News & Events archivos - Página 12 de 16 - Bus Rapid Transit

Lima's Metropolitano system improves level of service (in Spanish)

Source: SIBRT

A un año de funcionamiento en Lima resaltan el incremento de la demanda, mejoramiento de la operación, ampliación de rutas y de unidades.

Dentro de la política de mejora continua, Protransporte a un año de su puesta en funcionamiento, ha alcanzado importantes logros, destacando entre ellos el incremento de la flota de operación diaria de 96 a 123 buses alimentadores y de 176 a 192 buses articulados que transitan por el Corredor Segregado; es decir, el Metropolitano ofrece, en lo que va del año, 43 buses adicionales a sus usuarios.

El presidente del Directorio de Protransporte, Juan Tapia Grillo, explicó que este progreso constituye un paso importante en el mejoramiento del sistema y destacó que el próximo semestre se tiene previsto aumentar la flota de buses de acuerdo al incremento de la demanda, que hasta el momento creció de 220 mil a 350 mil usuarios diarios y que espera cerrar el año transportando diariamente a 500 mil usuarios.

Adicionalmente, se hizo una ampliación de rutas del Metropolitano entre las que figuran una Ruta Regular denominada “C” y un expreso ó servicio directos (Nº 4), además de 8 nuevas rutas alimentadoras, las cuales permitieron que desde enero hasta junio el sistema llegue a transportar 50 millones de pasajeros de los 22 millones que se transportó durante el 2010.

Para Tapia este incremento se debe, en gran medida, al retiro de las rutas de transporte público: El Rápido, Chama y Arco Iris que se superponían al Corredor en los distritos de San Isidro y Miraflores, así como al retiro de los 2 mil autos colectivos que circulaban por la Vía Expresa del Paseo de la República en horas punta.

Recordó que, se ha realizado la “Encuesta Origen- Destino” que permitirá rediseñar las rutas de acuerdo a las necesidades de viaje de los usuarios e implementar próximamente, a partir de agosto, nuevos servicios súper expresos (directos y rápidos) e incrementar la flota.

El titular de Protransporte enfatizó que se trabajó fuertemente en la seguridad de los peatones, ejecutando obras de mejora en intersecciones a lo largo del Corredor por un valor cercano al millón de dólares, las mismas que incluyeron cruces peatonales con instalación de semáforos, beneficiando así a más de 35 mil peatones que transitan por las zonas aledañas al Corredor Segregado. Asimismo, se efectuó una inversión de S/.2.7 millones para el mejoramiento de la accesibilidad a las estaciones Plaza de Flores y Tomás Valle.

Destacó el mantenimiento de las áreas verdes del Corredor en Convenio con SERPAR, que durante la gestión anterior no tenían presupuesto asignado, con la finalidad de optimizar el entorno ambiental de la población, para lo cual se realizó una inversión de medio millón de dólares.

Por otro lado, anunció que se culminó el perfil técnico del COSAC 2, el cual ha sido desarrollado por especialistas de Protransporte y mejorará la movilidad urbana de 1.9 millones de personas de Lima Metropolitana, continuando en los próximos seis meses con los estudios definitivos a nivel de expediente técnico.

Continúan las mejoras en el próximo semestre

Protransporte adquirió un sistema de video vigilancia compuesto por 359 cámaras que se pondrán en funcionamiento a partir de setiembre del presente año y que serán monitoreadas desde el moderno Centro de Gestión y Control.

Por otro lado, se iniciará la ejecución de obras en todo el Corredor Central las cuales están destinadas a la ampliación, mejoramiento del acceso y obras de seguridad vial y valorizadas en $ 25 mil, para las que ya se encuentran realizando los estudios de preinversión e inversión requeridos.

Se gestionó con COFIDE el bono del chatarreo para lo cual se cuenta con $ 6.5 millones y que paralelamente se viene trabajando en la convocatoria para realizar los estudios que permitan tasar el valor de buses en circulación que tienen una antigüedad de 20 años.

Tapia agregó que el Metropolitano, comparado con otros sistemas latinoamericanos similares, es el que tiene el índice más bajo de siniestralidad y accidentalidad, pues recordó que en su haber tiene solamente una víctima mortal que lamentar y por imprudencia propia del accidentado. “Estamos decididos a tomar las acciones necesarias para mejorar el funcionamiento de nuestro sistema y ofrecer una mayor calidad del servicio a favor de la ciudadanía” finalizó el Presidente del Directorio de Protransporte.

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Opinion Pieces: Expertise in government and industry – the major challenge facing the sector

Event Wrap-Up: 1st Forum for Sustainable Transportation Technologies

Source: EMBARQ

EMBARQ Brasil presents on environmental benefits of bus rapid transit.

Brazilian BRT systems can significantly reduce carbon emissions and generate other important co-benefits, said EMBARQ Brasil President Toni Lindau at the 1st Forum for Sustainable Transportation Technologies in Rio de Janeiro. He also pointed out the need to evaluate the potential of alternative vehicle technologies and fuels using a life cycle analysis.

EMBARQ Brasil was invited to participate in the event by FETRANSPOR, the state federation of bus operators in Rio de Janeiro. This invitation was the result of the partnership between EMBARQ Brasil and FETRANSPOR initiated at the BRT Marketing Workshop held in May.

The forum was an important gathering of transport officials and members of the private sector, including the largest bus manufacturers and fuel providers. The forum focused on how to provide alternative energy sources for improved transportation systems, especially during the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics. Transport officials from across Brazil were exposed to the need to carefully consider vehicle and fuel choices in projects for both mega-events.

EMBARQ Brasil, together with EMBARQ Research and Practice, is now developing a holistic and detailed comparative study of alternative vehicle and fuel technologies, to help support the selection of technologies for the next generation of Brazilian BRT systems.

The forum was organized by FETRANSPOR and O Globo Jornal, with the support of EMBARQ Brasil. EMBARQ Brasil President Toni Lindau was a key speaker. Director of Development and Strategic Relations Rejane Fernandes and Transport Engineer Magdala Arioli also represented EMBARQ Brasil at the event.

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Goiânia, Brasil: online information for transport system users (in Spanish)

Source: SIBRT

La integración entre el sistema de localización de los autobuses y el medio ambiente virtual ayudan con la disponibilidad de información.

En 2009, con la implementación de un nuevo modelo de gestión del transporte público de la Región Metropolitana de Goiânia (RMG), Brasil, la información proporcionada al cliente ganó un nuevo formato: plataformas virtuales e interactivas. El Servicio de Información Metropolitana (SIM) tiene como base lo más moderno que existe en procesos y tecnología. Con una inversión de más de R$ 50 millones durante los últimos 3 años, se ha desarrollado e implementado una serie de productos en las áreas de gestión de la información y relaciones con los clientes.

El entorno digital se caracteriza por canales que proporcionan la información generada a través de la integración de dos herramientas principales: el sistema ITS4MOBILITY instalado en todos los 1.371 vehículos de la red (compuesto por GPRS y computador a bordo) y la cartografía de la ruta de las 276 líneas en funcionamiento y de los más de 5.700 puntos de parada. Con eso, la pantalla de puntos de parada, los caminos guión, i-Center, pagina web, WAP y SMS reciben información en tiempo real con datos como: tiempo para el próximo bus, las líneas para llegar de un punto a otro de la ciudad, su recorrido y frecuencia.

La opción más tradicional de servicio al cliente, el Call Center, también tiene buena aceptación del público. En el caso de la Red Metropolitana de Transporte Colectivo (RMTC), la peculiaridad de este servicio es el hecho de actuar como una herramienta para escuchar a los clientes, es decir, se transmite cada caso al área responsable, en busca de una respuesta para las cuestiones criticas, quejas o sugerencias y se refiere directamente a los clientes. En cuanto a la solicitud de información, las mismas se envían de inmediato por el empleado que habla con el cliente. Los elogios, por último, se envían al área o persona en cuestión con el fin de apreciar su trabajo. “Buscamos agregar valor a nuestros productos de información a los clientes”, dice el director general del Consorcio RMTC, Leomar Avelino.

Según el director de la empresa, que es el representante de las cuatro empresas de servicios públicos en el transporte de Goiânia y encargado de la gestión integrada de la operación, el diferencial del sistema desarrollada por el SIM es precisamente variedad de plataformas disponibles para el cliente. Además de los entornos virtuales, la planificación es estructurada para incluir informaciones donde los pasajeros tienen acceso en el cotidiano y la rutina. “No es suficiente la disponibilidad de la información. Es necesario información con estructura de manera que llegue a donde están nuestros clientes. Disminuimos los ruidos y la interferencia en el proceso, y, por supuesto, se ha hecho más fácil el uso del transporte público”, explica.

Más información

Página web
La primera versión del sitio de RMTC se puso en marcha en noviembre de 2009 con el objetivo de proporcionar informaciones pertinentes que puedan proporcionar al cliente una manera de planificar el uso del transporte colectivo de la Red Metropolitana de Goiânia.
En la actualidad son más de 60.000 accesos mensuales, en los cuales los visitantes pueden ver la ruta de cualquier línea de la Red, localizar e identificar el punto de parada deseado, planear el recorrido en bus con la herramienta “Google Maps” y tener acceso el tiempo de llegada de los próximos dos vehículos en cualquier punto de parada de la Red (en tiempo real).

Wap
Herramienta que proporciona, a través de la web en su teléfono, consultar, en tiempo real, los minutos restantes para la salida de los vehículos de un punto de parada en particular. El mensaje recibido ofrece, también, el número y nombres de las líneas que hay en el punto deseado.

Pantallas en Puntos de Parada
Tecnologia de primer mundo para el servicio al cliente RMTC. La pantalla utiliza la tecnología derivada de Volvo de Suecia – ITS4MOBILITY, instalada en todos los vehículos de la Red – permite al cliente realizar un seguimiento en las líneas y los minutos restantes para la llegada de los próximos dos buses en un punto de parada particular, así como el Wap.
En la actualidad hay 14 pantallas repartidas en ocho distritos de Goiânia y uno en Apareceida de Goiânia, instalados en lugares de intensa actividades, tales como supermercados, centros comerciales y universidades. La definición de los locales se realiza mediante el análisis del flujo de personas, para que el acceso a la información sea cada vez mayor por los clientes.

iCenter
Situados en los terminales de integración, es una gran pantalla interactiva que funciona al tacto (touchscreen). A través de ella, se puede planear un itinerario de viaje con la ayuda de Google Maps y ver los horarios y las rutas de cada línea.

SMS
Es un servicio innovador proporcionado por RMTC, único en Brasil en el área del transporte colectivo urbano. Con él se puede encontrar, en tiempo real mediante mensajes de texto en celulares, información acerca de cuantos minutos quedan para la llegada de los vehículos en cualquier punto de parada de la Red.

Call Center
La RMTC ofrece a sus clientes de Call Center gratis para las llamadas realizadas desde teléfonos fijos. El servicio se presta de lunes a sábados y recibe un promedio de 6.500 llamadas al mes, de los cuales el 90% son solicitudes de información.

Señalización de los Terminales
Proceso que proporciona información sobre los terminales de la RMTC de los medios de comunicación analógicos y digitales de una manera estandarizada y con reglas que tienen por objetivo facilitar la lectura y comprensión por los clientes. Todo el material gráfico de la Red es basado en proyecto de Diseño de Información, lo que explica los ajustes de color, diseño, tamaño y diseño de conjunto.

Enrutamiento
La herramienta permite al cliente planificar los viajes en transporte público. Mapas indicativos con los nombres de calles, puntos de embarque, visualización de la ruta elegida, el tiempo de viaje y el número de líneas disponibles para los usuarios del servicio.

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TransMilenio: The Good, the Bus and the Ugly

Source: The City Fix

The Colombian capital of Bogota has been praised for more than a decade concerning its dramatic transformation, which centered around the TransMilenio bus rapid transit (BRT) system, ushered in by former mayor Enrique Peñalosa. TransMilenio has been widely praised and imitated around the world and is considered the gold standard for BRT service. However, many consider the successful bus system to be struggling under its own success. What’s happened to the world’s most famous BRT? The myriad factors are complex, ranging from controversial public policy decisions, engineering mishaps, political contempt, marketing budget cuts and even earthquakes. This is story about TransMilenio in 2011: the good, the bus and the ugly.

“The big problem we’re facing now is nobody is talking about these system expansions, and it’s like this plan has been abandoned,” said Dario Hidalgo, former deputy general manager for TransMilenio and director of research and practice for EMBARQ.

The original TransMilenio plans for 2011 anticipated 170 kilometers of lanes. Instead, Bogota is currently coping with 84 kilometers of completed lanes, with an additional 20 kilometers under construction. While Phase I of the system was implemented seemingly overnight in two years, phases II and III have been delayed, taking 5 years and 7 years to start, respectively. The 20 kilometers of Phase III currently under construction are already 1.5 years behind schedule, with an estimated completion date of 2012, aggravating Bogotanos whose city is mired in public works projects.

The mayor of Bogota presides over nearly 20 percent of the Colombian population and consequently is one of the most powerful figures in Colombia. Colombian law limits mayors to three-year consecutive terms. As a result, politicians avoid fomenting their predecessors’ initiatives, knowing their rivals are waiting in the wings. Coincidentally, in Bogota, no project is more attached to a politician than TransMilenio is to former mayor Peñalosa. After Peñalosa’s ambitious term as mayor of Bogota from 1998 to 2000, he has been followed by three administrations unsympathetic towards TransMilenio.

“If you attach a project to a single character, especially a political figure like Peñalosa, then you’ll end up with the opposition attacking a project as a way of scoring political points,” Hidalgo said. “At the end of the day, it’s the citizen who is affected, not the politician.”

METRO ENVY

Since the 1950s, Bogota has been enamored with the thought of a metro, and this obsession has only grown since the mid ’90s, when Medellin, the country’s second biggest city (and Bogota’s bitter rival) began operating its above-ground metro service. Colombian federal finance funds 40 percent of all transit projects, while local government foots the rest of the bill. Bogota was close to getting federal funding for its long-awaited metro when those funds were diverted to earthquake relief and bank bailouts in 1999. While Peñalosa was willing to take federal funds to construct a metro system, his main intention as mayor was to create a sophisticated bus system. When the metro money dried up, so did his intentions of building it with city funds.

Bogota proves that BRT remains a cost-effective solution to mass transit challenges. Medellin’s metro serves 500,000 riders daily, while Bogota’s TransMilenio serves 1.7 million riders per day. Transportation experts recommend considering transit alternatives to provide the best use of limited resources. The estimated infrastructure investment for the metro was estimated at more than double the cost of the BRT system: US$4 billion versus US$1.97 billion. Moreover, the metro system would cover only 8 percent of the city, while the BRT system would cover 85 percent.

Hidalgo stresses that “BRT serves many more people, saving more lives, reducing accidents, pollution, and improving the quality of life of millions of people, as opposed to thousands of people.”

Hidalgo continues, “Metros are really attractive and no matter if you put the numbers on the table, how much it costs, how long it takes to build, how little coverage it may have, the general public just dismisses them by saying all the big cities in the world have a metro. It’s a just a question of image, not reality.”

According to a recent study performed by the Institute for Transportation & Development Policy, TransMilenio was awarded the gold standard in BRT service, receiving a score of 93 out of 100. If gold standard BRT becomes adopted in U.S. cities, such as the ambitious plans of Chicago, New York and in the Washington, D.C. suburbs, perhaps Bogota’s transportation envy will subside. Until then, TransMilenio’s accolades will most likely fall upon deaf ears.

“I strongly believe Bogotanos want better transport, and metro is the image of that; it embodies the promise, no matter the cost or the coverage,” Hidalgo said. “The fact that the TransMilenio has problems reinforces that idea.” Major problems include station crowding, poor road quality, bus frequency and passenger congestion in buses.

BUMPY ROAD AHEAD

Road quality along Avenida Caracas, the first phase of TransMilenio, has some of the worst road quality of the bus system. Foundations under concrete slabs were incorrectly designed and constructed. As a result, cracks and potholes proliferate along the route. El Instituto de Desarrollo Urbano (IDU), or the Urban Development Institute, is in charge of maintaining road infrastructure for the entire city, including the TransMilenio system, and has not been aggressive enough in road upkeep. Lack of maintenance has tainted the image of the system.

At peak hours, stations are uncomfortably crowded for passengers. People crowd around both the entrances and exits of the buses, making it nearly impossible for users to depart the bus at rush hour. Passengers at stations refuse to give right-of-way to exiting bus riders, creating stressful bottlenecks. It’s common to miss one’s stop because of the difficulty in exiting the bus. TransMilenio can currently serve up to approximately 45,000 passengers per direction per hour—a figure competitive with metro lines in Mexico City and London.

Most of the TransMilenio bus fleet is articulated buses, which have a capacity of 160 passengers, in addition to new bi-articulated buses, which offer maximum occupancy of 260. However, Hidalgo suggests occupancy should be less than 130 passengers per bus during peak hours to provide higher quality service.

“With 160 passengers per bus, you end up inviting a lot of users to motorcycles and cars,” he said. Bogota is expected to add approximately 300,000 new cars to its streets by the end of this year—an increase of 18.2 percent from last year.

Transmilenio is a public-private partnership that receives no subsidies from the government. The 1,700 Colombian peso fare (roughly US$1) is exorbitantly expensive for low-income users whose daily salary averages US$3.

“The way the planners, myself included, tried to fit the cost with the fare was to have a very busy system with a high occupancy of 160, but that doesn’t provide quality service, so we ended up shooting ourselves in the foot because we provided a system that is not high quality for financial reasons,” Hidalgo said. “If you don’t provide subsidies, the sustainability of the system is in jeopardy in the medium and long term.”

COMPETING PRIORITIES

During the implementation of the system, Mayor Peñalosa was adamant about not subsidizing TransMilenio, preferring to use those funds for other essential city functions, such as education, security, health and public space. Consequently, policy experts increasingly suggest a congestion tax at peak hours—akin to what’s being done in London or Singapore—to finance the subsidy. The city currently restricts drivers with a policy known as Pico y Placa, which restricts car use depending on license plate numbers on designated days of the week. Drivers have found a way around this policy by simply buying a second car and leaving it in the garage on restriction days. Instead of this money going to car dealerships, the money could be a tax that could be reinvested back in public transportation.

TransMilenio operators run a formal transportation system with electronic fare collection, state-of-the-art buses and tax payment, in addition to employing drivers for 6 to 8 hours per day with benefits. This is in contrast to Bogota’s collective bus system, whose drivers purchase routes from bus operators. These drivers are paid per customer and operate without formal stops. The city is currently developing the Sistema Integrada de Transporte Publico (SITP), or the Integrated Public Transportation System, an ambitious plan to integrate the collective bus system to TransMilenio. However, it comes with great risks, as the service under the TransMilenio agency’s jurisdiction will jump from 1.7 million users per day to nearly four times that size. TransMilenio’s planning and operational capacities are being spread too thin, focusing on the restructuring of the collective bus system, in addition to dealing with the struggling service.

While the TransMilenio agency has been upgrading service, Hidalgo senses the agency has not been aggressive enough. Station expansions have expanded capacity, and increasing farecard sales outside of stations has reduced pedestrian friction and congestion. But more aggressive measures are needed. The implementation of new trunk routes along Avenida Septima or Avenida Boyaca are needed to reduce demand along Avenida Caracas. Demand along this route is over capacity because of the stagnation of new routes, which would have connected the portal stations, thus reducing demand along the busiest parts of the system.

Part of the problem is bureaucratic: new infrastructure depends on the Urban Development Institute, whereas new routes and traffic measures depends on the Secretary for Mobility. Therefore, the TransMilenio agency’s role is limited.

FOCUSING ON THE USER

While many of the problems of TransMilenio are endemic problems requiring long-term engineering or policy solutions, issues involving customer morale and education could be implemented in a relatively short amount of time.

More maps and wayfinding tools are needed in both stations and buses. There are no maps located outside of TransMilenio turnstiles. Inside stations, there are typically two types of maps: a complex map detailing all stations and routes offered by the TransMilenio, and a more simplified map showing all routes leaving from the particular station where the passenger is located. These maps are effective and easy-to-use with practice, however, on average, there are only three to four sets of maps per station, and stations are typically three city blocks long, creating a scarcity of knowledge available to the rider. Inexplicably, bus interiors offer no maps whatsoever. The bus features digital displays alerting passengers of the two approaching stations, yet on a bus packed with 160 people, it can be difficult to see or hear the information.

Some users feel mistreated and, therefore, distrust the system. Education and courtesy programs could be implemented to aid and assist users about etiquette in the TransMilenio. “The key is first to improve the quality of the service and then user education, not the other way around,” Hidalgo said. “You can’t tell people to behave if they are mistreated.” Once service improves, marketing and advertisements to improve the branding of the TransMilenio might help to counteract the negative attention the media has given the system. (For more tips on marketing for mass transit, read EMBARQ’s guidebook, “From Here to There: A Creative Guide to Making Public Transport the Way to Go.”)

DRIVING TOWARD THE FUTURE

The triumphs of TransMilenio are well-documented. After a decade, Transmilenio has made great achievements to promote an affordable mass transit system that is a particularly successful and applicable model in developing cities where municipalities have finite resources and face numerous challenges. The success of TransMilenio explains why the model has been adopted in more than 100 cities on every continent. TransMilenio’s success is essential because it has served as a model for so many of the world’s BRT systems. Air quality has improved in Bogota, especially along TransMilenio routes. Road safety has significantly improved, too. Fatalities have decreased 60 percent from 1,299 in 1996 to 551 in 2007, according to the Ministry of Transportation of Colombia. Accessibility for the elderly, disabled, and mothers with small children has also improved, compared to the collective buses, which are not handicap-accessible. Furthermore, 1.7 million people per day use the TransMilenio and travel times have reduced by 32 percent. With the expansion of the system, this progress will only continue.

Filmmaker Woody Allen said, “A relationship, I think, is like a shark, you know? It has to constantly move forward or it dies.” The same could be said about the current state of the Bogota’s BRT: it needs to keep progressing to keep up with the demand of this growing city of more than 8 million people. The intention of this post was not to praise nor bury the TransMilenio. More needs to be done to address the issues confronting the decade-old system. The problems are complex and multifaceted, but a pragmatic and factual discussion must enter the public discourse in order to ensure the system’s success.

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Opinion Pieces: The continuing saga on corridors and networks and big project announcements

Public Transport Comes With Densities

Source: Thoughtlines with Bob Carr

Proud to have been chosen as keynote speaker for today’s big public transport conference in Parliament House in Canberra, sponsored by a coalition that includes rail, bus and bike groups plus local government and ( interestingly ) the Heart Foundation. The Gillard Government and its predecessor have made commitments to public transport, reviving – I said in my speech – the work of the Whitlam Government in urban policy.

Not before time. Capital cities generate 84 percent of economic growth in Australia and they are growing. By mid-century we will see Sydney and Melbourne at seven million. They won’t work without higher densities. Sydney is the only Australian city where more than half of new housing starts come in existing areas. In Melbourne it is only about 50 percent.

Here was my first proposal for boosting public transport: make sure that the metropolitan plans for our capitals mandate that, one, we increase the percentage of the population within 30 minutes by public transport of a major centre (like Parramatta or Liverpool) within the overall metropolitan area; two, we aim to have 80 percent of new housing within walking distance of public transport. Call these two ideas “key performance indicators” for city planning. They will nurture public transport. They do exist in the Sydney metropolitan plan where urban density and public transport reliance are the highest in Australia.

The Henry report recommended we move towards abolishing vehicle registration charges and fuel taxes for a system that charges drivers for distance travelled and time of journey. One of my fellow speakers suggested research towards ways of persuading private motorists that they could be better off under this model. And another speaker said marketing and politics can deliver this reform – and that we talk about distance-based charging instead of congestion charging.

Henry advocates variable congestion pricing and that heavy vehicles pay ”for their specific marginal road-wear costs.”

I reviewed the success of Bus Rapid Transit systems – designated bus expressways – which are being recognized as by far the most cost effective way of delivering public transport. Adelaide, Brisbane and Sydney offer good models. The Liverpool-Parramatta bus transit way, costing $346 million, boasts 35 stations and runs a bus every 10 minutes every peak hour. It has carved an hour off travel times. A speaker at the conference told me there was $1 billion allocated to light rail on the Gold Coast when an investment of only $50 million would have delivered an environmentally sound bus transit system. BRT gives you more kilometers of public transport.

The serious rail projects in Australian cities in recent years have been the $2 billion 13 kilometer Epping to Chatswood line, the $1.66 billion 72 kilometer Perth New MetroRail Project and the $650 million five kilometer South Morang Rail Extension in Melbourne. Heavy rail has its place where there are populations to support it – that densities argument again.

You cannot escape it.

Professor David Hensher, an advocate of Rapid Bus Transit, said that Sydney should not procede with the north-west rail project. He said that to relieve congestion it is better “to flood the system with buses”. Just a six percent shift away from cars ends congestion, he argues. And he argues that a single additional rail link – anywhere – won’t deliver the benefits that would come with more buses across the whole system. They offer flexibility and affordability. One restraint, however, is curb space. Already Brisbane is, according to one participant here, simply not able to accommodate more uses coming in from the suburbs at peak hours. There isn’t the space. A high standard of debate here.

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Troncal de Aguablanca, new corridor in Cali, Colombia (in Spanish)

Source: SIBRT

Con una extensión de 5.6 kilómetros, conectará al centro del municipio con el corazón del Distrito de Aguablanca, una de las zonas donde se concentra la mayor cantidad de población de los estratos socioeconómicos menos favorecidos.

Una de las obras más ambiciosas que se hayan construido en los últimos tiempos en la ciudad colombiana de Cali, es la Troncal de Aguablanca del Sistema Integrado de Transporte Masivo – MIO. Con una extensión de 5.6 kilómetros, conectará al centro del municipio con el corazón del Distrito de Aguablanca, una de las zonas donde se concentra la mayor cantidad de población de los estratos socioeconómicos menos favorecidos y con mayor demanda de transporte público.

A su paso, ciclo ruta en ambos lados de la vía para favorecer el tránsito de los ciclistas, ocho estaciones de parada, una terminal intermedia y una de cabecera. Lafalse construcción de esta super estructura para el MIO genera dos mil empleos para los caleños, incluyendo oportunidades laborales para quienes habitan en las zonas de influencia de la obra e igualmente para personas en situación de discapacidad.

En su recorrido, la Troncal conecta hitos de movilidad tan importantes como las Autopistas sur oriental y Simón Bolívar, llegando igualmente hasta la ciudadela educativa “Nuevo Latir” ubicada sobre la Avenida Ciudad de Cali, facilitando de esta manera el futuro ingreso a los estudiantes.

Dos hundimientos viales hacen parte de los retos de ingeniería de la troncal para eliminar cruces semaforizados y permitir un eficiente flujo vehicular.

Pero la Troncal de Aguablanca significa más, porque le entregará a la ciudad 11 kilómetros de ciclo ruta, 30 mil metros cuadrados de espacio público renovado y 18.800 metros cuadrados de parques y plazoletas. Todo este paquete de renovación urbana incluye también la reposición de redes de servicios públicos.

La Troncal de Aguablanca es una obra desarrollada por Metrocali que representa una inversión aproximada de 85 millones de dólares.

Las obras avanzan a buen ritmo con la proyección de entregar en el mes de agosto la estructura de la vía y las ocho estaciones de parada para continuar con el proceso de la implementación tecnológica y así ponerla al servicio de los caleños.

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Bus Rapid Transit eyed as speedy solution for U.S. 36 in Boulder County, USA

Source: Daily Camera

It’s time to go home. You head to Market Street Station in Denver, where you work, to board a bus for Boulder, where you live. You just missed the bus. No problem — they depart every five minutes. You grab the next one. As traffic bogs down around you, the driver slips into the dedicated bus lane and motors at a steady speed up Interstate 25 to U.S. 36, passing bumper-to-bumper vehicles by the hundreds. On the way to Boulder, the bus stops at several full-service stations, picking up passengers who already have paid their fare at kiosks — no fumbling for change, no wasted time. Thirty-five minutes after leaving downtown Denver, you pull into the Table Mesa park-n-Ride.

The upshot: A rush-hour bus trip along U.S. 36 that just a few years ago couldn’t come close to beating a car is projected by 2035 to have a 17-minute advantage over a single-occupant vehicle. Welcome to the future of travel in the U.S. 36 corridor — the result of a $536 million effort by the Regional Transportation District and the Colorado Department of Transportation to build the first phase of a Bus Rapid Transit system, or BRT. Advocates say the system should make commuting between Boulder and Denver as simple and reliable as jumping on a subway train.

«In many ways, you’re going to get service that acts like rail service,» said Boulder County Commissioner Will Toor, an outspoken transit advocate who has worked on making improvements to U.S. 36. «We think BRT is going to be a real workhorse for this corridor.»

Some of the elements of BRT are already in place on U.S. 36. Pedestrian overpasses and slip ramps, which allow buses to simply pull over on off and on ramps, were built at nearly all of the interchanges in the last few years.

Other features, such as a bike lane and managed lanes that buses and carpools can ride for free and single-occupancy vehicles can ride for a price, are still on the horizon.

But the choices and investments transportation officials make in the corridor over the next few years are critical, because the highway will more than likely serve as a BRT model in the state.

«What we in the U.S. 36 corridor do will set the standard for what we do with BRT in the rest of the region,» said Nadine Lee, project manager for RTD’s U.S. 36 Bus Rapid Transit program. «We have to give people a reason to ride it.»

‘Rail-like service’

Bus Rapid Transit often is pitched as having the most desirable aspects of rail travel — exclusive lanes, rapid speeds, signal prioritization, high frequency and stations with easy boarding and real-time travel information — but at a much reduced price tag.

«It’s a high-quality service at a price you can afford,» Toor said.

Most transportation experts point to Curitiba, Brazil, as the birthplace of BRT in the 1970s, with many cities in South America since then building systems that now serve as the global gold standard.

More than a dozen cities in the United States, including New York and Los Angeles, have some form of BRT as part of their overall transit picture. In Colorado, transportation planners have proposed a BRT system for a 40-mile stretch of Colo. 82 between Aspen and Glenwood Springs, while in Fort Collins, the city is planning a BRT route along Mason Street.

But the U.S. 36 project is unique in that it incorporates BRT into a high-speed, multi-lane highway corridor that also is slated to one day have commuter rail service.

Earlier this month, stakeholders from RTD, CDOT, Boulder County and other municipalities and agencies with an interest in the project traveled to Los Angeles to study that city’s BRT system. They rode the Orange Line across the San Fernando Valley and the Silver Line in and out of downtown L.A.

Scott Page, manager of service planning for L.A.’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said since the city consolidated a hodgepodge of bus lines on the Interstate 10 and Interstate 110 freeways into the Silver Line BRT route 18 months ago, travel time across the 27-mile stretch has dropped by 20 minutes and ridership has risen by 37 percent.

RTD projects that transit ridership along U.S. 36 will go from 8,180 per average weekday currently to 14,600 by 2035. But Lee cautioned that trying to divine travel times and make comparisons over time is complicated by the fact that congestion will increase in the U.S. 36 corridor as the result of population growth.

Even so, the agency projects that in 2035 a BRT bus rider coming from Denver will arrive at Table Mesa park-n-Ride 17 minutes earlier than a motorist driving in the general-purpose lanes. A passenger on an express bus — which makes no stops between Denver and Boulder — should get there 24 minutes earlier, RTD predicts.

«We’re trying to get to rail-like service,» Lee said.

Improvements soon

And while most of the travel time savings projections go out 25 years, Lee said transit passengers will see improvements much sooner than that.

More than $300 million — largely a mix of FasTracks funds and federal grant money — has been secured to build high-occupancy toll lanes in both directions from I-25 to 96th Street at Interlocken. Construction could begin as early as next year and wrap up by fall of 2015.

Funding for continuation of the managed lanes out to Table Mesa park-n-Ride hasn’t been identified yet and there is no timetable for getting that part of the project done. However, a slip ramp and pedestrian bridge at Table Mesa is slated to go in by early 2013.

John Schwab, U.S. 36 managed lane project director for CDOT, said the high-occupancy toll lane will be operated similarly to how the toll lanes on I-25 are run, with motorists paying for access via a transponder they attach to their windshields.

Preliminary plans call for a painted buffer between the managed lane and the general-purpose lanes on U.S. 36. Without a physical barrier, Schwab said, toll-jumpers could be problem.

«We’ll be trying to minimize violators so we don’t lose toll revenues to pay back the bonds,» he said.

Another challenge, he said, will be getting buses to move from the inside lane through the bulk of traffic to the highway exits to make stops at the slip ramp stations.

«It’s important to have an efficient BRT system,» Schwab said.

Selling it to the masses

A large part of the system’s efficiency and success will come from buses that run on a high frequency schedule and are instantly recognized by passengers as part of a BRT fleet. RTD wants to run buses on the line every five minutes during peak periods so that people won’t feel the need to lug around a bus schedule.

«One of the things we’re trying to do right now is determine service identity and provide a user interface that makes it easy to ride,» Lee said.

She said there are no plans to change out the regional buses that currently run along U.S. 36 with new, sleeker looking vehicles, but that could happen down the road.

In the meantime, the existing fleet could undergo a makeover as part of a new BRT branding effort.

«There’s the possibility that there will be painting and bus wraps for branding,» Toor said.

RTD and CDOT are preparing for the future with plans to run fiberoptic cables along the entire highway corridor to light up real-time electronic signs at stations announcing the arrival of approaching buses and variable-message signs on the road to notify drivers of changing toll rates.

Bike lockers should also be available at stations to encourage people to use as much alternate transportation as possible.

Boulder County Transportation Department Director George Gerstle said that at its core, the proposed BRT system along U.S. 36 is all about providing people with choices about how to get from Point A to Point B on any given day.

«It’s not forcing people to say ‘I’m a bus person’ or ‘I’m a car person’ — it’s saying, ‘I can make the best choice for my day,'» he said. «Right now, people don’t have a choice for every type of trip.»

Meshing rail, BRT

One of the travel choices not directly tied to the BRT improvements, but critical to the conversation about public transit along U.S. 36, is the Northwest Rail line.

The commuter train line connecting Denver to Longmont, which voters approved in 2004 as part of the FasTracks initiative to build 119 miles of new rail throughout metro Denver, is in limbo — hampered by a $2 billion shortfall at RTD.

The transit agency is considering whether to put a measure to increase sales tax on the ballot next year so that the line could be open for business by 2019.

But Bob Greenlee, a former Republican mayor of Boulder and a Camera columnist, said discussion about the train is «stupid.» He said funding for the Northwest Rail line, which is budgeted at $895 million, is better spent on top-of-the-line BRT improvements on U.S. 36.

«It’s an entirely ridiculous idea and the money that’s going to be wasted on the heavy rail system should have been spent enhancing the Bus Rapid Transit program,» he said. «These people have convinced themselves they need to do this train.»

He said buses are flexible and can be routed where they are needed and where growth happens in the future, while the static nature of rail means that where it goes is where it stays.

Both needed

But rail advocates counter that the Northwest Rail corridor and U.S. 36 serve different markets and that both are needed.

Rail, they argue, performs better in poor weather, and people living in Louisville, Longmont and east Boulder, where train depots are being planned, would greatly benefit from a train line.

Longmont Mayor Bryan Baum said voters approved rail and that it’s presumptuous for public officials to override that decision.

«We’ve put a lot of money into it and voters spoke and you’re bound to deliver what was spoken,» he said. «We voted for this and we want to see it completed.»

RTD’s Lee agrees, saying that those who knock the Northwest Rail line are being shortsighted and thinking myopically. She said not only would Louisville and Longmont benefit from the line, but residents of Westminster, Broomfield and Denver would, too.

«There are stakeholders beyond the U.S. 36 corridor counting on that rail project,» Lee said. «One thing RTD is trying to do is give people choices of how they want to travel.»

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Event Wrap-Up: Forum for Sustainable Transport in Latin America

Source: EMBARQ

Newly signed Bogota Declaration establishes sustainable transport objectives for the region.

Last 24 June, 2011 in Bogota, Colombia, transportation ministers, delegations and experts from around the globe gathered to discuss the development of the Bogota Declaration, a new multinational agreement of sustainable transportation policies in Latin America.

The declaration was the result of the first Foro de Transporte Sostenible (FTS) para America Latina (Forum for Sustainable Transport in Latin America), which was organized by the Ministry of Transportation of Colombia, United Nations Center for Regional Development and the Inter-American Development Bank, with support from the Institute for Transportation Development and Policy, EMBARQ, and the Partnership on Sustainable Low Carbon Transport.

«The event in Bogota was successful in several ways, showing that Latin America is ahead of the game and can really ‘leapfrog’ in sustainable transport,» said EMBARQ Director of Research and Practice and member of our Centre of Excellence, Dario Hidalgo.

In the following video (in Spanish), Hidalgo calls on the responsibility of politicians to follow through on the goal of reducing emissions and improving quality of life in Latin American cities:

The Bogota Declaration was agreed upon by delegations from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay and Uruguay. It subscribes to the “Avoid-Shift-Improve” (ASI) paradigm of sustainable transport and establishes clear objectives for the region. Hidalgo, who is the former deputy general manager of Transmilenio, Bogota’s world-renowned bus rapid transit (BRT) system, outlined the ASI approach as avoiding long motorized and unnecessary trips, shifting the tendency away from trips in individual motorized vehicles and improving the technology and operational management of transportation activities.

The declaration emphasizes the importance of sustainable transport in improving public health and quality of life, consistent with the goals of the Decade of Action for Road Safety, a worldwide effort declared by the United Nations General Assembly to save 5 million lives over a ten-year period.

The agreement also establishes periodic meetings among the country delegations, with support from the United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and other NGOs and transport experts.

EMBARQ was one of the supporting organizations of the forum and instrumental to its success in influencing the national and regional agenda for sustainable transport. EMBARQ was commissioned by UNCRD to prepare a background paper about sustainable transport in Latin America (see draft), and helped in drafting and reviewing the final Bogota Declaration, in consultation with the country delegations.

According to the organizers of the forum, transportation is vital to give adequate support to the rapid economic and social development of Latin America, but the current patterns and trends aren’t sustainable. The concentration of transport in individual vehicles creates adverse effects in terms of congestion, pollution, health, energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. It’s possible to confront these challenges and change the direction of transportation development with the current resources dedicated to transport. The result of these policy changes to sustainable transport would save lives, generate conditions for equitable economic development, and protect both the local and global environments.

German Cardona, Colombia’s minister of transport, emphasized his country’s focus on sustainable cargo and shipping, in addition to the creation of a new vice-minister of transportation position, which is currently filled by Felipe Targa. This position was created to exclusively oversee the sustainability of transport initiatives.

Distinguished guests elaborated upon the ASI approach. Adriana Lobo from the Center for Sustainable Transport in Mexico (CTS-México), gave a presentation on avoiding or preventing long and unnecessary motorized trips. Lobo presented a case study about Aguascalientes, Mexico, a new development outside of Mexico City whose residents often face 2- to 3-hour commutes and who spend approximately 30 percent to 50 percent of their income on transportation costs. Lobo stressed throughout her presentation how this model of growth must be avoided to improve the quality of life for people in cities. Lobo’s presentation emphasized the need for sustainable land use policies in order to avoid the construction of mono-functional communities that require individual car ownership. CTS-México made urban development and accessibility recommendations to improve the quality of life for the future citizens of Aguascalientes. The local government adopted about 70 percent of the design recommendations, which included mixed land use, improved public spaces, bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, and public transportation.

Eduardo Vasconcellos of the National Association of Public Transportation in Brazil, and also member of our CoE, elaborated on how to shift the traffic of passengers to non-motorized options and away from individual motorized transportation. According to Dr. Vasconcellos, developing countries’ public policy needs to change the axiom to tackle the problems of efficiency and inequality. Latin American countries need to worry about the deep ingrained issues caused by inefficient transportation through the consumption of energy, the use of space, congestion, pollution and how these externalities affect society.

Edgar Blanco from the MIT Center for Transportation Logistics and José Barbaro of IDB outlined the great potential for freight as a way of reducing carbon emissions in Latin America. Other expert speakers included the following:

– Dr. Anup Bandivadekar (International Council on Clean Transportation)
– Sergio Sanchez (Clean Air Institute)
– Harald Diaz Bone (GIZ)
– José Luis Moscovich (San Francisco County Transportation Authority)
– Cornie Huizenga (SLoCaT)
– Michael Replogle (ITDP)
– Edgar Enrique Sandoval (Sigma Consulting)
– Luis Alberto Moreno (IDB)

The next forum is expected to be held in Mexico City in 2012.
For more information, see the official press release and additional media clips.

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A new Metrovía corridor for Guayaquil in 2012 (in Spanish)

A buen ritmo avanzan los trabajos para la construcción de los carriles exclusivos. Se espera que todo esté listo para octubre del 2012.

Source: SIBRT

Guayaquil – Dentro de poco tiempo, los guayaquileños y quienes habitan en el puerto principal contarán con una nueva troncal de Metrovía; a buen ritmo avanzan los trabajos para la construcción de los carriles exclusivos de la troncal 25 de Julio, cuyo recorrido inicia en la terminal que lleva el mismo nombre ubicada en el sur de Guayaquil, hasta la terminal Río Daule.

La empresa a la que se le adjudico la construcción de los carriles, ha instalado parte de la simbología en las calles y avenidas comprendidas dentro del proyecto. Entre ellas las avenidas 25 de Julio, Quito, Machala, de las Américas y Pedro Moncayo. La construcción de los carriles durará 18 meses, según lo estipula el contrato y cuyo presupuesto referencial es de 20954190.74 dólares. También se construirán 30 paraderos. Se espera que todo esté listo para octubre del 2012.

Una de las cosas que más llama la atención en esta troncal es que habrá dos rutas. Una que recogerá y dejará pasajeros en todas las paradas y otra que solo lo hará en cuatro, a ésta se ha denominado express. Comprende: Las Acacias, Hospital Francisco de Ycaza Bustamante; Plaza Centenario y colegio Aguirre Abad.

Se prevé la movilización diaria de 250.000 pasajeros sólo en lo que corresponde a esta troncal, que sumadas a las 300.000 que actualmente lo hacen en todo el sistema, estaríamos hablando de unas 550.000.

El proyecto también incluye la construcción de cuatro pasos peatonales sobre la av. de las Américas en las estaciones del colegio Aguirre Abad, avenida Plaza Dañín, Juan Tanca Marengo y cdla. Simón Bolívar.

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Opinion Pieces: The one thing we know about forecasts is that they are wrong: but by how much?

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 2010

I have just returned from New Zealand where I gave three addresses on various aspects of transport reform. Over the total of 5 hours of talks it occurred to me that we have not progressed very far in improving our ability to forecast patronage and project costs of new major transport investments. Don Pickrell in 1992 blew the lid off of the USA Federal Government subsidy program associated with capital intensive projects since the program did not require state and local governments to be accountable for their forecasts and hence preference by States was given to such projects over other projects. The big errors occurred in ridership forecasts and capital cost estimates.

In the mid 1970, Dan McFadden (who received the Nobel prize for economics in 2000) demonstrated that a major reason for forecast errors in ridership of public transport is in the nature of the transport models used to study demand for travel (by mode, destination and frequency). Essentially, the models that contribute to significant errors back in the 1970s, known as four stage models, typically using highly aggregate data (at a traffic zone level – as if the zone travels) such that much of the explanatory power (or variability in travel behaviour response) is assumed away through working with average people and average behaviour. Essentially, the models that contribute to significant errors back in the 1970s, known as four stage models, typically using data describing the travel activity of the average traveller living in a defined physical area (like a postcode or a traffic zone) in terms of the average income, household size, age, and average trip time etc at a traffic zone level as if the physical zone travels; such that much of the explanatory power of the forecasting models in explaining travel demand is assumed away by working with average people and average behaviour.

Disappointingly all the consultants in Australia (with very rare exception) still use essentially the same methods as developed and applied in the 1960’s. Back then, McFadden and his team at Berkeley California showed the limitations of such transport models. So here we are in 2010, observing what has almost become a “law” of errors – if you want to get your forecast closer to reality, then halve public transport patronage forecasts and double capital costs. This also applies to toll roads.

Given we have known this for many years, why is the practice still blind to the evidence? Some have suggested it is because the numbers on ridership look on the low side to get Treasury support and indeed to enable an ultimate healthy benefit-cost ratio when subject to an environmental impact statement assessment. Others have suggested that if we ever want to get public transport built then we must “exaggerate” the evidence since no one really knows the truth anyway. This is known as strategic misrepresentation (which colloquially is known as lying). Well what to do given those in the know are fully aware of this.

Maybe we are safer simply buying more buses because no one apparently asks the question – how many more bums of seats will this deliver? Have you ever seen a benefitcost analysis or a patronage estimate associated with any request or announcement to increase the number of buses by 1 or 100 or 300?

Food for thought

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A Look back at 1940s rail and freeway plans yields some surprises

Source: The Source

Los Angeles’ transit history often reveals something brand new: a map we never knew existed, an angle to a story that helps us connect the dots, or new information from the past that informs planning our future.

A closer look at competing transportation studies in 1948 turned up this hidden gem worthy of a double-take: the feeder routes for proposed rail lines running down freeway medians were referred to as “bus rapid transit.”

While the first bus rapid transit system was launched in Curitiba, Brazil in the early 1970s, plans for a local BRT were actually laid out a quarter century earlier…and more than 50 years before we launched Metro Rapid or the Orange Line.

The 1948 Rail Rapid Transit Now! campaign’s plan for building a comprehensive rail system in conjunction with freeway construction never materialized, but it set in motion other events in Los Angeles mobility for decades to come.

The full story can be found on the Primary Resources Blog produced by the Metro Transportation Library and Archive.

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New Siemens Electric Bus Rapid Transit system

Source: Gather – Electric Vehicles

The Siemens Electric Bus Rapid Transit system – or e-BRT for short – allows vehicles to run on electricity without overhead contact lines and without rails. The vehicles are quiet and comfortable, as they run on tires and electric motors.

Vehicles are equipped with electricity storage units that combine super-capacitors, batteries and converters, carrying enough power to reach the next stop. At each stop, the e-BRT vehicle is recharged for about 20 seconds, i.e. less time than passengers usually need to get on and off the bus. Electricity generated when the vehicles brake or slow down is also stored in the storage units.

While light rail, trams and trolley buses come with specific infrastructure and have restricted paths, e-BRT vehicles can travel on standard roads, sharing them with other users.

The only special infrastructure needed are bus-stops doubling as charging stations. In Siemens’ e-BRT system, such stations contain intelligence to help steer the electric buses in position as they approach the stops. This ensures more precise contact with the charging system and easy access for the passengers at a low-floor level.

Such innovations can also enhance the safety of bus travel. Bus stops can be equipped with automatically-controlled lights and announcements, complemented by warning signs at the stations in case passengers are standing too close to arriving vehicles. Video cameras and sensors on buses can help detect people and other vehicles, especially at spots that are otherwise hard to see for drivers.

The Siemens brochure e-BRT®: The sustainable development solution for Bus Rapid Transit lines describes its system as the ideal transport solution for medium-traffic routes, at a price a third to a half that of a tram line.

Check the following video, which shows how the system works:

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A BRT for the metropolitan area of Asunción (in Spanish)

Source: SIBRT

Asunción – El área Metropolitana de la capital paraguaya se prepara para el lanzamiento de las primera licitaciones de obras del primer troncal de Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), que será incorporado gracias al prestado otorgado por el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo – BID, al Gobierno del Presidente Fernando Lugo. Coincidiendo con la visita de la vicepresidenta del BID, Julie Katzman, anunció la ampliación del primer troncal de BRT.

La representante del alto organismo financiero internacional, recorrió la zona donde se ejecutaran los dos proyectos financiados con aproximadamente U$S 160 millones compuestos por el BRT y el Proyecto Reconversión del Centro y Edificios de Gobierno, recientemente aceptado por el Gobierno Nacional, finalizando su recorrida por la zona de obras de la Avenida Costanera, el parque Bicentenario y la zona de Puertos donde existen componentes ambientales que serian de interés del Banco.

El proyecto de BRT, que inicialmente tenía previsto recorrer y conectar a tres ciudades en su recorrido, se amplía hasta la ciudad de Capiatá, ante la demanda de usuarios localizados en esa ciudad conforme a los datos arrojados por los estudios de Origen y Destino procesados en el marco de lineamientos que permiten hacer los ajustes al proyecto.

El proyecto, que inicialmente era de unos 18 kilómetros, en la actualidad fue extendido hasta Capiatá amplíando 10 Km su recorrido original debido a la demanda de usuarios desde esta ciudad cabecera de la capital paraguaya. En estos momentos se realizan todos los estudios que incluyen movimiento de pasajeros, origen, destino y nivel de demanda que propiciarán los horarios de los buses” remarcó el titular de la cartera de obras.

El Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Comunicaciones anunció que la licitación para el sistema BRT se realizará en julio y se espera su conclusión para fines de 2012 o comienzos del 2013.

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Across Europe, irking drivers is urban policy

Source: The New York Times by Elizabeth Rosenthal

Pedestrians and trams are given priority treatment in Zurich. Tram operators can turn traffic lights in their favor as they
approach, forcing cars to halt. Photo: Christoph Bangert for The New York Times. More photos >>

ZURICH — While American cities are synchronizing green lights to improve traffic flow and offering apps to help drivers find parking, many European cities are doing the opposite: creating environments openly hostile to cars. The methods vary, but the mission is clear — to make car use expensive and just plain miserable enough to tilt drivers toward more environmentally friendly modes of transportation.

Cities including Vienna to Munich and Copenhagen have closed vast swaths of streets to car traffic. Barcelona and Paris have had car lanes eroded by popular bike-sharing programs. Drivers in London and Stockholm pay hefty congestion charges just for entering the heart of the city. And over the past two years, dozens of German cities have joined a national network of “environmental zones” where only cars with low carbon dioxide emissions may enter.

Likeminded cities welcome new shopping malls and apartment buildings but severely restrict the allowable number of parking spaces. On-street parking is vanishing. In recent years, even former car capitals like Munich have evolved into “walkers’ paradises,” said Lee Schipper, a senior research engineer at Stanford University who specializes in sustainable transportation.

“In the United States, there has been much more of a tendency to adapt cities to accommodate driving,” said Peder Jensen, head of the Energy and Transport Group at the European Environment Agency. “Here there has been more movement to make cities more livable for people, to get cities relatively free of cars.”

To that end, the municipal Traffic Planning Department here in Zurich has been working overtime in recent years to torment drivers. Closely spaced red lights have been added on roads into town, causing delays and angst for commuters. Pedestrian underpasses that once allowed traffic to flow freely across major intersections have been removed. Operators in the city’s ever expanding tram system can turn traffic lights in their favor as they approach, forcing cars to halt.

Around Löwenplatz, one of Zurich’s busiest squares, cars are now banned on many blocks. Where permitted, their speed is limited to a snail’s pace so that crosswalks and crossing signs can be removed entirely, giving people on foot the right to cross anywhere they like at any time.

As he stood watching a few cars inch through a mass of bicycles and pedestrians, the city’s chief traffic planner, Andy Fellmann, smiled. “Driving is a stop-and-go experience,” he said. “That’s what we like! Our goal is to reconquer public space for pedestrians, not to make it easy for drivers.”

While some American cities — notably San Francisco, which has “pedestrianized” parts of Market Street — have made similar efforts, they are still the exception in the United States, where it has been difficult to get people to imagine a life where cars are not entrenched, Dr. Schipper said.

Europe’s cities generally have stronger incentives to act. Built for the most part before the advent of cars, their narrow roads are poor at handling heavy traffic. Public transportation is generally better in Europe than in the United States, and gas often costs over $8 a gallon, contributing to driving costs that are two to three times greater per mile than in the United States, Dr. Schipper said.

What is more, European Union countries probably cannot meet a commitment under the Kyoto Protocol to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions unless they curb driving. The United States never ratified that pact.

Globally, emissions from transportation continue a relentless rise, with half of them coming from personal cars. Yet an important impulse behind Europe’s traffic reforms will be familiar to mayors in Los Angeles and Vienna alike: to make cities more inviting, with cleaner air and less traffic.

Michael Kodransky, global research manager at the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) in New York, which works with cities to reduce transport emissions, said that Europe was previously “on the same trajectory as the United States, with more people wanting to own more cars.” But in the past decade, there had been “a conscious shift in thinking, and firm policy,” he said. And it is having an effect.

After two decades of car ownership, Hans Von Matt, 52, who works in the insurance industry, sold his vehicle and now gets around Zurich by tram or bicycle, using a car-sharing service for trips out of the city. Carless households have increased from 40 to 45 percent in the last decade, and car owners use their vehicles less, city statistics show.

“There were big fights over whether to close this road or not — but now it is closed, and people got used to it” he said, alighting from his bicycle on Limmatquai, a riverside pedestrian zone lined with cafes that used to be two lanes of gridlock. Each major road closing has to be approved in a referendum.

Today 91 percent of the delegates to the Swiss Parliament take the tram to work.

Still, there is grumbling. “There are all these zones where you can only drive 20 or 30 kilometers per hour [about 12 to 18 miles an hour], which is rather stressful,” Thomas Rickli, a consultant, said as he parked his Jaguar in a lot at the edge of town. “It’s useless.”

Urban planners generally agree that a rise in car commuting is not desirable for cities anywhere.

Mr. Fellmann calculated that a person using a car took up 115 cubic meters (roughly 4,000 cubic feet) of urban space in Zurich while a pedestrian took three. “So it’s not really fair to everyone else if you take the car,” he said.

European cities also realized they could not meet increasingly strict World Health Organization guidelines for fine-particulate air pollution if cars continued to reign. Many American cities are likewise in “nonattainment” of their Clean Air Act requirements, but that fact “is just accepted here,” said Mr. Kodransky of the New York-based transportation institute.

It often takes extreme measures to get people out of their cars, and providing good public transportation is a crucial first step. One novel strategy in Europe is intentionally making it harder and more costly to park. “Parking is everywhere in the United States, but it’s disappearing from the urban space in Europe,” said Mr. Kodransky, whose recent report “Europe’s Parking U-Turn” surveys the shift.

Sihl City, a new Zurich mall, is three times the size of Brooklyn’s Atlantic Mall but has only 225 more parking spaces than Atlantic’s 625, and as a result, 70 percent of visitors get there by public transport, Mr. Kodransky said.

In Copenhagen, Mr. Jensen, at the European Environment Agency, said that his office building had more than 150 spaces for bicycles and only one for a car, to accommodate a disabled person.

While many building codes in Europe cap the number of parking spaces in new buildings to discourage car ownership, American codes conversely tend to stipulate a minimum number. New apartment complexes built along the light rail line in Denver devote their bottom eight floors to parking, making it “too easy” to get in the car rather than take advantage of rail transit, Mr. Kodransky said.

While Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has generated controversy in New York by “pedestrianizing” a few areas like Times Square, many European cities have already closed vast areas to car traffic. Store owners in Zurich had worried that the closings would mean a drop in business, but that fear has proved unfounded, Mr. Fellmann said, because pedestrian traffic increased 30 to 40 percent where cars were banned.

With politicians and most citizens still largely behind them, Zurich’s planners continue their traffic-taming quest, shortening the green-light periods and lengthening the red with the goal that pedestrians wait no more than 20 seconds to cross.

“We would never synchronize green lights for cars with our philosophy,” said Pio Marzolini, a city official. “When I’m in other cities, I feel like I’m always waiting to cross a street. I can’t get used to the idea that I am worth less than a car.”

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Indonesia’s transport initiatives

Source: The City Fix by Itir Sonuparlak

Jakarta’s chief of Railway Certification Department, M Sardjoko Hendrowijono, is asking for greater federal restrictions on private vehicle imports in an effort to balance the success of TransJakarta, Indonesia’s first bus rapid transit (BRT) system. “Hendrowijono admitted that TransJakarta bus had helped to overcome traffic congestion in Jakarta since it first operated in 2004,” reports Berita Jakarta, the city’s online media forum. “But if it is not counterbalanced by stopping the imports of both two wheels and four wheels vehicles, congestion will still continue to happen.”

Although Indonesia may still be accepting private vehicle imports, the citizens have spoken loud and clear: more car free days! Similar to Bogotá, Colombia’s Ciclovia or Minneapolis, Minnesota’s Open Streets, Jakarta’s Car Free Day, first conducted once a month, has gained so much positive attention that the city government is considering implementing it every week. Encouraging individuals to leave their cars at home, Jakarta’s Car Free Day opens the city streets to pedestrians and bicyclists, with only vehicular traffic being TransJakarta.

And although Jakarta citizens are excited about Car Free Days and the success of TransJakarta, Governor Fauzi Bowo’s administration has received poor ratings in dealing with traffic congestion. According to the Jakarta Post, only 29.4 percent of respondents thought that the Governor had performed well in providing decent public transportation. Despite Governor Bowo’s positive contributions to TransJakarta, like calling for improvements in driver recruitment and installing tracking devices in vehicles, 70 percent of the surveyed group still think that the Governor has failed in managing traffic.

Road construction and its effects on traffic may be part of the problem. Jakarta had initiated two construction projects on elevated roads back in January. Jakarta’s Traffic Police and Public Works had predicted that these construction projects would have a negative impact on the city’s already congested traffic at least until September 2011. Although the construction takes place between 10pm and 5am, the blocked lanes of construction have taken a toll on traffic.

Part of this construction is to provide a platform for the city’s ongoing Mass Rapid Transit System (MRT) project. The MRT will be a rail-based transport system that services over 110.3 km (68.5 miles) of Jakarta’s roads. The administration is relying heavily on the MRT to solve Jakarta’s congestion problems. With 7.34 million private vehicles in Jakarta today and a 9.5 percent growth rate in vehicular traffic in the past five years, public transportation does not seem to be a popular mode of transport. But even though public transport makes up only 2 percent of all trips, these services benefit 56 percent of all trips in Jakarta.

According to Tony Ibanez from Harvard University, a professor of urban planning and public policy, TransJakarta alone is capable in reducing private vehicle traffic. In fact, he encourages the city government to focus in developing BRT-based public transport schemes. “Each bus can accommodate 80-90 percent of passengers, more routes and lanes of TransJakarta bus must be built to serve the citizens,” Ibanez explained.

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Opinion Pieces: Pricing must be a priority, so must keep mentioning it

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 2010

The Henry Review tells us that we must rethink the charging regime for cars and trucks. The two specific recommendation is that “Governments should analyse the potential network-wide benefits and costs of introducing variable congestion pricing on existing tolled roads (or lanes), and consider extending existing technology across heavily congested parts of the road network. Beyond that, new technologies may further enable wider application of road pricing if proven cost-effective. In general, congestion charges should apply to all registered vehicles using congested roads. The use of revenues should be transparent to the community and subject to further institutional reform.”

This must be of interest to the bus sector since the adage ‘to make public transport more attractive we must make the car less attractive’ still holds. Anyone who thinks you can build a solution through an injection of investment in public transport alone is foolhardy since it will do little to ease congestion on our transport networks. You have to manage congestion and not assume you can build your way out of it. What we need is an integrated program of carrots and sticks, linked to network operating plans, HOT/HOV lanes, improved public transport to attract car users, better land use/transport integration, and crucially, pricing reform, as recommended in the Moving People documents produced by BIC and UITP.

I remain fearful that governments of all persuasions in Australia will continue to ignore the crucial role of pricing of car use as a non-blunt instrument (one of the few such transport instruments we have). This issue is squarely in the space of politicians and marketing – the economic and technical issues of efficient charging of car use are more or less solved.

We can be thankful that The Netherlands is doing something about it with a congestion charging scheme that varies the price by location and time of day. We watch and hope it works and we can learn and follow. NXP Semiconductors and IBM have announced the final results of a landmark road pricing trial conducted in the Netherlands, which demonstrated that with the help of technology, drivers can be motivated to change their driving behaviour, reducing traffic congestion and contributing to a greener environment. Key findings of the trial included (i) 70 per cent of drivers improved their driving behaviour by avoiding rush-hour traffic and using highways instead of local roads; (ii) On average, these drivers in the trial saw an improvement of more than 16 per cent in average cost per kilometer; (iii) it showed that a clear system of incentives is critical to changing driving behaviour; and (iv) instant feedback provided via an On-Board Unit display on the price of the road chosen and total charges for the trip are essential to maximizing the change in behaviour.

What we have to do is continue to build the case with examples that show the buy in from stakeholders. This is referred to as stakeholder acceptability and is tied up with how the revenue raised is spent. Road pricing can raise significant revenue. The distribution of this money is an important consideration in a road pricing program development, and one which transport professionals, who traditionally struggle to obtain rather than disperse money, may be unprepared to evaluate. Using revenues to fund transportation improvements and broad economic benefits to residents through reduced taxes, rebates or community programs may provide the greatest overall benefit and earn the widest political support. Persons who are much more aware about a definite introduction of road pricing generally develop a more positive attitude towards road pricing than less convinced persons, i.e., the strength of conviction about the introduction of road pricing has a strong effect on the attitudinal evaluation of road pricing. Thus it is clear that we must keep the debate alive in the popular press as well as in the professional outlets – as they say, the more we talk about it the easier it will be to make it happen.

Food for thought

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L.A. Council OKs bus-only lanes along Wilshire Boulevard

The 7.7-mile stretch between MacArthur Park and Centinela Avenue is expected to cut 11 minutes from the trip. Officials hope to begin construction of the lanes in the summer of 2012 and open them in mid-2013.

Source: Los Angeles Times by Ari Bloomekatz

Wilshire Boulevard, the most heavily used bus corridor in Los Angeles with lines running every couple of minutes and tens of thousands of passengers enduring lengthy and crowded rides, is about to get a facelift designed to bring riders some relief.

To streamline and speed commutes from MacArthur Park to Centinela Avenue at the eastern edge of Santa Monica, the Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to construct bus-only lanes along 7.7 miles of that stretch. Officials estimate that it will shave 11 minutes off a nearly one-hour trip.

«It’s a real breakthrough,» said Sunyoung Yang of the Bus Riders Union. «The city has taken a huge step forward to prioritize transit over single-passenger automobiles.»

Yang and representatives of other transit advocacy groups had hoped the council would approve a longer stretch for the bus-only lanes, but still felt the 7.7-mile route was an achievement.

The original proposal called for 8.7 miles of the special lanes, but a one-mile section west of Beverly Hills known as Condo Canyon was excluded after residents and some officials said the lanes would create difficulties for motorists entering their driveways and were not necessary in that section.

When the council approved the 7.7-mile route Tuesday, members made a point of supporting the full route and asking the Metro board to reconsider the Condo Canyon exclusion.

If the MTA does reverse course, the project would return to the council for a new vote. Officials with the city, Metro and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors must all approve the same project to be eligible for $23.3 million in funding for the bus-only lanes from the Federal Transit Administration.

The project is expected to cost $31.5 million, Metro officials said, with the remainder coming from other transportation funds.

Councilman Bill Rosendahl and some Brentwood and Westside residents had sought yet another alternative: a 5.4-mile stretch of bus lanes that would stop east of Beverly Hills. But Rosendahl found little support on the council for that proposal.

Some Westside speakers said they were worried that the new lanes would increase traffic congestion and decried claims that they were prejudiced and classist.

«We’re not NIMBY’s, we’re not racists, we’re not against bus lanes,» said Marylin Krell, president of the South Brentwood Residents Assn. «We’re against gridlock,» she said.

Allison Mannos of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition pushed for the full alignment and suggested that those «folks who say congestion will increase should get on the bus» rather than drive cars. Several council members, including Richard Alarcon, said exceptions made to the full alignment were driven purely by political influence.

Brad McAllester, Metro’s executive officer for long-range planning and coordination, said the bus-only lanes would be established on both sides of the street in the current curb lanes — which would be repaved.

Only a half-mile segment would need an additional lane, McAllester said, and there would be other improvements to the corridor such as widening in some areas, restriping, signal improvements and changes to some left/right-turn lanes.

Only buses would be allowed in the designated lanes from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays. Officials hope to begin construction of the lanes in the summer of 2012 and open them in mid-2013.

«We’re looking to make the best use of the transportation system as a whole,» McAllester said, adding that officials will look to Wilshire’s success — or failure — to see if similar efforts can work in other places in the county.

«I’m absolutely in favor of it,» said 40-year-old Jason Friedrich, who takes the Metro 720 Rapid from Wilshire Boulevard and La Brea Avenue to work in West L.A. each day. «There’s a huge bottleneck created by traffic coming off and on the 405,» he said.

His morning trip generally takes about 35 minutes, but sometimes after work it can take more than an hour because of traffic, he said.

«This city needs more people on transit,» Friedrich said. «We’re not getting anywhere in our cars.»

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Xiamen BRT to take measures to ease rush hour jam

Source: What’s On Xiamen

According to an online survey on passenger satisfaction released by Xiamen BRT, 90% of the passengers rated the BRT service as ‘crowded’. In order to ease the rush hour jam, Xiamen BRT will take measures suggested by passengers starting from June 15th, reports Strait Herald.

First, LED screens at BRT platforms will be remade. Passenger information systems in LED screens will be distinguished by red, green and yellow. The new information system is expected to be finished in mid-July.

Second, rails will be set up to direct passengers to queue up for the BRT buses orderly.

Third, considering short-distance passengers (1-3 stations) accounting for a large proportion, BRT may raise prices of the short-distance ticket to limit passenger flow volume during rush hours. (It takes less time for short-distance passengers to take buses than BRT)

Fourth, based on passenger flow volume, BRT lines will be adjusted and directly sent to some stations with large passenger flow, such as Xiamen Railway Station (daily highest passenger flow volume: 40,000) in rush hours (7.am-8.am and 5.pm-6.pm).

Finally, some seats will be removed to offer more space for passengers. However, considering long-distance passengers, it is impossible to remove parts of seats in all BRT‘s.

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PCMC to get consultants to assess impact of BRT

Source: The Times of India
Photo: Wikipedia

PUNE: The Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) will soon appoint consultants who will assess the impact of the proposed Bus Rapid Transit projects on the industrial township, before and after its implementation. The consultants will monitor and evaluate the project.

The BRT route has been planned on a total of 130 km on various roads in the twin township. Some of the projects have been largely funded under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.

Besides, the corporation has also proposed to take up the construction of two road-cum-BRT corridors under the Global Environment Facility’s sustainable urban transport project.

The two corridors are Kalewadi KSB chowk to Dehu-Alandi Road (13.2 km), and Nashik phata to Wakad, a distance of 7.8 km. The corporation has availed funds from GEF and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development for improvement of urban transport infrastructure and services.

Civic officials said the consultants will be monitor, evaluate and identify performance indicators for the two GEF-funded BRT corridors.

With the help of performance indicators, the consultants would track the impact of the project before its implementation, during the implementation and also after its completion. The consultants will also be involved in tracking the project to ensure that the objectives of scheduled adherence, cost reduction, efficiency and customer satisfaction are achieved. The consultancy is expected for a period of four years.

Other roads where the PCMC is planning to implement BRT under JNNURM include the Mumbai-Pune highway stretch from Nigdi to Dapodi, Aundh-Ravet Road, Telco Road, Dehu to Alandi road, Nashik phata to Moshi, Hinjewadi to Dehu Alandi road, Vishrantwadi to Alandi and Kiwale to Bhakti Shakti.

While the construction of BRT stations on the Mumbai-Pune stretch has started, the widening of the 14.4-km stretch between Aundh and Ravet has been delayed in some areas due to delays in transfer of defence land to the PCMC.

After the meeting held last week, between PCMC officials and defence authorities to discuss the issue, civic officials said the defence authorities were positive about transferring the land to the corporation.

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Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) unveils Bus Rapid Transit plans

Source: RedEye Chicago
Photo: TrippChicago

CTA riders who take a Jeffery Boulevard bus on the South Side could see their commutes shortened by up to seven minutes during rush hour, under the proposed bus rapid transit plans the CTA unveiled Wednesday.

It takes the No. 14 Jeffery Express about 71 minutes, 30 seconds to travel from 103rd Street and Stony Island Avenue to Washington and Jefferson Streets in peak hours, the CTA estimated.

That commute time would be cut to nearly 65 minutes if bus-only lanes were implemented on the South Side of Jeffery Boulevard and buses on that street got priority in traffic over cars, the agency said.

The CTA showcased its bus rapid transit plans at an open house Wednesday in Avalon Park. The CTA was awarded an $11 million federal grant last year to test bus rapid transit on Jeffery Boulevard. The CTA is in the design phase of the project. Construction is expected to take place spring through summer next year with service anticipated to begin in fall 2012.

Antonio Reed of Englewood said it takes him about an hour to ride the No. 14 bus everyday from 95th Street and Jeffery Boulevard to State and Madison Streets.

«I like the project but I’m still trying to figure out what it will look like overall,» said Reed, 19.

Meanwhile, the Active Transportation Alliance, which advocates for walking and bike and transit riding, said it’s on board with the bus rapid transit proposal.

«The new BRT elements that the CTA is implementing on the Jeffery Corridor are exciting improvements to service for riders and a big step forward toward implementing a full-scale BRT network in Chicago,» said Lee Crandell, the group’s director of campaigns.

Among the CTA’s proposals:

Bus-only lanes: The area between 67th and 83rd Streets on Jeffery Boulevard would be for buses only on the northbound side from 7-9 a.m. and on the southbound side from 4-6 p.m. During the other times, cars would be allowed to park in the lane. Bike lanes are not expected to be implemented for this area.
New and improved bus shelters: Thirteen existing shelters would be upgraded, including two shelters at Michigan Avenue and Jackson Boulevard. Nine bus shelters would be added between 67th and 103rd Streets on the northbound side of Jeffery Boulevard. The shelters would have Bus Tracker displays, sidewalk ramps accessible for people with disabilities, bike racks and landscape planters.
Fewer stops on Jeffery Boulevard: On the South Side, many stops would be at major intersections, about a half-mile apart, instead of at every block. The No. 15 Jeffery Local route would supplement service.
Showcase showdown: A «commercial showcase» station would be built at 71st Street and Jeffery Boulevard. The shelter would have a weather canopy, a farecard vending machine and crosswalk paving. Meanwhile, a «residential showcase» station at 100th Street and Paxton Avenue would have special crosswalks for pedestrians.
Transit signal priority: Traffic signals between 73rd Street and 84th Street on Jeffery Boulevard would provide an early or extended green light so buses could get through the intersection more quickly. Meanwhile, a bypass lane would be set up on Jeffery Boulevard at Anthony Avenue. A special traffic signal there would allow the bus to go through an intersection ahead of general traffic.
Bus enhancements: Fifty-three buses from the 103rd Street garage would be updated. Buses could be equipped with Bus Tracker so riders could anticipate transfer and arrival times.

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Opinion Pieces: What if money did not matter?

Cities in focus | Indore

Source: EMBARQ
Photo: Gunjan Karun

In 2005, EMBARQ began advising AICTSL (Atal Indore City Transportation Services Limited) on setting up a formal transit agency in the city of Indore. Over time the agency has grown from a fledgling organization with only basic public transportation experience, to a city-wide agency that includes over 250 buses in service, and plans for it’s first Bus Rapid Transit corridor.

EMBARQ continues to work with the city to improve and expand services to meet the needs of the people of Indore.

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EMBARQ Brasil hosts workshop on marketing BRT

Sharing best practices of branding, marketing and communications for improving urban mass transit.

Source: EMBARQ

Municipal transport leaders and communications coordinators from nine Brazilian cities attended a workshop, “Marketing BRT: How to Attract and Captivate Users”, to understand the importance of marketing, branding and communications for the successful planning and implementation of mass transit systems, particularly bus rapid transit (BRT).

The event was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil at the South America Convention Center on May 25-26. It was co-organized by EMBARQ Brasil and the Secretary of Transportation of Rio de Janeiro, and sponsored by Fetranspor, a federation of bus operators for the state of Rio de Janeiro. A representative from Fetranspor said the workshop was the best event the federation had ever sponsored.

During the workshop, EMBARQ launched a new publication,“From Here to There: A Creative Guide to Making Public Transport the Way to Go” published in English and Portuguese, to help guide cities and public transit agencies in making mass transit a competitive and desirable alternative to private vehicles. The guidebook presents powerful BRT marketing case studies and generated a significant amount of national press coverage.

Workshop participants included the following transport and communications experts:

Alexandre Sansão Fontes, Municipal Secretary of Transport, Rio de Janeiro
Affonso Nunes, Communication Coordinator, Municipal Secretary of Transport, Rio de Janeiro
Lélis Marcos Teixeira, President, Fetranspor
Suzy Balloussier, Public Relations, Fetranspor
Toni Lindau, President, EMBARQ Brasil
Rejane D. Fernandes, Strategic Relations & Development Director, EMBARQ Brasil
Richard Katz, Communication Coordinator, EMBARQ Brasil

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MIT Transit Leaders Meeting

On June 16-17, 2011 the MIT Transit Research Group hosted the 4th annual MIT Transit Leaders Roundtable in Cambridge, MA.

Photo: Mikel Murga, Juan Carlos Muñoz, Rosário Macário, Fred Salvucci, Nigel Wilson, John Atanucci

The Roundtable brought together 29 executive-level managers from ten large-city transit agencies from Europe and North America: Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA/Boston), Massachusetts (State) Department of Transportation, Transport for London, Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens (RATP/Paris), Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA/New York), Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA/Washington D.C.), TransLink of Vancouver (B.C., Canada), Metro Transit of Minneapolis-St Paul, Utah Transit Authority (UTA/Salt Lake City), and the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA/Providence). Also participating in the meeting were several faculty, staff and graduate students.

The Roundtable was held at MIT and generated many lively and interesting discussions. The program was structured using an initial “scene-setting” presentation from an academic or agency perspective followed by short agency state-of-the-practice updates and further open discussions.

The major topics discussed included:

How Can Transit Respond to Higher Demand and More Constrained Resources at the Same Time? Charles Monheim, Chief Operating Officer, New York MTA

Strategies for High Quality Bus/BRT in Major Cities Juan Carlos Muñoz and Nigel Wilson PDF presentation

• What strategies have you used, or do you plan to use, to improve bus service quality in terms of:

– Reserved bus lanes and transit signal priority
– Speedier fare collection
– Increased frequency
– Active headway management (hold or express buses, «leapfrog» operations)
– Timed transfers/network connectivity

• What is the evidence on effectiveness of these strategies?

Innovative Partnering to Increase Ridership and Revenue Fred Salvucci PDF presentation

• Business levy to support transit infrastructure investment: London Crossrail case
• Employer-based monthly transit passes
• PPPs for infrastructure delivery and operation

Emerging IT Strategies George Kocur PDF presentation

• Developing system integration capability versus relying on vendors (make versus buy, in some cases), and how knowledgeable should transit organization be in IT, telecom and other technology areas
• Integration with other municipal IT infrastructure: traffic signal priority, emergency incident management, social service benefit programs, employee IDs (possibly used for payment), road operations (snow removal, etc.), and others
• Open standards/open data. Role of open source and developer community; using performance versus technical interface standards in procurements, others
• Legacy modernization. Shifting resources from legacy maintenance to development of new capabilities and cost reduction.

Advanced Customer Information Strategies John Attanucci PDF presentation

• How are you going about improving customer information (pre-trip and real-time)?
• What is your strategy for maximizing the value of AVL/train tracking data in customer information?
• What is your current and expected future reliance on fixed signs (at stops/stations or in retail activity centers) versus wireless devices?
• Should all real-time operations data be made public, and how do you sort the wheat from the chaff of privately- developed phone apps?

Monitoring and Improving Service Reliability Nigel Wilson and Juan Carlos Muñoz PDF presentation

• How do you measure service reliability?
• What service planning and scheduling strategies (e.g., more layover or recovery time, more or fewer timepoints) are you using to improve service reliability? With what degree of success?
• What operations control and management strategies are you using (dispatch/driver interaction, AVL system displays, or messages to drivers) to improve service reliability? With what degree of success?

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Metrobús, Argentina’s first BRT system, launches in Buenos Aires

Source: ITDP

Photo: ITDP

The public, government officials, and members of the press gathered this morning in the neighborhood of Palermo for the inauguration of the country’s first bus rapid transit system, Metrobús. Mayor of Buenos Aires Mauricio Macri, who was accompanied by City Transportation Secretary Guillermo Dietrich, spoke about the benefits that the 12 km corridor will bring to the city.

“The implementation of Metrobus in Buenos Aires, the first BRT corridor in Argentina, represents significant progress in the development of urban transportation, allowing for an increased quality of life of more than 100,000 people,” said Macri. “Our main goal, as those responsible for urban planning, is to restore the quality of public transportation, for which the support of the W.J. Clinton Foundation and ITDP has been crucial in the process of development and implementation of a world-class BRT system. In the coming years, based on the success of this first phase, we plan to continue the expansion of the BRT network in the City of Buenos Aires.”

Construction on the line was completed in just seven months, showing the huge savings that BRT provides in construction time, cost and logistics when compared to a fixed rail system. The citizens of Buenos Aires now have a new transportation option that connects two commuter rail stations on opposite sides of the city in a trip that takes 40% less time than before.

Metrobús runs along Avenue Juan B. Justo and its 21 stations are served by both articulated and standard length buses. The system includes other standard features of BRT, including physically separated lanes that run in the middle of the street, elevated station platforms and countdown clocks. The city expects the line to draw additional ridership as people adjust to the new system, growing to an anticipated 100,000 daily riders.

“In a remarkably short amount of time the City has helped improve conditions for walking downtown, dramatically increased the availability of high quality bike lanes, and provided a public bicycle system,” said Andrés Fingeret, Director of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy’s Argentina office and CCI City Director for Buenos Aires. “And now Metrobús will add another high quality transportation option that will get residents where they need to go, quickly, with less pollution and without getting stuck in traffic. We commend Buenos Aires on their continued commitment to sustainable mobility.”

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Marketing BRT in Brazil

Source: The City Fix by Erica Schlaikjer

Photo: Curitiba, by Robert Blackie

“More than 70 percent of people in Rio de Janeiro already use public transportation; most people use buses,” Rio de Janeiro’s Secretary of Transport Alexandre Samson said at the opening session of the “Marketing BRT: How to Attract and Captivate Users” workshop, held on May 25-26 in Rio de Janeiro. “Our biggest challenge is to rationalize and structure the system.”

Bus rapid transit, which originated in Curitiba in the 1970s, remains prominent in Brazil, but its environmental and social benefits are still not fully known or understood by the public.

“BRT must be sold as a product that has importance to the city, not just to the operators or those directly involved, like the manufacturers,” said Lellis Teixeira, president of Fetranspor, a federation of 10 bus syndicates responsible for 81 percent of public transport in Rio de Janeiro. ”It goes beyond that because BRT allows for the re-organization of the entire city.”

IMPROVING CITY LIFE

In the lead-up to the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics, Brazil has been working diligently to upgrade its urban infrastructure, with a special focus on BRT. The country’s rapid economic growth, too, has required massive investments in improving mobility for people living in fast-growing cities. The country already has 20 cities with more than 1 million people.

“We must show the population that the only possible path to quality of life will involve mass transit,” Teixeira continued. “BRT represents a change of paradigm. It will attract car users to public transportation and thus we will save time, lessen the costs of road maintenance, and reduce pollution.”

Marketing the concept of BRT has become even more important now that the city is developing four new BRT corridors, in time for the 2014 World Cup. Undersecretary of Transportation for the Municipality of Rio de Janeiro Carlos Maiolino stressed the importance of continuing to invest in high quality public transport, such as the city’s TransOeste, an east-west BRT corridor currently under construction. Another planned corridor, TransCarioca, will link Barra da Tijuca to the Tom Jobim International Airport.

Many people are still unfamiliar with the concept of BRT, which poses a communications challenge for the local transit authorities.

“The word ‘marketing’ for transport might not even be the adequate word,” Secretary of Transport Samson said. “We have to educate people and clarify and explain to people the benefits of public transportation.”

CASE STUDY OF TRANSIT MARKETING: BUS RAPID SERVICE

Rio has initiated a transport project called Bus Rapid Service (BRS), which borrows some of the elements of BRT, such as segregated bus lanes, in an effort to relieve congestion and cut travel times. Only taxis, emergency vehicles and police cars are allowed to use the corridor. To implement the new system, the city launched a marketing initiative to brand the new corridors and make it easier for passengers to hop on board.

Below is a summary of some of the efforts that were made to ensure the system’s success, as explained by Edmundo Fornasari, the executive director of business for RioCard, a smartcard system used for public transport in the state of Rio de Janeiro:

Small Gestures
Little details make a big difference in establishing customer loyalty. For example, BRS employees distributed roses to women with children on Mother’s Day this year, generating extremely positive feedback from the users. “It was a small experience that shows how you aggregate value,” Fornasari said.

On the Street
BRS staff often go out into the streets to distribute flyers and pamphlets with important information and answer questions from passengers. For example, when some existing bus stops were removed from the corridor during the development of the re-organized routes, BRS deployed its employees to explain how the new changes would affect people’s commutes, especially targeting youth and the elderly.

Open to Feedback
Fetranspor displays a customer service toll-free number behind all its buses to give users feedback on quality of service—and it’s completely voluntary. Fornasari said 80 percent of calls are about trip itineraries and schedules, with some occasional driver complaints.

One Thing at a Time
“You have to promise one thing at a time and you must not make big promises because the public is not prepared for great transformations,” Fornasari said. “If I delivered what I promised, my product is considered good; otherwise I cause frustration.” BRS’s marketing promise was that it would provide more-than-average speed. The promise was fulfilled: average travel times have been reduced by 11 percent to 13 percent.

Emotional Appeal
BRS works conscientiously to incite people’s desire to use public transportation, especially the youth’s, who may one day desire a car, Fornasari said.

The new BRS system does its best to maintain an image of being fast, cheap, clean and safe. BRS distributed pamphlets and advertisements encouraging people to ride a bus down the notoriously long stretch of Copacabana, displaying the iconic lifeguard stations as being very close together. “It was an emotional appeal where we make people feel like Copacabana is smaller.”

At first, Fornasari said, there was some resistance to the name “BRS,” considering they are more accustomed to “BRT.” “People were wondering, ‘What is this? This doesn’t make sense!’ he said. But after some time, and a conscious marketing push, the public’s perception fo the system is improving.

“Regardless of what it means, the name is successful,” Fornasari continued. “This is BRS: the fast bus.”

User-Friendly
Sharing customer service information and data in a simple and visually appealing way is one of the key elements of creating good user information systems.

Before BRS re-vamped the corridors, only 0.29 percent of bus stops had information, Fornasari said. Now, bus shelters include a route map with strong BRS branding, and all buses are clearly identified, with bus lanes clearly painted on the ground.

All these efforts have paid off. Veja, a prominent magazine, wrote a headline: “It’s better to go by bus.” Survey results showed that 14 percent to 41 percent of people like the new buses, and half of those interviewed said traffic has improved very much.

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New study: U.S. recapturing global leadership in Bus Rapid Transit

Source: The City Fix

Photo: Eugene, Ore.’s bus rapid transit, by functoruser.

The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) released an independent study ranking the five U.S. cities on the cutting edge of bus innovation. Titled, “Recapturing Global Leadership in Bus Rapid Transit,” the study rates Los Angeles, Cleveland, Las Vegas, Eugene and Pittsburgh as the cities leading bus-based transportation, mainly due to their implementation of bus-rapid transit (BRT). Though all still in construction, the study also rates San Francisco Bay Area, Montgomery County of Maryland and Chicago as the three cities with BRT systems that have the best prospects of achieving a “gold-standard,” a certification awarded by the international non-profit Gold Standard in recognition of the system’s greenhouse gas reductions. This certification has never been awarded to a U.S. city.

“By far the most important reason for this failure is that U.S. cities have far fewer transit riders and far more private car owners than most of the cities where gold-standard BRT systems have been implemented,” the study explains. “As a result, it is difficult to make a direct comparison between some of the global best practices and the U.S. cases.”

The study also provides a historical analysis of BRT’s in the U.S. and acts as a guideline for cities embarking on new BRT projects. The study explores service planning strategies, infrastructure requirements, design principles, service quality and information-sharing systems to aid cities who are evaluating their current systems or considering implementing new BRT’s. The study also looks at transit integration, like including bicycle lanes, and accessibility, like pedestrian cross-ways, as criteria to create a comprehensive transport system for mass transit riders.

According to ITDP, today’s transit ridership in the U.S. is at a five-decade record high, with buses accounting for more than half of these trips. Yet, there is always room to improve, especially when the nationwide average bus speed is at 12.5 mph. “Passengers must often contend with limited service frequency, and with buses that don’t always run according to schedule,” ITDP explains.

“[BRT] systems are poised to redefine how Americans see and use buses, critical at a time of increasingly scarce transportation funding,” says Walter Hook, ITDP Executive Director. “But based on what we’ve seen in our work in cities around the world, we think there’s still more that could be done. Getting at least one truly world-class BRT system built in the U.S. could inspire cities around the country to rethink the way they use buses in the fight against increasing traffic congestion and rising fuel prices.”

Download ITDP’s study here.

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The silly argument over BRT and rail

Source: The Transport Politic by Yonah Freemark

Photo: BusWay in Nantes, France, from City of Nantes

Reserving respect for each mode.

As if operating in parallel, Toronto’s Globe and Mail and The Wall Street Journal each published articles last week describing the merits of bus rapid transit, which each newspaper described as the future of urban transportation.

Both noted that BRT was cheaper to construct than rail lines. Each suggested that in an age of government pull backs and general skepticism over the value of public investment, BRT could offer substantial benefits to a transit system at a reasonable price. And each article concluded with a warning by rail proponents that buses wouldn’t be able to attract people out of their cars.

This is a sensationalized opposition between two modes of transportation that should be thought of as complementary. There are advantages to improved bus service in some corridors, reasons to support rail in others.

What is clear is that for the majority of American cities — excluding only a few in the Northeast — buses will remain the predominant mode of public transit for most riders, even after major expansions in train networks planned for cities from Charlotte to Phoenix. So even cities that choose to invest in rail projects must also spend on the improvement of their bus lines.

Nor is the difference in costs between rail lines and BRT nearly as great as some would argue. The Journal article quotes Dennis Hinebaugh, head of a transportation center at the University of South Florida, saying “You can build up to 10 BRT lines for the cost of one light-rail line.” That might be true if you’re comparing a train operating entirely in its own right-of-way with a bus running in a lane painted on the street. But a streetcar is probably cheaper than a busway. Just ask Hartford, whose busway project will cost $60 million a mile to build.

Just as importantly, the argument made in the Journal by Simon Fraser University Professor Anthony Perl that “Rail has a proven record of being able to take people of their cars; buses don’t,” is quite frankly premised on antiquated views about the differences between buses and trains. A well thought-through BRT line, operating in its own right-of-way, can offer riders most, and sometimes more, of the comfort, convenience, and accessibility of a rail line.

The Globe and Mail notes that “LRT advocates often argue that light rail has better interaction with the streetscape and is a better way of achieving dense, transit-oriented development than BRT,” and indeed, that point is frequently made. But plenty of vibrant neighborhoods in American cities have developed just fine without rail. The City of Seattle, whose first modern light rail line opened in 2009, nevertheless has been densifying for decades, increasing in population from 494,000 in 1980 to 609,000 in 2010 (with no annexation).

The best argument for rail is that it has the ability to provide massive rush-hour passenger-carrying capacity without destroying the city through which it runs. Whether buried in a subway or operating quietly along in grassy medians, trains can be integrated into the public realm without diminishing the pedestrians-friendly qualities all urbanists should hope to encourage. BRT boosters often argue that their mode of choice can carry a similar number of riders, but neglect to mention that this is only possible when buses arrive every 10 seconds along highway-like four-lane corridors. These are conditions that destroy the walking environment.

Fortunately for American cities looking to invest in new public transportation infrastructure, there are few places that demand the passenger-carrying capacity provided by those freeway-based BRT lines in places like Bogotá. In most metropolitan areas, a two-lane busway inserted on an arterial is perfectly appropriate and sometimes even beneficial for a city. Indeed, as we all know, the story that is too complicated for any mainstream paper to explain is that BRT can mean any number of things. The most rudimentary elements of BRT — the nice buses, the well-articulated stops, the traffic signal priority — are basics we should expect from all of our bus lines. Pushing for their implementation along certain corridors shouldn’t arouse much controversy.

But these points are rarely discussed when the argument between modes are made.

The real divisions between bus and rail are political: For those who would fight for improved transit systems in their cities, the truth is that rail projects do certainly have more appeal among members of the public. Thus a billion-dollar rail project may be easier to stomach for a taxpaying and voting member of the citizenry than a quarter-billion BRT line. While the former is qualitatively different than what most car drivers are used to, the latter mode is too easily lumped in with the city bus, which car users have already paid to avoid.

Better transit can come in many forms, but in a country in which the vast majority of people have no contact with public transportation this side of Disney World, making the argument for investments in more buses is difficult, to say the least. BRT is just not sexy until you’ve experienced it. Which is why the considerable success of BRT in South America has not convinced many U.S. cities to abandon their ambitions for more rail.

Articles like those in the Journal and the Globe and Mail, despite their positive assessments of the potential for BRT, nonetheless reinforce the sense that BRT is inferior to rail by putting the two in contrast to one another, rather than focusing on the relative benefits of each. By continuously describing BRT as an economical way to get something like light rail, all that comes across is that it’s cheap.

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The silly argument over BRT and rail

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