Bus Rapid Transit Planning Guide

It is the culmination of over five years of efforts to document and improve the state of the art in cost-effective public transport solutions for cities. This edition, expanded to over 850 pages, includes contributions from a wide range of professionals and practitioners with direct experience in designing and implementing BRT systems all over the world. It is currently only available in English, but it is being translated into Chinese, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Beginning with an overview of BRT, the Planning Guide proceeds to give a step-by-step description of the planning process, including operational design, financial modeling, physical design, multi-modal and land use integration, business plan development, communications and marketing, contracting, vehicle and fare collection technology, evaluation, and implementation.

The BRT Planning Guide is intended as a guidance document mainly for planning and engineering professionals. However, others, such as non-governmental organizations, national and regional policymakers, and business groups, will find it a valuable resource as well, when advocating for their issues and finding solutions to the problems that they are addressing.

BRT systems have proven to be catalysts in transforming cities into more livable and human-friendly environments. The appeal of BRT is the ability to deliver a high-quality mass transit system within the budgets of most municipalities, even in low-income cities. Planning and implementing a good BRT system is not easy. This guide aims to make the task a little easier.

BRT Planning Guide - June 2007

Click on the chapter title to download the PDF document:

• Introduction (2.5 MB PDF)
• Part I, Project Preparation (13.5 MB PDF)
• Part II, Operational Design (11.4 MB PDF)
• Part III, Physical Design (12.6 MB PDF)
• Part IV, Integration (9.3 MB PDF)
• Part V, Business Plan (9.6 MB PDF)
• Part VI, Evaluation and Implementation (4.9 MB PDF)
• Resources, Annexes and References (788 KB PDF)

Complete Guide (55.7 MB PDF)

Additional Resources

• Annex 1, BRT System Comparisons (224 KB PDF)
• Annex 2, BRT Consultant Directory (116 KB PDF)
• Sample operator contract (1.5 MB Word file)
• BRT Infrastructure Cost Calculator (40 KB Excel file)

The Bus Rapid Transit Planning Guide is copyrighted by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP). It is intended for technical and educational use only and may not be used for commercial purposes. It may not be reprinted or modified without the explicit authorization of ITDP.

The BRT Planning Guide is co-edited by Lloyd Wright, Executive Director of Viva; and Walter Hook, Executive Director of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP). It was developed through support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Global Environment Facility/United Nations Environment Programme, and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH.

For more information, please contact brtguide@itdp.org