Bus Rapid Transit: Benefits and Limitations

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is not a regular bus service but a systemic optimisation of public transport services by using buses.

Bus is the basic public transport mode that is affordable to most cities and towns. A public bus system can be as skeletal as having just buses, road, and bus stops. That of course means long waiting time, unreliable arrival, slow journey, and turn people away from public transport to favour the use of car and motorcycle.

BRT concept revamps the system from fare collection, road usage, bus features, and bus station design to optimise the reliability and efficiency of bus to drive up people’s desirability to use public transport.

The BRT concept was born in Curitiba, a city in Brazil in 1970s. It was later adopted and expanded into large scale system in big cities like Bogota, Colombia and Jakarta, Indonesia. The BRT in different shapes and sizes can be found in more than 170 cities around the world. Fiona Ferbrache (2019), lecturer at Oxford University, has prepared a simple chart describing various types, BRT Lite, buses with higher level of service (BHLS), and BRT Full:

Source: Ferbrache, 2019, p.3

Malaysia launched the first BRT in 2015, connecting Subang Jaya to Bandar Sunway. It has seven stations serving 16,500 passengers a day. (Chan, 27 November 2019). Johor is implementing a RM2.56 billion large-scale BRT, with 39 stations, to begin operation in 2022. (Free Malaysia Today, 19 May 2019). Sarawak had initially planned for BRT in Kuching but later turned to consider the sleek-looking autonomous rail rapid transit instead. (Borneo Post, 19 November 2019; 4 January 2020). Penang is studying feasibility of having BRT on the mainland.

The government aims to achieve 40% public transport usage by 2030. (Aziz 2019). BRT could help to achieve the target. Authorities need to study the benefits, weaknesses, and best adaptation of BRT for each locality.

Bogota's Transmilenio

One BRT system for planners to study is Bogota’s Transmilenio, the first recipient of the ‘Sustainable Transport Award’ by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP). Transmilenio is a large-scale BRT that started operation in 2000 and managed to shorten average travel time by 22%, reduced air pollutants by 40% and road collision by 79%, increased the city’s GDP by 1%, and won more than 90% of public approval in its opening year. (Centre for Public Impact 2016; The Economist 2020).

The Transmilenio was called “the best bus system in the world” by Bogota’s former mayor Enrique Penalosa, a “success story” by Pertaling Jaya MP Maria Chin Abdullah, and “the world’s most successful BRT” by Penang Forum’s Lim Mah Hui. (Jara-Moreno 2010; Abdullah 2019; Lim 2018). The Transmilenio was crowned the “Jewel of Bogota” and often showcased by think tanks such as ITDP as “model for replication” to promote BRT to policymakers. Hoping to reproduce Transmilenio’s successes elsewhere, think tanks facilitate the implementation of BRT in various cities as they “know the experts and are able to contact and contract them in order to expedite designs and technical studies.” (Nikitas & Karlsson 2015; Ardila 2020).

Then the system started to break. Overcrowding became too frequent. Passengers have to wait up to 40 minutes to enter the station, before another long wait to board the sardine-packed buses. (The Economist 2020). Although BRT buses use dedicated lanes, there are still road space with accident risk, for example, junction, pedestrian path, and merging road. Collision involving Transmilenio buses is not uncommon with an average of six cases per day. The BRT meant to reduce private car usage but daily cars on Bogota streets increased by 153% from 509,000 in 2002 to 1,290,000 in 2012. (McKenzie 2014).

The pent-up frustration against the Transmilenio escalated into public riots in 2012, with five BRT stations destroyed. By 2015, the popularity of the “Jewel of Bogota” fell to 20%. (The Bogota Post 2014). Some are calling it “the worst transportation system implemented in a city”. (Fred 2017). Despite having one of the largest BRT systems on the planet, Bogota was ranked as the world’s most congested city in 2019 Inrix Global Traffic Scorecard, rose from being the third worst in previous year. (Weekes 2020; INRIX 2018).

Curitiba, the birthplace of BRT and lauded by Green City Times (2019) as “the greatest example of sustainable transport in a city,” has its own challenges. Although the Brazilian city has inspired others to implement the BRT to reduce private vehicles on the roads, the number of private vehicles in Curitiba has soared. There were 4.52 people per vehicle in the 1970s. Today, it is 1.33 per vehicle. A study found that 56% of correspondents have shifted from public transport to private vehicles. (Agencia de Noticias da PMC 2015; Martinez et al 2016). Public transport ridership has fallen by 14% from 2015 to 2017, and Curitiba has the highest private vehicle per capita in Brazil. (Silveria et al 2019). As a report by the French Development Agency attested (Agence Française de Développement, 2017):

"While it has a bus rapid transit (BRT) network (a model which Curitiba has "exported" all over the world), it is losing passengers and Curitiba is now the city with the largest number of cars per inhabitant (1.8) in Brazil."

Even the best of the BRTs has pros and cons, like any other transport system. For sure, the BRT fares better than skeletal bus services.

BRT and rail systems

Besides BRT, there are other transport systems such as light rail transit (LRT) and mass rapid transit that are more efficient and pose less traffic problems. Newly developed middle-range magnetic levitated train known as ‘maglev’ has added to the variety.

BRT in general is cheaper than elevated urban rail systems, though there are exceptions such as those in Adelaide and Nagoya (Cervero, 2013). In terms of passenger capacity, speed, and safety, the elevated rail systems fare better than the BRT. As Robert Cervero, professor emeritus of city and regional planning at University of California, wrote (2013, pp.24-25):

"The more economical use of rights-of-way and roadway operations lowers the cost of BRT relative to rail systems, though at the expense of generally lower passenger carrying capacities and slower speeds. [...] Any cost-effectiveness edge of BRT is also curbed to the degree that large-scale rail networks provide greater connectivity and accessibility at faster travel speeds in addition to having stronger city-shaping impacts than more limited range BRT systems. [...] BRT particularly suffers in dense, built-up areas where buses operate on surface streets. [...] BRT's ability to shape urban growth and leverage [transit oriented development] is also questioned by some."

Cervero used Bogota's and Curitiba's BRT as examples (2013, p.29):

"During peak hours, Transmilenio average 6.5 passengers per square meter of bus. The inability of buses to load more passengers and thus leave customers stranded at stations during peak periods has sparked riots and blemished Transmilenio's reputation. Curitiba has also begun to experience the limits of rubber-tire technologies. [...] Extreme overcrowding has prompted many former bus rides to buy cars and switch to driving. [...] Many Curitibanos view (BRT) as noisy, crowded and unsafe. Undermining the thinking behind the master plan, even those who live alongside the high-density rapid-bus corridor are buying cars."

If Malaysia wants to make public transportation a mainstream choice of mobility, we have to start now with the right system, adopt the best practices while anticipate problems with solution.

References

Abdullah, Maria Chin. (2019). Get our bus routes right. The Sun Daily. 20 November. Retrieved from https://www.thesundaily.my/opinion/get-our-bus-routes-right-DD1630317

Agence Française de Développement. (2017). Brazil: The Challenges of Curitiba. Retrieved from https://www.afd.fr/en/actualites/grand-angle/brazil-challenges-curitiba

Agencia de Noticias da PMC. (2015). Aumento da frota particular é problema de saúde e meio ambiente. Retrieved from https://www.curitiba.pr.gov.br/noticias/aumento-da-frota-particular-e-problema-de-saude-e-meio-ambiente/35689

Ardila, Diego Silva. (2020). Global policies for moving cities: the role of think tanks in the proliferation of Bus Rapid Transit systems in Latin America and worldwide. Policy and Society, vol.39, issue 1, pp.70-90. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14494035.2019.1699636

Aziz, Afiq. (2019). Transport policy aims 40% of public transportation usage by 2030. 18 October. The Malaysian Reserve. Retrieved from https://themalaysianreserve.com/2019/10/18/transport-policy-aims-40-of-public-transportation-usage-by-2030/

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Borneo Post. (2020). CM: Govt aims to have ART public transport system ready in Kuching by 2025.  4 January. Borneo Post. Retrieved from https://www.theborneopost.com/2020/01/04/cm-govt-aims-to-have-art-public-transport-system-ready-in-kuching-by-2025/

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Chan, Mick. (2019). Prasarana daily ridership 1.4 million and growing: CEO. Paul Tan. 27 November. Retrieved from https://paultan.org/2019/11/27/prasarana-daily-ridership-1-4-million-and-growing-ceo/

Ferbrache, Fiona. (2019). The value of bus rapid transit in urban spaces. In F. Ferbrache (Ed.),  Developing Bus Rapid Transit: The Value of BRT in Urban Spaces (pp.1-12). United Kingdom: Edward Elgar Publishing. Retrieved from https://www.elgaronline.com/view/edcoll/9781788110907/9781788110907.00005.xml 

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