Bus rapid transit

Bus rapid transit (BRT), also called a busway or transitway, is a bus-based public transport system designed to improve capacity and reliability relative to a conventional bus system. Typically, a BRT system includes roadways that are dedicated to buses, and gives priority to buses at intersections where buses may interact with other traffic; alongside design features to reduce delays caused by passengers boarding or leaving buses, or purchasing fares. BRT aims to combine the capacity and speed of a metro with the flexibility, lower cost and simplicity of a bus system. The first BRT system was the Rede Integrada de Transporte ('Integrated Transportation Network') in Curitiba, Brazil, which entered service in 1974. As of March 2018, a total of 166 cities in six continents have implemented BRT systems, accounting for 4,906 km (3,048 mi) of BRT lanes and about 32.2 million passengers every day, of which about 19.6 million passengers ride daily in Latin America, which has the most cities with BRT systems, with 54, led by Brazil with 21 cities. The Latin American countries with the most daily ridership are Brazil (10.7M), Colombia (3.06M), and Mexico (2.5M). In the other regions, China (4.3M) and Iran (2.1M) also stand out. Currently, TransJakarta is considered as the largest BRT network in the world with approximately 251.2 kilometres (156.1 mi) of corridors connecting the Indonesian capital city. Bus rapid transit takes its name from rail rapid transit, which describes a high-capacity urban public-transit system with its own right of way, multiple-car vehicles at short headways, and longer stop spacing than traditional streetcars and buses. BRT uses buses on a wide variety of rights-of-way, including mixed traffic, dedicated lanes on surface streets, and busways separated from traffic. The expression 'BRT' is mainly used in the Americas and China; in India, it is called 'BRTS' (BRT System); in Europe and Indonesia, it is often called a 'busway'; while in the British Isles, it may be called a 'quality bus'. Critics have charged that the term 'bus rapid transit' has sometimes been misapplied to systems that lack most or all the essential features which differentiate it from conventional bus services. The term 'bus rapid transit creep' has been used to describe severely degraded levels of bus service which fall far short of the BRT Standard promoted by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy and other organizations. The first use of a protected busway was the East Side Trolley Tunnel in Providence, Rhode Island. It was converted from trolley to bus use in 1948. However, the first BRT system in the world was the OC Transpo system in Ottawa, Canada. Introduced in 1973, the first element of its BRT system was dedicated bus lanes through the city centre, with platformed stops. The introduction of the first exclusive separate busways (termed 'Transitway') occurred in 1983. By 1996, all of the originally envisioned 31 km Transitway system was in operation; further expansions were opened in 2009, 2011, and 2014. As of 2017, the central part of the Transitway is being converted to a Light Rail Transit, due to the downtown section being operated beyond its designed capacity. The second BRT system in the world was the Rede Integrada de Transporte (RIT, integrated transportation network), implemented in Curitiba, Brazil, in 1974.:5 Most of the elements that have become associated with BRT were innovations first suggested by Curitiba Mayor Architect Jaime Lerner. Initially just dedicated bus lanes in the center of major arterial roads, in 1980 the Curitiba system added a feeder bus network and inter-zone connections, and in 1992 introduced off-board fare collection, enclosed stations, and platform-level boarding. Other systems made further innovations, including platooning (three buses entering and leaving bus stops and traffic signals at once) in Porto Alegre, and passing lanes and express service in São Paulo.