzhou is one of the fastest growing cities in the world. The economic hub of China's southern coast, it has undergone three decades of rapid modernization, and until recently the city’s streets were on a trajectory to get completely overrun by traffic congestion and pollution. But Guangzhou has started to change course. Last year the city made major strides to cut carbon emissions and reclaim space for people, launching new bus rapid transit and public bike sharing systems.
March 31, 2011
The Fulton Street Mall: Retail Success on NYC’s Original Transitway
As the New York Post continues its increasingly tedious assault on pedestrians and crosstown transit riders, its writers always seem to suggest that giving priority to buses in an important retail area is both radical and self-evidently bad for business. If they bothered to look just one borough away, they'd see that nothing could be further from the truth. The eight bus- and pedestrian-only blocks of downtown Brooklyn's Fulton Mall make up the most successful retail strip in the city outside of Manhattan.
March 14, 2011
Miracles Are for Movies: No World-Class Bus Service for 34th Street
Three years ago, when Streetsblog first wrote up NYC DOT's proposal for a transitway and pedestrian plaza on 34th Street, we called it a "transit miracle." For this story, however, there will be no Hollywood ending.
March 14, 2011