Latest ITDP Project Updates

Alimentando um corredor de Ônibus com Bicicletas: o T5 no Rio de Janeiro

2008-04-29T20:32:00-05:00

Imagine pedalar com comodidade, desfrutando de uma brisa fresca, sem medo de ser atropelado por um automóvel, até um sistema de transporte rápido, confortável e confiável, que atravessaria grande parte da cidade. No Rio de Janeiro, isto pode ser realidade nos próximos anos. Conhecida como Cidade Maravilhosa, o Rio está planejando a implementação de um maravilhoso corredor de ônibus do tipo BRT, modelo implementado em Curitiba (do inglês Bus Rapid Transit). O corredor exclusivo de ônibus T5, de 33 quilômetros, irá da Penha, na zona norte da cidade, à Barra da Tijuca, bairro costeiro no sul que enfrentou um crescimento explosivo nos últimos vinte anos. Enquanto os edifícios residenciais à beira-mar na Barra da Tijuca nos fazem lembrar das paisagens de Miami, o T5 irá passar próximo de algumas das favelas mais famosas da cidade, incluindo a Cidade de Deus, imortalizada no filme de Fernando Meirelles.

238 bicicletas estacionadas em um ponto de ônibus perto da rota planejada para o BRT T5. (Photos: Jonas Hagen)

Em alguns bairros ao longo do caminho, as bicicletas são responsáveis por pelo menos oito por cento dos deslocamentos diários, e este dado provavelmente sobe para dez a quinze por centro em muitas áreas, de acordo com o especialista em bicicletas Zé Lobo, da ONG carioca Transporte Ativo. Nesses bairros, o acesso das bicicletas ao corredor será essencial. É por esta razão que o instituto de planejamento urbano do Rio, Instituto Pereira Passos, organizou com a Transporte Ativo e a ONG holandesa Interface for Cycling Expertise (I-CE), um workshop no qual o ITDP também participou.

“O T5 irá mostrar que os corredores exclusivos de ônibus podem ser um componente importante do sistema de transporte do Rio de Janeiro”, diz Antonio Jofre, Coordenador de Planejamento da Prefeitura da cidade. “O T5 foi criado por técnicos no Rio e tem amplo apoio das autoridades municipais”, disse Jofre.

Dezenove técnicos que estão trabalhando no projeto do corredor BRT participaram do workshop, que incluiu visitas técnicas à área de implementação e exercícios de design para o projeto. Em um dos locais, os técnicos contaram um total de 238 bicicletas estacionadas. Também foi possível observar uma quantidade importante de ciclistas ao longo da rota planejada para o corredor, aumentando assim a possibilidade de integrar uma ciclovia ao desenho do projeto.

Participantes do workshop discutem propostas enquanto ciclistas passam ao longo da rota do T5

Nos exercícios de design, os participantes esboçaram estacionamentos de bicicletas nas estações de embarque e desembarque, áreas de trânsito reduzido nos bairros ao redor das estações com velocidade máxima de trinta quilômetros por hora, ciclovias menores dos bairros para as estações, e uma ciclovia paralela ao longo do corredor BRT. “O trânsito ao redor das estações já é devagar, então não seria difícil torná-lo seguro para ciclistas de todos os níveis,” diz Alan José, urbanista da Metrô Rio, empresa que planeja e administra o metrô na cidade. “E mais, há espaço suficiente para pistas na área que estudamos para se colocar uma ciclovia ao longo do corredor, e a demanda atual é alta, de forma que incluímos uma faixa para bicicletas em ambos os lados do corredor”, explica José.

“O workshop foi importante por que integrar a bicicleta ao T5 irá ajudar a expandir a cultura da bicicleta como um importante meio de transporte”, diz Claudia Tavares, arquiteta do Instituto Pereira Passos e principal organizadora do evento. “O workshop também mostrou que essa integração é completamente possível do ponto de vista técnico”.

Feeding a BRT with Bicycles: Rio de Janeiro’s T5

2008-04-29T19:40:00-05:00

Rio de Janeiro, known as the Marvelous City, is planning the implementation of a marvelous BRT. The proposed 33-kilometer T5 BRT corridor will run from Penha in the Northern end of the city, to Barra da Tijuca, a seaside community in the South that has seen explosive growth in the last 20 years. While Barra da Tijuca’s apartment buildings by the beach resemble the landscape of Miami, the T5 will pass through some of the cities most famous shantytowns or “favelas,” including Cidade de Deus, immortalized in the film “City of God.”

238 parked bicycles at a bus stop near the route of the planned T5 BRT (Photo: Jonas Hagen)

In some neighborhoods along the route, bicycles account for at least 8 percent of daily trips, and this figure is likely around 10 – 15 percent in many areas, according to bicycle expert Zé Lobo of the Rio-based NGO, Transporte Ativo. In these neighborhoods, bicycle access to the BRT will be essential. That is why Rio’s urban planning institute, the Instituto Pereira Passos, planned a workshop with Transporte Ativo and the Dutch NGO Interface for Cycling Expertise (I-CE), in which ITDP also participated.

“The T5 is meant to show that BRTs can be an important component of Rio de Janeiro’s transport system,” said Antonio Jofre, Planning Coordinator for the Rio Municipality. “The T5 was created by technicians in Rio, and has broad support across municipal authorities,” said Jofre.

19 technicians who are working on the planned BRT corridor participated in the workshop, which included design exercises and site visits to the area of implementation. At one of these sites, they counted a total of 238 parked bicycles. They also observed an important amount of cyclists riding along the route of the planned BRT, raising the possibility of integrating a cycle path into the project design.

Workshop participants discuss conditions as cyclists ride along the T5 route. (Photo: Jonas Hagen)

In the design exercises, participants planned bicycle parking at the transit stations, traffic calmed areas in the neighborhoods around the stations with maximum speeds of 30 kilometers per hour, bike lanes leading to the stations, and bike lanes running parallel to the BRT corridor. “The traffic around the stations is already slow, so it would not be difficult to make it safe for all levels of cyclists,” said Alan José, an urban planner at the company that plans and runs Rio’s subway. “Also, there is enough road space at the area we studied to have a bicycle path along the corridor, and present demand is high, so we included an off-road path on either side of the BRT,” explained José.

“The workshop was important because integrating the bicycle into the T5 will help expand the culture of the bicycle as an important mode of transport,” said Claudia Tavares, an architect at the Instituto Pereira Passos and the event’s main organizer. “The workshop also showed that this integration is completely possible from a technical standpoint.”

BRT Workshop and Technical Assistance in Sao Paulo, 18 and 19 March 2008

2008-04-02T14:10:00-05:00

Transport is near the collapsing point in Sao Paulo, with new records for traffic jams set every week. Despite having the longest network of exclusive bus lanes in the world (146 km) that serve 10 million daily riders in the metropolitan region, public transport is insufficient in South America’s largest city, as evidenced by an automobile fleet that grows at 10 percent a year.

Although São Paulo’s busways were some of the first to be implemented in the world, bus service in the city is not up to the level of Curitiba, Brazil or Bogotá, Colombia’s systems. Ironically, it was engineers from São Paulo that helped make the Transmilenio and other BRT systems around the world the successes they are today.

One of these engineers is Pedro Szasz, who has worked extensively in Brazil, China, Colombia, Mexico, Indonesia, to name a few places. On the 18th and 19th of March 2008, Pedro gave a workshop on BRT infrastructure in his hometown, in a joint response by ITDP and the Clinton Climate Initiative to a request from local transport authorities for technical assistance.

Workshop participants conduct a site visit to the site of future BRT station, March 19 2008.

The request originally came from the Sao Paulo Metropolitan Area Transport Company (EMTU) for aid in designing BRT stations with pre-paid boarding along a planned 12 kilometer corridor called Diadema-Brooklin. Pedro Szasz and others gave presentations on BRT station design on the 18th of March at São Paulo’s prestigious Institute of Engineering. On the 19th, participants conducted a site visit of the entire corridor. The visit was followed by group design exercises, where participants designed stations for two specific points.

Pedro Szasz speaks to participants on March 18, 2008.

This project represents an excellent opportunity to improve transport in Sao Paulo and reduce CO₂ emissions, as well as local pollutants, as electric-powered trolleybuses are planned for use in the corridor. Because most of the electricity in São Paulo comes from clean hydroelectric power, trolleybuses represent a nearly ‘zero-emissions’ mode of transport for the city.

The event, which had a total of 45 participants, brought together technicians from the EMTU and SPTrans, Sao Paulo’s municipal transport authority. The integration of technicians from SPTrans and EMTU was an important result of the workshop, because bus lines from both authorities converge on the Diadema-Brooklin BRT. 95 percent of the participants evaluated the course as “good” or “very good.”

After the site visit to the future BRT corridor, the participants came back to participate in a group design exercise.

The technical assistance will continue over the next few months with the help of Pedro Szasz, specifically for the Diadema-Brooklin BRT.

ITDP and CCI would like to thank EMTU, SPTrans, the Institute of Engineering, as well as other partners and speakers, and hopes to continue providing meaningful technical assistance to the authorities responsible for public transport in Sao Paulo and the metropolitan region.

Some Jakarta Busway Lanes Opened to Cars

2008-02-25T18:08:01-05:00

Editor’s note: There have been some new developments since this story was written. Governor Fauzi Bowo announced that the government would ban all other motorists from the TransJakarta lanes and those bus lanes would once again become exclusive. Before March, portions of Jakarta’s busway corridors had been opened to general traffic by the Jakarta police, doubling and tripling travel time for some TransJakarta riders.

Since January of 2007, the TransJakarta busway has been operating 97 km of services on seven corridors. Work on three additional corridors is in progress.

Some segments of corridors are opened during rush hours in locations where police judge the traffic congestion to be extreme. These actions focus primarily on three of the seven corridors. On Corridors 2, 3 and 6, travel times for the full length of the corridors have increased to 1.5 to 2 hours from their original travel times of 40-50 minutes.

Cars are allowed into the busway during rush hour. (Source: John Ernst)

The Jakarta Police are responding to complaints from motorists. They contend that there is no legal basis for restricting the busway exclusively to TransJakarta buses, so the use of the lane is at their discretion.

Motorists had some legitimate grievances. Because most of the old bus routes were not converted into feeder bus routes, they continue to congest the mixed traffic lanes. Meanwhile recommended improvements in some critical intersections that cause much of the mixed traffic delay have yet to be implemented.

Part of the problems is the result of a period of political transition. Former Governor Sutiyoso’s term ended in October 2007, and the Vice-Governor, Fauzi Bowo, was elected to replace him. The new Governor was a key proponent of TransJakarta and played a critical role in its success, but his full team is only now getting established. He plans to fix many of the problems on the 10 corridors now existing or under construction, before compounding them with the completion of additional corridors.

Nonetheless, the increased travel times mean the busway has lost its key point of attraction for passengers. In addition, heavy financial losses are expected for TransJakarta, increasing an already existing reliance on government subsidies.

A New Generation of Bus Rapid Transit Systems Opens in China

2008-02-25T17:16:00-05:00

In January 2008, three new bus rapid transit (BRT) systems opened in China in Dalian, Changzhou and Chongqing.

Dalian and Changzhou have in many ways moved beyond the initial systems in Kunming, Beijing and Hangzhou, especially in terms of operational flexibility. Dalian’s BRT goes further than any other Chinese city in utilizing the inherent flexibility of BRT buses.

Beijing opened the first ‘closed’ BRT system in China and is planning additional corridors. Kunming’s median bus lanes, which opened more than five years before Beijing in 1999, have been expanded to additional corridors, and the initial designs have been improved upon with wider station platforms, smart cards to speed up fare payment, improved passenger information and the introduction of a fleet of 18 meter high capacity BRT buses. However, peak hour bus speeds remain severely constrained by the station and bus lane configuration. Hangzhou’s BRT appears to have backtracked from its first corridor that was median-aligned, with the second corridor currently under construction being relegated to the curbside. Chongqing’s BRT corridor is not yet developed, with less than a few thousand passengers carried by the system each day, peak hour frequencies of only around four buses per hour, and minimal boarding and alighting along the corridor.

A new ITDP site, www.chinabrt.org, provides information on BRT systems in Chinese cities.

The following map shows BRT station names and exact locations for Beijing, Hangzhou, Chongqing, Dalian, Kunming and Changzhou: double-click to zoom in.

This new generation of Chinese BRT systems may indicate a trend toward hybrid, ‘flexible’ systems featuring BRT buses operating both inside and outside the BRT corridor. Dalian, Changzhou and Hangzhou all now feature this approach. Several more BRT systems, including Jinan, Hefei, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shenyang and Xi’an, are likely to open later in 2008 or in 2009. Jinan, Guangzhou and Shenzhen are all likely to use ‘flexible’ systems.

In addition to the route on the BRT corridor, Dalian’s BRT system features four routes which operate both on and off the BRT corridor and provide the beginning for citywide coverage.

All of the current systems were designed for medium to low passenger capacity and none offer a high capacity mass transit alternative. Station designs in Dalian, Changzhou and Chongqing all lack the capacity for expansion without major reconstruction and Dalian and Changzhou will soon encounter capacity limitations. None include basic bicycle integration, even though Changzhou – where more than 60 percent of non-walking trips are by bicycle – has a stated policy to encourage a modal shift from bicycle to bus.

Dalian’s BRT system has a 13.8 kilometer (km) corridor - of which about 10 km has either exclusive bus lanes or BRT-only lane markings. Two BRT bus sizes can run on the system – a 12 meter bus and an 18 meter articulated. The 12 meter bus has three doors, unlike the standard two-door configuration, which allows for quicker and easier boarding and alighting. The 18 meter buses have only 39 seats and provide ample standing capacity. Manufactured by MAN in a joint venture with Dandong Huanghai, these buses rival those of Jinhua Neoplan used in Hangzhou, Beijing and Kunming in terms of quality and cost.

Dalian’s BRT includes 18-meter, 4-door buses (on the left) and 12-meter, 3-door buses (on the right).

Chongqing’s 12 meter BRT buses were locally manufactured but, unlike in Dalian and Changzhou, the system does not yet feature pre-board fare collection at most stations, the buses have steps at the entry and exit, the buses have only two doors, and the internal seating configuration and design resembles an intercity coach more than an urban bus serving a route which takes 21 minutes to traverse.

A Chongqing BRT bus passes a station and maneuvers out of the median bus lanes to a curbside lane.

Dalian’s system has a range of dedicated busway alignments, including the standard center-of-the-road alignment, a two-way segment along the northern edge of the airport that is curb-aligned, and some mixed traffic sections. There is also a one-way loop segment at the beginning of the corridor that made it possible for the system to penetrate the city center at the major tram and bus integration point of Xingongjie.

The overall image of Changzhou’s BRT is stronger and more consistent than any other Chinese BRT system, and the city conducted an excellent outreach and promotional program prior to the system’s implementation. Changzhou’s stations also provide much better weather protection than in Dalian. While stations in both systems were designed for similar low to medium bus and passenger capacity, Changzhou’s station location directly on the far side of intersections probably results in even greater throughput limitations, a factor which will limit the future expansion of the system. Ultimately the capacity limitations in the station designs will probably be more rapidly felt in Dalian, though, since Dalian has much higher bus passenger demand volumes.

Stations from Changzhou’s first BRT corridor, under construction in October 2007, show a strong identity and provide better weather coverage.

Note: Detailed information on BRT in Chinese cities, including all BRT station locations and names, is available at www.chinabrt.org. Photos of BRT systems in Dalian, Changzhou, Chongqing, Beijing, Hangzhou, Kunming and elsewhere are available at the urban transport photo library at www.itdp-china.org.

Non Motorized Training Courses in Brazil in November 2007

2008-02-06T23:11:00-05:00

ITDP held two Non-Motorized Transport training workshops together with I-ce (Interface for Cycling Expertise) and GTZ (German Technical Cooperation) and local partners in the two largest cities in Brazil, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, during the week of 26 November.

Rio de Janeiro has the second-largest network of bicycle facilities in Latin America, with 145 kilometers. However, with the percentage of bicycle trips hovering at 8 percent in many parts of the city, the ridership has enormous potential for growth. In Rio, 75 people from various municipal authorities attended the training course, which concentrated on intermodal integration. Participants went on field visits to a commuter rail and a subway station, and applied the knowledge bike and pedestrian design and traffic calming in the design exercises that followed. The event was superbly co-organized and hosted by Rio’s Municipal planning agency, Instituto Pereira Passos, and high-level authorities, such as Julio Lopes, Transport Secretary for the State of Rio de Janeiro, and Arolde Olivera, Municipal Transport Secretary, showed their support for the training workshop and the implementation of many more kilometers of bike lanes.

São Paulo, South America’s largest city with 11 million in the city limits and 19 million in the metropolitan region, has almost no cycle infrastructure to speak of. With epic traffic jams and an overloaded transit system, the bicycle represents an important alternative for urban trips in Sao Paulo, and an estimated 350,000 daily trips are already made using this mode within city limits. The workshop there was organized by the CET (Companhia de Engenheria de Tráfego – the local equivalent of the DOT), along with the SVMA (Municipal Environmental Secretariat). In the words of Ricardo Laisa, CET’s manager of road projects, this was a “historical” event, as it was the first time the CET had held a training course for Non Motorized Transport. 94 people from the CET and other public authorities participated in the three day course and showed great enthusiasm. “We are breaking paradigms,” “we have to reduce auto flow and give more space to bicyclists and pedestrians,” and “we have a different vision of the city” were some of the comments made by participants.

Field visit to Indaiatuba in Sao Paulo during workshop. Photo: Jonas Hagen

Group work in the Rio de Janeiro workshop. Photo: Jonas Hagen

Ban on Cycle Rickshaw in Chandni Chowk challenged in Supreme Court

2007-07-11T18:38:00-05:00

The Supreme Court of India issued notices to the Delhi Government, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the Commissioner of Police, Delhi and the Government of India while hearing a Special Leave Petition challenging the ban on the plying of cycle rickshaws in Chandni Chowk and other arterial roads of Delhi.

A bench comprising the Chief Justice K. G. Balakrishnan and Justice R. V. Raveendran passed this order on a petition filed by Initiative for Transportation & Development Programmes (ITDP India).

Over the course of last year, the Delhi High Court had passed several orders, while hearing a PIL, directing the concerned authorities to ensure that the plying of cycle rickshaws be banned in the Chandni Chowk area as also all the arterial roads of Delhi. After such orders were passed, ITDP India had intervened in the matter and urged the High Court to withdraw its orders relating to the banning of cycle rickshaws.

The High Court turned down the prayer of ITDP India and this judgment of the High Court was challenged before the Apex Court.

It was contended on behalf of ITDP India that the orders passed by the High Court and given effect to by the state authorities were contrary to both the National Urban Transport Policy as also the Master Plan of Delhi. Both lay much emphasis on non motorised transport like cycle rickshaws, especially in areas like Chandni Chowk. It was further contended that if rickshaws were to be banned, they would have to be replaced by motorized transport.

For this, the city would have to pay a heavy price as not only would it directly lead to increased pollution but also put be not viable economically on account of increased fuel consumption.

Another significant contention put forward by the petitioner was that lakhs of cycle rickshaws were plying in the city and banning them would cause huge social problems as lakhs of people would be rendered jobless.

It was also contended by the ITDP India that traffic management was a highly technical subject and the High Court could not have passed such orders having grave implications. It was pointed out that these decisions could be taken only by the government and that too after much deliberation on all relevant aspects in consultation with technical experts.

South Africa DOT Mobilizes Masses, Tailors Bikes to Local Needs

2007-07-02T02:42:00-05:00

Officials recognize the unique mobility needs of rural communities

In June South Africa’s National Department of Transport hosted a meeting with bicycle industry representatives to decide on the technical specifications of the one million bicycles it has promised to roll out by 2015. The DOT’s program, named Shova Kalula (“Pedal Easy” in the Zulu language), was started in 2001 to promote the use of non-motorized transport, like bicycles, as a lower-cost means of access to employment, education, and healthcare. The program provides incentivized bicycles to previously disadvantaged people in South Africa.

On display at the Shova Kalula meeting as examples of appropriate bike design were ITDP’s California Bike “Los Angeles” model and its prototype one-speed bicycle currently under development in partnership with Qhubeka, a not-for-profit organisation that works to assist the socio-economic development of disadvantaged communities in Southern Africa. The California Bike Program’s four years of in-country design and field-testing experience provided participants with a useful basis for making decisions about matching bike pricing and specifications with target communities. Based on this experience, it became clear to many at the meeting that bicycles currently available on the market are designed for the recreational and sports enthusiasts and do not necessarily address the needs of rural commuters.

Rural school children and farm workers are the target recipients of the first 60,000 bicycles to be distributed in 2007-08. The DOT is opting for a robust, one-speed design with sufficient load-carrying capacity as the preferred spec for these communities.

India BRT Round-up

2007-07-02T02:39:01-05:00

In April, a national BRT workshop was co-organized by ITDP and GTZ in association with IUT India (Institute of Urban Transport) and the Municipal Corporation of the host city, Pune. The workshop was sponsored by the national Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) and provided a platform for cities developing BRT under JNNURM to present the status of implementation and the hurdles they face. Presentations made by Indian and international experts, and interaction with participants gave decision makers from many cities insights into the best practices worldwide.

In May, ITDP organized a study tour for a delegation from the MoUD to the cities of Bogotá and Pereira, Colombia to learn about Bus Rapid Transit systems and other urban rejuvenation efforts. The delegation was headed by the Indian Union minister of Urban Development, Dr. S Jaipal Reddy. The visit was fruitful and also resulted in signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Governments of India and Colombia on “Co-operation in the field of Urban Public Transport Systems and Urban Transport Planning”.

As a follow-up to the BRT workshop organized in Pune in April, another workshop with a special section on capacity building of trainers and consultants is proposed in Ahmedabad in the second half of September 2007. CEPT University and ITDP would co-organize the workshop under the aegis of the MoUD and Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.

Cycle-Ride Sundays Take Off in Mexico City

2007-07-01T21:04:00-05:00

Thousands enjoy car-free streets as Mayor Marcelo Ebrard moves Mexico’s capital into a select group of cities taking bold action to improve the quality of public life.

On Sunday May 13th the Mexico City government, headed by Chief of Government Marcelo Ebrard, began the Ciclo-Paseos, or “Cycle-Rides” program in designated streets of the country’s capital. The program encourages city inhabitants to walk, skate, or use bicycles to enjoy the city and promote non-polluting forms of transportation.

The streets chosen consist of a circuit of 14 kilometers (8.7 miles) along the well known Reforma Avenue and others close to the historic city center so that the public can enjoy some of the cultural sites and activities along the ride. Motor vehicles are not allowed on those streets between 7:00 AM and 2:00 PM on Sundays. Many cities in the world have similar programs. Perhaps the best known is Bogotá, Colombia, with its more than 120 kilometers (74.6 miles) of streets that undergo this transformation every Sunday.

The response in Mexico City to the first six Cycle-Ride events has been positive with no serious accidents to report and with an attendance of around 10,000 people. As many as 50,000 people participated when the ride was extended to other streets on May 27th and had its name changed to “Cycle-thon”. ITDP Mexico has been involved in planning the Cycle-Ride concept and is currently supporting the city government in projects aimed at improving conditions for cyclists and pedestrians.

The challenge for the program now is to keep the good momentum going and to take other integrated actions to promote non-motorized transport as one of the priorities in Mexico City’s Sustainable Mobility Agenda.