A Worldwide State-of-the-Art Analysis for Bus Rapid Transit: Looking for the Success Formula

This paper’s intended contribution, in terms of providing an additional angle in the existing Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) state-of-the-art knowledge spectrum, is a dual one. On the one hand, it provides a detailed description of the mode, re-defining BRT as an overall concept by identifying, discussing, and categorizing in a systematic way its strengths and its weaknesses in comparison with rail-based solutions and conventional bus services. On the other hand, it presents in detail a number of selected scheme-oriented applications from around the world, looking into some of the basic ingredients behind BRT’s success (or failure) stories. This is a scientific effort that could inform the reader about the current status of BRT internationally and about the challenges and opportunities that exist when trying to materialize BRT’s potential as an effective urban passenger solution that could challenge the merits of more conventional mass-transit options

International Lessons for Promoting Transit Connections to High-Speed Rail Systems

As the California High-Speed Rail (HSR) project becomes reality, many communities involved in, or affected by, the California HSR project have considered how to connect the new HSR passenger services to local urban transportation systems – such as bus and light rail systems – and how they can take advantage of HSR accessibility and speed throughout the state. European and other overseas systems have decades of experience in forging connections between HSR and various transportation options. This study examines international HSR stations and identifies patterns in transit connections associated with stations on the basis of size, population levels, and other characteristics. Additionally, a closer examination is made of the lessons that can be learned from a strategic sample of overseas HSR stations, correlated to similar cities in the planned California system. Generally, the findings from the comparison suggest that California cities must make significant strides to approach the level of integration and ease of access to other modes that systems outside the U.S. now enjoy

Public Transport Options for East Asian Mega-cities

This paper provides insights of the current state of public transport in East Asian Mega-cities, their characteristics that make them different with other public transport systems in other parts of the world. A combination of high percentage of public transport use, existence of para-transit, poor service quality to respond with high level of motorizations are some of the features of urban public transport in East Asian developing cities. Data from Tokyo, Shanghai, Seoul, Taipei, Ho Chi Minh City, Manila, Jakarta, and Bangkok are analyzed to develop a thorough understanding on the specific features of public transport in the East Asian Mega-cities. Several reform policies and strategies are proposed, including promoting public transport technology to shift the competition from costs to quality, fare integration, suitable financing options, and an appropriate implementation timing, as well as developing a public transport hierarchy to suit the increasing demand for urban mobility

The Use of Value Capture for Transport Projects in China: Opportunities and Challenges

Value capture (VC) could be a useful tool to address the huge demand for public transport infrastructure funding in China. This research identifies the opportunities and challenges faced by VC implementation in China and explains how local governments and local transit agencies dealt with the regulatory barriers. The findings of this research offer insights including: (1) macro environment, regulatory framework, and supportive policy environment provide opportunities to adopt VC projects, while the risk of acquiring land vale cannot be isolated from the global political and economic situations; (2) the regulatory challenges of land transactions and lack of property tax system restrict the application of VC; (3) evidence from the case study of Shenzhen demonstrates that local government may creatively deal with the regulatory challenges to do VC and benefit local community; (4) institutional capacity is vital to implement VC. The analysis of Shenzhen experience can provide a reference for other Chinese cities to implement VC.fals

The Implementation of Financing Strategies in Urban Rapid Transit Infrastructure: How Could Chinese Cities Do Better?

Urban rapid transit infrastructure have been expanding at an exploding speed in Mainland China. Government subsidy used to be the sole fiscal support to the transit development for a long time. Now the government is facing enormous burden to support the expansion on its own. The major problems are the shortage of construction and revenue-expenditure gap in funding. Therefore, the municipalities are seeking to introduce foreign financing strategies to the transit funding to build a more profitable financing platform. Hong Kong MTR has been a popular model among mainland cities for its “Rail + Property” model and efficient internal management. However, under current context, it is really difficult to completely copy the success of Hong Kong. Therefore, the implementation has shown several variations. Beijing Metro adds a parallel system to the existing one, which are under the operation of Public-Private Partnership with Hong Kong MTR Company. Wuhan, while paving the avenue for “Rail + Property”, employed Finance Lease to utilize the existing facilities to collect construction funding, which made time for property auction and development adjunct to and atop of the transit line. In analyzing the implementation process of the two cases, the thesis found out the strategies of implementing financing strategies in Chinese mainland cities, and illustrated the context and the incentives for the variations. By reviewing the case of Wuhan and Beijing, the thesis analyzed how the two cities made localized adaptions, their contracts in the two implementations, and the key part that contributed to reaching the expected effects. In finding a working principal from these two cases, the thesis also analyzed the problems in implementation caused by the government role, the financing platform of metro company, and the mechanism of implementation

Economic Development Impacts of High Speed Rail

This paper reviews the state of high-speed rail (HSR) planning in the United States c. 2010. The plans generally call for a set of barely inter-connected hub-and-spoke networks. The evidence from US transit systems shows that lines have two major impacts. There are positive accessibility benefits near stations, but there are negative nuisance effects along the lines themselves. High speed lines are unlikely to have local accessibility benefits separate from connecting local transit lines because there is little advantage for most people or businesses to locate near a line used infrequently (unlike public transit). However they may have more widespread metropolitan level effects. They will retain, and perhaps worse, have much higher, nuisance effects. If high-speed rail lines can create larger effective regions, that might affect the distribution of who wins and loses from such infrastructure. The magnitude of agglomeration economies is uncertain (and certainly location-specific), but presents the best case that can be made in favor of HSR in the US.high-speed rail, public transportation, economic development, land use, hub-and-spoke

The limits of technology: achieving transport efficiency in developing nations

Emissions from the transport sector represent the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions. There is little prospect that this situation will be resolved with a single technological fix. As developing nations quickly move to catch up with the motorisation levels of developed nations, the sheer number of private vehicles on the roadways will overwhelm any advances made by cleaner fuels. By the year 2030, there is projected to be more vehicles in the developing world than in developed nations. However, most developing cities today still have the basis for a more sustainable future. Public transport and non-motorised transport (walking and cycling) still command a dominant share of travel in developing cities. Thus, a key objective for local and international initiatives is to preserve existing mode shares. Unfortunately, most investment in reducing transport emissions relies exclusively upon achieving costly reductions only through fuel and propulsion system technologies. Bogotá (Colombia) represents one of the best examples of a city that has developed a package of complementary measures to substantially reduce vehicle emissions and congestion. Bogotá’s implementation of a high-quality bus rapid transit (BRT) system, bicycle infrastructure, pedestrian improvements, car-free events, and auto restriction measures all have contributed to an urban transformation in a period of just a few years. Initial projections of greenhouse gas reductions during the first 30 years of the BRT system’s operation indicate reductions of approximately 14.6 million metric tons of CO2 equivalents. This research presents a framework for evaluating the greenhouse gas emission reductions in the transport sector. This framework highlights three principal areas of emission reduction potential: 1.) Mode share (behaviour); 2.) Distance travelled (land-use/design); and 3.) Fuel efficiency (technology). Only by addressing all three components an optimum transport energy path can be achieved

Measuring the impacts of Bus Rapid Transit on residential property values : The Beijing case

The authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41201102).Peer reviewedPostprin