ITDP CEO Walter Hook and US Country Director Annie Weinstock were in Pittsburgh on Wednesday to officially recognize Pittsburgh as a US best practice for bus rapid transit. ITDP named Pittsburgh’s Martin Luther King East Busway as one of only five systems in the United States that qualifies as gold, silver, or bronze with the The BRT Standard, a defining and scoring designation for bus rapid transit (BRT). In addition to the East busway, Pittsburgh’s West and South busways qualified as basic BRT.

“Pittsburgh has three of the seven true BRT corridors in the United States,” said Walter Hook. “Despite the increasing prevalence, prominence and success of BRT systems, many people remain unaware of the characteristics of the best BRT systems and their potential to provide levels of service typically associated with metro and subway systems.  Pittsburgh is a great example of what can be accomplished with a proper BRT, and our hope is that more cities will adopt this cutting-edge form of mass transit.”

Port Authority’s East Busway spans nine miles from Downtown to Swissvale, serving about 25,000 riders daily. It offers service on 15 routes from nine stations. The original segment of the busway opened in February 1983 between downtown Pittsburgh and Edgewood. In 2003, it was extended an additional 2.3 miles into Swissvale. The routes along the busway operate a minimum of five days a week, with routes utilizing the busway as well, which allows a bypass of the heavily congested Parkway East, making for faster trip times.

“The recognition of the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway by ITDP is extremely rewarding,” said Allegheny County Executive Fitzgerald. “This busway serves a vibrant corridor that includes Shadyside, East Liberty and Wilkinsburg. It reflects that great success that BRT is and underscores the possibilities for BRT in other areas, including service to the Downtown-Uptown-
Oakland corridor. These efforts have been provide to support economic development activity, foster residential growth and bring about other community benefits.”

More than 40 organizations have called on the Port Authority to assess the potential benefits of bus rapid transit in that corridor, which links the state’s second- and third-largest job centers. In addition to the East Busway, busways in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Eugene, Ore., also received Bronze Standards. Only Cleveland’s Health Line received a Silver Standard. The local BRT Stakeholders Advisory Group is planning a visit in the next few month to visit Cleveland’s Health Line.

The story was covered by local media, including the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, NPR affiliate WESA, and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

On Tuesday, the ITDP awarded the BRT Standard bronze to Eugene’s Emerald Express (EmX) Green Line. Awards were accepted by Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy, Springfield Mayor Christine Lundberg, and Lane Transit District Board President Doris Towery for the Cities of Eugene’s and Springfield’s collaboration with Lane Transit District LTD, on the development of the EmX BRT.

ITDP released the first comprehensive BRT Standard in March, a defining and scoring designation for bus rapid transit (BRT) systems around the world. Similar to the LEED designation for green buildings, BRT corridors may achieve a basic BRT, bronze, silver, or gold designation. Funded by The Rockefeller Foundation, The BRT Standard is the centerpiece of a global effort by leaders in BRT design to establish a common definition for bus rapid transit and to ensure that BRT systems more uniformly deliver world-class passenger experiences, significant economic benefits, and positive environmental impacts.

Eugene-Springfield Lane Transit District (LTD)

In 1996, the Eugene-Springfield community began updating the regional transportation plan. As part of this update, new ideas were explored to help decrease congestion and create a more efficient transit system. Many ideas were looked at carefully. Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) emerged as the preferred transit strategy since it offers a way to significantly enhance transit service and achieve many of the benefits of light rail without the high cost. As a result, BRT was initially approved in 2001 as a key element of the new transportation plan by Eugene, Springfield, Lane County, and LTD.

After eight years of planning, in 2004 LTD held a groundbreaking for its first EmX line along Franklin Blvd, connecting downtown Eugene with downtown Springfield and the University of Oregon. EmX service began in 2007. In 2008, a year after the introduction of service, ridership along the corridor had nearly doubled as EmX carried 1.5 million riders. In 2011, the Gateway EmX Extension added 7.5 miles to the route.

EmX has now served Eugene-Springfield with high capacity, high frequency bus rapid transit service for six years and its popularity continues to grow. With an emphasis on maintaining reliable operating times and increasing ridership, EmX has met or exceeded goals every step of the way. In 2012 several key ridership milestones were surpassed as EmX carried 11,258 boardings on April 10, 2012; averaged more than 10,000 weekday boardings the same month; and carried its 10 millionth customer in May 2012. As of April 1, 2013 nearly 12.3 million customers have boarded EmX vehicles.

The West Eugene EmX Extension is currently in the design phase and is expected to begin operations as early 2016. The addition of the West Eugene corridor will add another 4.4 miles of route coverage and will create a single regional route connecting 52,000 residents with over 81,000 jobs.

The event was covered by the local news affiliates of all the networks: NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox.

Less than two months before the start of the Confederations Cup—considered the test run for the 2014 World Cup—urban mobility projects in Fortaleza, Brazil, are still less than halfway complete.

On April 24 - 26, Helena Orenstein de Almeida, director of ITDP-Brasil, and Victoria Broadus, project manager for the Prosperity Project working on national policy and urban mobility plans, will be in Fortaleza to meet with city officials and launch a partnership with the municipal government. They will discuss city officials’ concerns, make site visits, and determine how to move forward in advising the city on urban planning best practices and the development of its urban mobility plan, which must be presented to the Ministry of Cities by early 2015.

Fortaleza’s urban mobility projects were supposed to be finished by December 2012, when the city’s newly renovated World Cup stadium, Arena Castelão, was inaugurated. But now, with the Confederations Cup looming, the city government estimates that construction along Avenida Alberto Craveiro - called the “World Cup Corridor” because of its crucial position linking the city and the stadium - are only about halfway complete. Other projects meant to ease traffic around the stadium will not be ready until 2014, according to Domingos Neto, Special Municipal Secretary of the World Cup,  who was interviewed recently by Brazil’s Globo News.  What’s more, construction workers have been on strike over the past 5 days, seeking salary increases. Construction on three World Cup mobility projects has thus come to a halt.

Fortaleza is the capital of Ceará state, in Brazil’s arid northeastern region. Although the city is little known outside of Brazil, it is the country’s fifth largest metropolis, with a population of nearly 2.3 million, and 3.4 million in the greater metropolitan region.

More information:
Interview with Domingos Neto, Special Municipal Secretary of the World Cup
Report on the light rail construction workers strike

By Michael Kodransky

Once upon a time, Almaty was the capital of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. While it still remains the largest city in the independent Republic of Kazakhstan following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, capital status was ceded to Astana in 1998 to create a new center of government power along the lines of Ankara, Brasilia or Washington DC. More changes followed. Over 1.5 million people live in Almaty (nearly 10% of the country’s population) and these days there are also 450,000 registered vehicles. Motorization is on the rise and with it parking management issues abound.

Like other post-Soviet cities in Central Asia and beyond, such as Ulaan Bataar (Mongolia), Almaty inherited an urban form consisting of superblocks with large setbacks along wide boulevards. Private residential buildings include big open courtyards that offer better pedestrian circulation through districts as official public spaces are limited to the few wide roads. Many of these courtyards were used as green space and children’s playgrounds, but now have been converted into parking spaces. Traffic congestion is crippling and air quality is compromised.

According to the ROM Transportation Engineering group, an Israeli based consulting firm, around 90% of overnight residential parking takes place in private spaces such as these courtyards. Once drivers reach their work destination, this flips to 80% of these same cars parking in public spaces. The situation is further complicated by a lack of obvious distinction between what is public or private space, resulting from a wave of deregulation across the city. Many residential housing complexes have in fact elected to use their precious courtyards as parking.

The mountain peaks of Almaty offer some of the city dwellers respite from the air pollution—80% of which is due to driving—in the valley below. People talk about going up the mountain to breathe fresh air. This has led the wealthier city dwellers to build their homes along the forested slopes, reaching ever further up the mountain and stretching the city limits—where land uses are more singular and the clean air more coveted. At the same time, it is common for residential buildings in the city center to also house makeshift offices or retail. The new residential developments and commuter shed has shifted to one side, while jobs remain on the other. Market forces have brought new travel patterns. For example, school districts used to be linked to where people lived and the quality of education across a city was relatively equal. Now parents must choose between a range of qualities and school costs, as free education is a relic of the past. Those who have moved into the newer, wealthier neighborhoods drive their children to school in the absence of good public transportation.

The Akimat, as the city’s mayor’s office is called, is focusing substantially on improving public transit and getting parking under control. Public parking prices are superbly low by international standards—yet the challenge will be to determine which spaces are truly public and which have been privatized. A new BRT is planned, extension of the metro, electric buses, trams and more. If these proceed as planned, Almaty may become an example of sustainable transport for the region.

Photo Credit: Bram van Ooijen

On Tuesday, ITDP CEO Walter Hook and US Director Annie Weinstock presented awards to Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority Joe Calabrese in honor of the Cleveland HealthLine, which ITDP ranked as the highest-quality corridor in the US and Canada.

The BRT Standard, a best-practice guide for bus rapid transit systems that ITDP released in March, ranked the best quality BRTs from around the world as gold, silver, bronze, or basic BRT. RTA’s HealthLine achieved silver status, the only one among seven in the United States to do so. The HealthLine was completed in 2008 at a cost of approximately $200 million, and has been a great success for the city. Four million RTA customers ride the HealthLine annually, and the corridor has spurred almost six billion dollars in real estate investment along Euclid Avenue.

Annie Weinstock, director of ITDP’s U.S. program, said the HealthLine features most of the elements considered key to a rapid-bus system, including lines and stations centered in the street; riders paying before boarding; bicycle lanes; and eye-catching, accessible stations.

“The HealthLine is an example of how BRT can help to revitalize city centers, speed commutes, improve air quality, and leverage investment and development near transit, as we’ve seen with Cleveland,” said Walter Hook. “We consider the HealthLine to be a best practice for BRT in the US, and our hope is that it encourages other US cities to adopt this cutting-edge form of mass transit.”

Mayor Frank Jackson of Cleveland speaks at the press conference.

Former Senator George Voinovich supported this project from his many years in Cleveland and served as its champion.
“It is a credit to the dedicated staff at RTA and the City of Cleveland that the HealthLine has been rated by the BRT Standard as the highest-quality bus rapid transit corridor in the United States,” said Senator Voinovich. “The HealthLine has not only dramatically improved transportation options from downtown to University Circle, it’s also been a catalyst for nearly six billion dollars of real estate investment along Euclid Avenue and is contributing a great deal toward revitalizing the city.”

Despite the increasing prevalence, prominence and success of systems like the HealthLine, many people remain unaware of the benefits, as BRT provides service typically associated with metro and subway systems. Many US cities have already visited the HealthLine as they look to plan systems of their own. “The HealthLine is rail-like in that it is frequent and easy. Customers pay off board, they enter and exit from several doors, the platforms are elevated, there is less waiting in line and more traveling time; all at a fraction of the cost of rail,” said Joe Calabrese, CEO & General Manager RTA.

The event also featured an announcement by Huntington Bank, which will contribute $30,000 per year for ten years to sponsor the maintenance of the HealthLine’s East 2nd street station. The station, just outside the bank’s downtown headquarters, will be renamed the East 2nd/Huntington station. Daniel Walsh, president of Huntington in Northeast Ohio, said the bank was proud to invest in “the highest quality bus rapid transit corridor in the country. It’s a pretty big deal.”

The event was attended by local media, including Fox 8 News and the Cleveland Plain-Dealer.

The BRT Standard 2013 Silver decal is displayed on every bus along the HealthLine corridor

ITDP is excited to announce that ITDP Brazil has officially received funding from Prosperity Fund UK, the government of the United Kingdom’s fund to tackle climate change, strengthen energy security, and promote an open global economy in key emerging economies. ITDP Brazil has received a grant from the fund to carry out a two year nationwide project focused on national policy and urban mobility plans.

Brazil’s National Mobility Law, which went into effect in April 2012, mandates that all Brazilian cities with a population over 20,000 draft and present an urban mobility plan to the Ministry of Cities by 2015. The release of federal funding to each city is contingent on that city’s presentation of a mobility plan, which, according to the law, should serve to reduce inequality; promote access to services; improve access and mobility; promote sustainable development; and strengthen democratic institutions in the city.

This is no small order. The law applies to 1,663 Brazilian cities, 79 of which have more than 300,000 inhabitants. The great challenge now is to ensure that this law is put into practice effectively, in a manner that truly promotes sustainable urban mobility in Brazil.

To that end, ITDP is working closely with the Ministry of Cities in Brasilia, drafting guidelines that the Ministry will use to support city officials in their efforts to create mobility plans and, later, to evaluate those plans. As part of the project, ITDP will also produce fact sheets outlining best practices in urban mobility, which will be useful for city governments; hold workshops and seminars with local and international experts to encourage deeper discussion and debate about what should be incorporated into mobility plans; and work directly with the governments of three large cities—Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro, and Fortaleza—to accompany them in the planning process and make the task a less daunting one. ITDP Brazil is confident that these activities will contribute to more comprehensive, sustainable, and achievable urban mobility plans in these three cities and throughout the country.

In early March, ITDP joined Clean Air Initiative-Asia to implement a rapid mobility assessment tool in Nashik, a city in western India about 150km northeast of Mumbai. The project, funded by UN-Habitat, seeks to create a quick and inexpensive way to gauge transportation needs in cities with little existing data. After reviewing existing data collection methods a new rapid assessment tool was developed, which consists of two parts: a household survey and a focus group discussion. The household survey aims to collect information about many different parts of the city while the focus group discussion aims to gather data from underrepresented groups whose important input might not be covered in the household survey. The city of Nashik was selected for the first test of the new tool.

In Nashik, the focus group discussion was held on Sunday, March 3, and included representatives of the blind, the disabled, women, the medical community, and the traffic police. The discussion brought forth a variety of perspectives on transportation, with particularly informative input from women and the disabled who discussed the daily challenges of safety and access that they faced when traveling around the city.

The household survey was conducted with help from the NDMVP’s Nashik College of Architecture-Nashik, National Institute of Technology (NIT)-Nashik, and the Institute for Design Environment and Architecture (IDEA) College. These student spent four hours on a Sunday learning the survey form and practicing techniques. The actual survey was conducted on three weekdays in over 12 neighborhoods, which were scouted ahead of time by the survey team. Students visited every part of Nashik, from informal settlements in the heart of the city to new, high-income areas in the outskirts.

Focus group discussion in Nashik

With oversight from university professors and the survey team, students went to a variety of households in each neighborhood. Over the course of three days, over 1,000 surveys were conducted. Each survey, conducted by a team of two students, took approximately one hour, and most households were happy to provide information in order to improve transportation in Nashik. From the survey, ITDP and Clean Air Asia learned a great deal about the City of Nashik and about conducting surveys in the Indian context. ITDP will further refinine this tool for use in other cities that lack transportation data.

In early 2013, the head of the Jakarta Transportation Agency announced that parking would be better managed in Pasar Baru—a popular, historic shopping area that draws hundreds of local and regional customers each week. Parking in Pasar Baru is everywhere: along curbsides, on sidewalks, perpendicular to streets and in scattered in setbacks. Motorbikes outpace private cars in parking demand—with nearly one third of the on-street motorbike parking supply inside the Pasar Baru pedestrian zone. ITDP is collecting baseline data to help assure the success of the new scheme that the government decides to implement. A pilot on-street payment project in Pasar Baru could help roll out a better payment collection system across all of Jakarta.

On-street parking is run by a loose collection of independent operators known as “blue guys,” alluding to their blue uniforms. To prevent trouble, drivers have little choice but to pay them an unregulated fee. The blue guys direct cars into a parking space and also serve as perceived security for the car or motorbike. Drivers leave their vehicles in neutral so the blue guys can push them around to make more space and maximize profits, if possible. Often drivers need to negotiate the parking price with blue guys when leaving a space—as payment is always made at the end. The general cost is 2,000-3,000 Rupiah, but the true charge is left up to the discretion of the blue guys. Drivers sometimes pay a higher than anticipated cost to avoid confrontation and argument.

Enforcement of parking, a challenging task in most developing countries, is handled by three groups: the transport agency, police and a semi-private security bureau under the Mayor’s office known as Linmas. Resale of cars presents a problem for enforcement, as it becomes difficult to track registration. The Transportation Agency is tasked with patrolling and cracking down on illegal parking, yet they have no legal right to issue fines. The police, and Linmas have the authority to do this as well, but never do. Shopkeepers pay Linmas monthly to provide security to the area, but the Limnas guys also accept kickbacks for parking—thereby allowing for the quality of the shopping district to erode, especially in the pedestrian zone.

Improving parking management in Pasar Baru presents opportunities to bring high quality greenways and better pedestrian circulation to the district. Shifting some of the on-street parking demand to underutilized public off-street parking garages can be done most immediately with proper pricing and enforcement. The results of ITDPs baseline study will likely demonstrate how this might be most beneficial to the area. In the process, the enforcement challenge will need to be resolved.

Indian streets are a messy mix of people, cyclists, rickshaws, taxis, cars, buses, even the occasional cow. But within this mess is the vibrancy and fluidity of street life, like a tasty street soup where seemingly unlikely things come together and strange things might be bobbing around. Land use is India is similarly messy and mixed, and also creates a vibrant street life where activities are located close to one another and it is easy for someone to find what they need within walking distance. Everything is everywhere, it seems.

Land use zoning in India is Euclidean based, meaning it creates land use classifications (i.e. residential, multi-family, commercial) by geographic area, but instead of keeping those uses separate, land use in Indian cities typically builds off of the uses in one zone to create a more integrated approach. For example, in Chennai, the first land use category, primary residential, allows residential, as well as cottage industries, petty shops, small farms, and schools of commerce. The mixed residential zone allows everything that was allowed in primary residential, as well as banks, restaurants, shops, bakeries, etc.  The commercial land use zone allows everything in primary residential and mixed residential, and then some.  And so it builds.

According to ITDP’s Eight Principles for Transport in Urban Life mixed uses is one component of good urban development.  If India has mixed use down, what, then, is the main issue for zoning in India? For Indian cities, the two biggest issues as represented by the Eight Principles are density and connectivity.

How should we define density in dense environments like Indian cities? The floor area ratio (known as floor space index in India) is usually set at a uniform and low rate across the city.  Indian cities are using transfer of development rights (TDR) to encourage densification in certain areas, but those areas are often at the outskirts of the city center.  Essentially, TDR is being used to not really densify new areas, but to de-densify the crowded centers.  This may be resulting in sprawl and not in focusing growth in strategic ways, like around transit.

Planning typically is done by the state, not the city, and only looks at main arterials, which results in streets like the above.  The smaller streets and the connections within an area are often missing.  So while land use zoning fosters everything everywhere within walking distance, the connections to make that happen – the micro street grid – may be missing, especially in new areas. And given the growth of Indian cities, we want to make sure that the new areas have the vibrancy of the older areas – where the streets are vibrant places in their own right and help us go everywhere – where mixed uses, density, and connectivity create good places where we want to be.

The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) today released the first comprehensive BRT Standard, a defining and scoring designation for bus rapid transit (BRT) systems around the world. Similar to the LEED designation for green buildings, BRT corridors may achieve a basic BRT, bronze, silver or gold designation. As a joint effort by the world’s foremost experts in bus rapid transit design, The BRT Standard scored 64 corridors in 41 cities. Of these, 24 classified as bronze, 26 as silver and 12 as gold.

Guangzhou Bus Rapid Transit system from Momentum for Change on Vimeo

Funded by The Rockefeller Foundation, The BRT Standard is the centerpiece of a global effort by leaders in BRT design to establish a common definition for bus rapid transit and to ensure that BRT systems more uniformly deliver world-class passenger experiences, significant economic benefits, and positive environmental impacts.

“Despite the increasing prevalence, prominence and success of BRT systems, many people remain unaware of the characteristics of the best BRT systems and their potential to provide levels of service typically associated with metro and subway systems,” said ITDP CEO Walter Hook. “From Mexico City to Guangzhou, and from Cleveland to Las Vegas, BRT has helped revitalize city centers, speed commutes and improve air quality. The BRT Standard 2013 will clearly define what a BRT is once and for all and our hope is that it encourages cities to adopt this cutting-edge form of mass transit.”

“The BRT Standard is important for two reasons. First, it provides cities that are considering BRT with a very straightforward ‘how-to’ guide to ensure a high-quality system, using a blueprint that can be understood by anyone, from engineers to elected officials to local residents,” said Benjamin de la Peña, Associate Director at The Rockefeller Foundation. “Second, the BRT Standard demonstrates how BRT, when built to a high standard, can do much more than moving people from A to B quickly and comfortably. Best-in-class BRT can improve people’s quality of life, produce economic development and jobs, and ultimately help to make entire cities more livable.”

The BRT Standard functions as both a scoring system and a planning tool. By laying out the essential elements of BRT, it provides a framework for system designers, decision makers, and the transport community to identify and implement top-quality BRT systems. The BRT Standard celebrates cities that are leading the way on BRT excellence, and offers best practice-based guidance to those in the process of planning a BRT system. The BRT Standard scores more than 30 elements of BRT corridor design, with points awarded for elements that most significantly improve operational performance. They include:

BRT Basics, e.g. median-aligned busways, dedicated right of way, platform-level boarding, off-board fare collection, and intersection treatments that allow buses to travel more freely through intersections in order to improve speed of transit.

Service Planning, e.g. multiple routes running on the corridor and longer hours of operation to expand access to BRT as a popular mode of transit. 

Infrastructure, e.g. passing lanes at stations, high-quality pavement, and minimized bus emissions to reduce environmental impacts.

Station Design & Station-bus Interface, e.g. wide, weather-protected stations that are more attractive and comfortable to commuters, and multiple doors on buses for faster boarding.

Quality of Service and Passenger Information, e.g. cohesive branding and real-time passenger information to enhance BRT system recognition and ease of use.

Integration and Access, e.g. disability access, integration with other public transport, and bicycle-sharing integration to increase overall usability.

For complete scorecards and a breakdown of categories, please visit brtstandard.org.

Two committees govern The BRT Standard: The Technical Committee and the Institutional Endorsers. ITDP convenes both committees. The Technical Committee comprises globally renowned experts on BRT. This committee serves as a consistent source of sound technical advice with respect to BRT, and is the basis for establishing the credibility of The BRT Standard and related international best practices.