MAXIMIZING THE AIR QUALITY BENEFITS OF BUS RAPID TRANSIT

Walter Hook, BAQ Conference

Agra, India, December, 2004

Funded by the US Agency for International Development

The Air Quality Benefits from Bus Rapid Transit

• Mode Shift from Private Vehicle to Bus• Fewer buses moving the same bus

passengers• Cleaner buses

Because BRT is Much Cheaper than Metros, the Modal Shift from private vehicle to transit from BRT is potentially much

higher per dollar of public investment.

Catchment Area for Bogota’s TransMilenio Compared to JICA-proposed Metro, Same Capital Investment

To Get People to Switch from Private Vehicles to Buses, a New Busway Must Increase Bus Speeds

Over Current Levels.

The Capacity of the busway must be sufficient to handle the demand at a high speed.

The busway needs to be designed carefully based on the projected demand for bus passengers.

The Quality of Bus Service Must also Improve

If you put a busway where there are no bus passengers, nobody will use the system.

Inaccessible elevated ring roads with no bus routes do not make good BRT corridors.

US BRT Systems handle 5000 passengers per day, and the highest has 5000 per hour per direction.

Hence, US Busways do not have to worry about bus congestion. The big conflict is taking lane space

away from private motor vehicles.

Bogota’s TransMilenio

Bogota had Serious Bus Congestion.

First, Bogota put the old buses onto a two lane busway,

• Speeds were <15kph, slower than before the busway

• Further congestion and concentration of polluting old buses made air pollution in the corridor worse.

Former Standard Busway on Ave. Caracas in Bogota before TransMilenio

With Bus Volumes Like These, Even three exclusive bus lanes may not decongest the corridor unless the system is fundamentally

reorganized

In a situation like this, pedestrian conflicts ensure that bus speeds will be and should be slow. Pedestrianization should be explored with

reasonable BRT access

CONFLICTS WITH TURNING TRAFFIC, STOPPING TAXIS, PEDESTRIANS

CURB-SIDE BUS LANES Cannot get speeds up significantly even at very low demand

levels.

Jakarta bus lane before

TransJakarta

Guangzhou

Delhi’s Curb Lane bus lanes are bus restriction lanes, not bus priority lanes. They do not increase

bus speeds.

Area of Conflict in Delhi

Most Successful BRT Systems Use the Center Lanes

Lanes of mixed traffic

Bus express lane

Bus Shelter Can be On the Right or On the Left but…

Here you need two Narrow Stations and Two

Medians. Passengers cannot transfer from one

direction to the other

Putting Station in the Middle Consumes Less Road Space and Eases

Transfers

Quito Line 1 Quito Line 2

CONSTRUCTING BUSWAYS IN MEDIAN

BOGOTA

No conflicts with right-hand turns, pedestrians, cyclists, and stopping taxis

No road space taken from taxis

Pedestrians must reach median area

Conflict with right-hand turns remain

SAO PAULO

“Open” Systems versus “Closed” Systems

Open Systems

Feeder-Trunk technique

“Open” BRT systems

• Cheaper to build

• No New Buses Required

• No Changes in Bus routes Required

• No Regulatory Changes Needed

• Passengers don’t have to transfer

Problems with Open systems:

• People don’t appreciate them• Bus Cueing at Intersections• Low speed• Low capacity• No improvement in bus operational quality

Newly renovated ‘open’ BRT System in Sao Paulo has cues 23 buses long. Speeds are only 12kph

“Closed” BRT systems have much higher capacity but require a feeder

system with transfers

Quito’s Ecovia Line

Advantages of Closed Trunk and Feeder Systems

• Very High Capacity

• Very High Operating Speed

• Paying at the Station Rather than On the Bus Reduces Boarding Time

• Special Buses Can be Used

• Reduces the Total Number of Buses on the Corridor, Decongesting Mixed Traffic Lanes

• Allows for Fast Free Transfers in a Safe & Comfortable Place

• Makes Possible Self-Financing and Privatization

Quito and Bogota cut the old bus lines and reallocated passengers onto 1/3 as many much cleaner and larger buses, reducing air pollution

Bogota’s TransMilenio

Bogota Banned All Old Buses on the BRT Corridor and Removed old bus routes. The Mixed Traffic

lanes became LESS congested.

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Quito, Bogota, Curitiba all have free transfer from Feeder Buses operated by the same authority

TransMilenio

60% of the demand comes from feeder buses

Free Transfer Station, Quito

Feeder-trunk transfers in Quito, Ecuador

Closed Terminals Can Create Free Transfers for feeder buses even on open systems.

Sao Paulo’s transfer station between busway and Metro

Jakarta built Asia’s first ‘closed’ BRT system: It just breaks even. Why? No feeder system

TransJakarta did not cut parallel buses and does not have free transfers from feeder buses.

Only 5500 out of 12,000 passengers take the BRT. The rest are on normal buses.

Larger capacity vehicles can add Larger capacity vehicles can add capacity when lane width is not capacity when lane width is not

availableavailable

TransMilenio buses have 4 doors 1.1 meters wide. This reduces avg. boarding time per passenger

from 3 seconds to .3 seconds

Long Buses Require Long StationsMost TransMillenio Stations are 48 meters

long.

190 m Services must have headways of 2 to 5 minutes 12 to 30 articulated buses/hour 2000 to 5000 pass/h/direction/stand critical

Split buses by origin and run express and stopping services

Multiple stations serving different lines that can pass one another was the key to TransMilenio’s

high speeds and high capacity

Minimizing Long Term Emissions from the Bus Requires:

• Private procurement and ownership of buses.• The technical specification should be as clean as possible

without compromising the feasibility of private investment into the buses

• The competitive bidding process should give incentives to firms to exceed the minimum environmental standard

• Bus Operating contracts within the Busway should include emission standards

• The bus operations should be contracted in a way that allows the public authority to fine companies that fail to comply with this standard.

Infrastructure (Public)•Corridors•Stations•Garages•Complementary Infrastructure

 TRANSMILENIO S.A.

Planning, Management and Control

Operation (Private)•Companies•Buses•Employees

Billeting (Private)•Equipments•Smart Cards•Trust Fund

Private Sector• Bus acquisition,

operation and maintenance

• Fare collection system implementation and operation

• Resources management (trust fund)

Division of Responsibility and Financing Between Public and Private Sectors

Public Sector

• Infrastructure construction (IDU)

• Planning (City, TM)

• Development; contracting service provision (TM)

• Control (TM)

Contracts

Conclusion: Air Quality Benefits of BRT Systems Will Be Maximized If…

• The BRT system provides a faster, higher quality service than existing buses, and can attract passengers out of private vehices.

• The buses used are cleaner than traditional buses• Fewer buses are needed to handle the same transit passengers• The buses are properly maintained• A system of penalties is put in place for poor service or air

quality violations• Many of these measures can be implemented without BRT but

BRT creates an opportunity to negotiate a better deal for bus passengers and air quality.