Top 10 Cities for Bus Rapid Transit in North America - Plus Bonus Mexico City Content
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- čas přidán 23. 11. 2021
- We haven't given buses nearly enough love on this channel, so now it's time to look at Bus Rapid Transit, what it is, and which North American cities do it best. Lower capacity than a subway but certainly higher than Tesla Tunnels, BRT is a more affordable, lower-intervention option for cities looking to expand their transit offerings.
Our journey today takes us to:
- Curitiba, Brazil and Bogota, Colombia, to learn from the cities that really put BRT on the map
- Canada, where we look at Ottawa's groundbreaking Transitway and see how that city is settling the bus rapid transit vs. light rail question
- A variety of US cities that have succeeded in implementing BRT, and
- Mexico, to check out the Metrobus, the Mexibus, the Macrobus, and...yeah, lots of services with the word "bus" in them.
It's bus nerd day. Come along for the ride!
Other CityNerd vides referenced in this video:
- Key Cities/Stations for HSR in North America: • The 10 Key Stations fo...
- Transit to Beaches, Worldwide: • World's Top 10 Beach-T...
- Transit to NFL Stadiums: • Top Ten Transit to NFL...
- Transit to Airports in North America: • North America's Best A...
Resources:
Download page for the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy's publication, "The BRT Standard": www.itdp.org/publication/the-...
ITDP scorecard and rankings: www.itdp.org/library/standard...
Wikipedia BRT page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_rap...
Wikipedia CTfastrak page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CT_Fastrak
Photo Credits:
Vine logo By C-Tran - The Vine Fact Sheet, Public Domain, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
Swift logo from By The logo is from the following website: www.communitytransit.org/, Fair use, en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?...
TriMet FX logo from the following website: news.trimet.org/2021/06/trime...
EmX photo By User:Cacophony - This file was derived from: Eugene-EMX.jpg, CC BY-SA 2.5, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
CT Fastrak photo By Pi.1415926535 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
Duquesne Incline video www.visitpittsburgh.com/blog/...
Pittsburgh Busway photo from www.pittsburghtransit.org/busw...
MetroBus map by Secretaria de Movilidad - data.metrobus.cdmx.gob.mx/imag..., CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
Cablebus photo by Jefatura de Gobierno de la Ciudad de México / Gobierno de la Ciudad de México - www.jefaturadegobierno.cdmx.g..., CC BY 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
Music:
CityNerd background: Caipirinha in Hawaii by Carmen María and Edu Espinal (CZcams music library)
Twitter: @nerd4cities
Instagram: @nerd4cities
Contact: nerd4cities@gmail.com - Věda a technologie
As a mexican, this has become one of my favorite YT channels, love to be included when discussing north american public transport and city related stuff
Yeah, I just get annoyed when people talk about "North America" and then they're really only talking about the US and Canada. Doesn't make any sense.
@@CityNerd I suspect it’s because most people think it’s crime-ridden, dangerous, and poor; I’m glad you’re including Mexico because it adds context that would otherwise be completely missing for most people up in the US.
@@CityNerd "Anglican America" is the more accurate term for Just the US and Canada. In some contexts the language barrier can make sense but it definitely is more fair to include Mexico, the Carribean, and all the nations between Mexico and Panama when talking about North America as that is the litteral definition. (Not that Havana-Miami is a viable HSR route)
I actually disagree. I don't think it makes much sense to group Mexico along with Canada and the US, because, culturally, economically, and in terms of immigration and settlement, Mexico shares much more in common with the rest of Latin America (Central & South America) than it does with Canada and the US.
Similarly, if you ignore the metric road signs in Canada (which are actually a fairly recent development. Until 1980, all Canadian highway and road signs were in miles, nit kilometers), you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between most Canadian and American cities. On the other hand, you can immediately distinguish between a Mexican and American city, in terms of layout, language, level of development, etc...
@@terryomalley1974 who cares north america 3 countries 1 2 3 do you know how to count
Coming from a Puebla resident that lives in a car centered suburb, México City really is absolutely impressive when it comes to effective mass transit!!
It's pretty incredible.
Now if only they improved their trains by adding a FORWARD VIEW....
"Northern suburbs of Toronto, whatever they're called" seems about right.
It was just hard for me to figure out. I'm like, is this a city? Or just unincorporated territory of some sort? I wasn't trying to be snarky (OK a little).
@@CityNerd Some areas (e.g. Richmond Hill) have a well-defined identity. Others, like Vaughan, only seem to be postal addresses.
Vaughan, where Viva is, is definitely a defined city..... It's part of York Region municipality. It's like Counties in the US. They include multiple towns and cities, but have some services (I.e. transit or garbage collection) that are run by the Region.
@@CityNerd those suburbs are actually cities like Vaughan where Viva operates. But these “cities” are very Los Angeles-esque that they look just like suburbs of Toronto itself. Statistically though, they are grouped under the Greater Toronto Area.
The Northern Burbs of Toronto used to be small towns and villages but with urban sprawl have the old name of one village now covering a whole township. York Region is 8 municipalities I think but Vaughan, Richmond Hill and Markham now incorporate a lot of swallowed up villages. The VIVA connects them all east west with links to the TTC and GO trains that take a lot of communities north and south.
Yes, give Pittsburgh some love! On each of my many visits, the transit has just WORKED. The busways are wonderful and the bus frequency is just constant.
It's frequent heading east of the city. Pretty infrequent elsewhere unless you're near the light rail line
In 1993-1994, I used to live 2-3 blocks from the Pittsburgh busway and used it to commute to my job downtown. I remember there being a snowstorm with 35 inches (90 cm) of snow overnight, but if you could walk to the busway, it was running.
That's impressive. I mean did they prioritize it for plowing?
@@CityNerd Most bus routes in Pittsburgh are "snow emergency routes", but the busways were exceptionally well cared for during weather events.
hey love your content -- totally aligned with my urban interests. Great you are including Canada and Mexico in most of your analyses.
I'm a Mexican born, naturalized Canadian so definitely can relate to both.
No intention to stop the combined US/Mexico/Canada content!
Go check out RMtransit. He was from Toronto and is very knowledgeable of transit systems globally. He's mainly focused on rail.
How is Mexico city? I am from Hong Kong and have always dreamt of trying the origin of BRT in Mexico city but some said crimes are so bad. Is Mexico city safe for tourists? I am from Hong Kong dont know if that affects the crime thing.
Guadalajara is supposed to get a BRT line that runs on the entire ring road called MacroPeriferico
I remember back in 1976, Guadalajara was installing an electric bus SUBWAY....
I am loving this! Its all brilliant!
Thought I should mention that the Mexico City Transit Card (exclusively the Movilidad Integrada one, not the previous ones) is pretty much the best thing ever to be implemented, it allows you to ride the metro and metrobus which you could aready do with the previous ones but now you can ride SO MUCH MORE with it, the trolleybus systems now accept the card, the cablecar does too, the government operated buses (RTP) do too and the past few weeks the city has started implementing it on concessioned routes, and of course the bike sharing system.
Yeah, I wasn't sure if folks in Mexico City realized how amazing this is. Go to any US city and you MIGHT get a card that works for one mode of travel for one agency. It blew my mind that I could load up a card in CDMX and basically just do everything with it. The whole world should be like that!
Also, it's really pretty. For me personally it would be great if the Tren Suburbano also accepted it, or maybe even the Mexibús, though that one doesn't even have a card that works for all it's lines...
@@CityNerd This would be an interesting video idea btw! Most inclusive public transit card. Clipper card comes to mind since I'm in the Bay Area (BART, Muni, SMFTA, SF Bay Ferries, Caltrain, bikeshare, and others!)
Man i've been in CDMX a lot of times and haven't get a Card. I have one for the mty metro city, one for Puebla, one for Queretaro Bus.
But this year i'll finally get my Mexico City card.
@@chikitronrx0 the one for puebla is pretty useless tbh...
I live in Ottawa (AW-TA-WA btw), and I use our BRT all the time. It’s one of the oldest in the world. It’s mostly being converted to light metro now, so it’s definitely a piece of history that’s going away unfortunately. Great video.
Ottawa's BRT system is great
Memories of hopping on an OC Transpo bus and taking the Transitway from Blair to uOttawa every morning, except that one winter when the buses were on strike.
It is a shame the LRT has had so many growing pains, but I would still have liked to have had that for commuting back when I was in uni.
@@ManBerries233543 I started uOttawa the fall the LRT opened and despite its design flaws it was a very nice system.
@@glaframb more like Cold-da-wa because of the winters
@@glaframb well yea, everyone kind of says it like that, but you know what I mean
The GREAT thing about BRT is that you are effectively reserving Road ROW for a future potential upgrade to rail. It's going to easier to tell people that you want to add buses... as opposed to a rail system... which people, for some reason, protest. Basically, what Ottawa is doing now.
There is a potential problem with this. That is, the corridor would have to be shut down in order to be upgraded to rail. Some of the momentum of people converting to using transit would be lost as they may be forced to go back to driving.
@@billmocarsky263 if ðe rail is already in construction ðen it'll be temporal momentum loss
@@billmocarsky263 However, once the rail line opens to the public, people flock to the stations for a ride not possible with an automobile (which a bus actually is!)....
It's also worth mentioning that mass transit in CDMX ( Mexico City) accepts NFC payments too, so you can pay with your smartwatch
well thats currently only in 3 metrobus lines and a single metro station as a pilot programme so it is not too widespread yet but the city is working on getting it accepted everywhere.
Yeah, my local transit agency here in the US works with NFC payments now -- no more proprietary apps or smartcards. I like it.
I did not know until recently that you can do that too in New York subway lol
This is my favorite of your videos. Very exciting. I never heard of BRT, nor have I seen it. And now I want to visit Mexico City. Thank you.
Huge transit nerd here in San Francisco. Love your video! I just found out about BRT systems when Oakland debuted its BRT system in 2020 which serves mostly east Oakland in areas inbetween the two BART stations in that district. I love the trainlike feel! anyway I just followed on all platforms, cant wait for more content!
It was "trainlike" until the first pothole....
Thank you, this video helped me explore a subject for which there is not a lot of recent coverage (plus, thank you for all of your great work!)
Glad it was helpful! Will definitely do more on BRT in the future.
sbX is not located in Los Angeles.
The system is located in San Bernardino, which also has hydrogen-powered light rail, multiple lines of Metrolink regional-rail service, multiple Metrolink stations, freeway-running express buses, an international airport, and an optional station location for California High-Speed Rail.
Just found your channel after looking into BRT. This was such a great video, very informational!
My introduction to truly rapid Bus Rapid Transit came when I was in Rio for the Olympics. Wow, that was a very robust line, and it was clearly a heavy lift infrastructure project. But in all my experiences, CDMX was the best.
I love how cohesive Mexico City is, I take a RTP bus and with only $4 MXN y can move and transfer to a metro line, metrobús, trolley bus with no less than $10 MXN awesome.
Awesome videos ❤ I did not know CT had a BRT
I like your channel. Very good granular breakdown of everything. Mexico City actually sounds pretty cool. More like what I'd want out of urbanism. I'll subscribe.
Mexico City doesn't get everything right (I don't want to sugar coat it!), but they are doing so much, so fast right now.
Merle, México City is -- in a word -- "MAGICAL"! Prepare for your expectations to be blown away!
I ❤ CDMX 🇲🇽!
It's cool to see proper BRT like this as sort of a transitional system between regular bus service and trams/light rail. To me the big takeaway is that a lot of these routes might be more efficient if they were light rail, and the fact that some cities are doing that upgrade shows that it's a worthy goal. I think a lot of the time when people talk about what makes BRT great is the dedicated right of way, but I think the things that reduce dwell times are sometimes just as vital. I live in Ireland, and while the bus service is severely impacted by getting stuck in traffic, the dwell times are just as much of a killer. Payment is always on-board, and instead of the swipe on, swipe off service I've experienced in e.g., Asia, you have to put your transit card on a reader, tell the driver where you're going, he has to scroll through a list of options, select one, then wait for the transaction to complete. Every single boarding customer adds nearly a minute to the journey. Absolute madness, and plenty of places should be adopting some of these BRT standards to their regular bus service as well.
Glad to see my city make the list! We are constantly making progress, but have so much more to go!
excited to see Eugene on a list! we get a lot right for a city this size
Love your channel. Wanted to add an honorable mention: the new Sunrunner in St. Petersburg, FL that started last Friday and meets almost all BRT standard criteria. Not sure about the alignment since cars have to left-turn out of the dedicated bus lane. Nevertheless, we are pretty excited!
Thanks for the mention of Eugene! I live in Eugene, and I LOVE our EmX! Use it all the time!
I've always thought of BRT as also encompassing the notion of stopping every kilometer or so, rather than every 200m, as many city buses do. That's a key element of rapid.
Unfortunately, what we call "BRT" is just an express bus at best. It's a way for transit districts to market small bus line improvements as something a lot more transformational. Real BRT doesn't actually work particularly well in north American metros. Labor is too expensive to make the tradeoff of the 20-30% reduced costs of building full light rail to make BRT worth it.
Love this video! And it's a great segway into exploring some of the sub-tier 'Rapid Bus' lines across the US or North America, as it's my belief that the future of transit systems for most cities will center around these types of modes. I recently returned from a trip to Boston, and ended up Day-Tripping to Providence, and their R-Line is branded as 'Rapid Bus'... clearly not BRT by the standards mentioned, but I enjoyed riding from Cranston to Pawtucket on the line, and it definitely has the potential should RIPTA ever decide to upgrade it to a gradeable BRT.
Of course also being in Boston, I really enjoyed the MBTA Silver Line! The subterranean Bus stations were really wild, and it has a very healthy ridership from what I detected on the SL1 and SL4 routes.
Brisbane in Australia has a very impressive busway network that is all grade separated and has large stations and even an underground section under the city centre.
Raleigh, NC starts BRT construction next year. 4 routes plus a 35 story mix-used tower + bus station connected to the train station.
For reference: Viva is the BRT line associated with York Region Transit, and serves York Region north of Toronto. You described the Viva Orange and Viva Purple lines, which run on Highway 7, but fail to mention Viva Blue, which run on Yonge Street, and is considered the flagship line.
The Viva lines serve Vaughan, Markham, Richmond Hill, Aurora, and Newmarket, all of which qualify as suburban municipalities in the GTA, but not part of Toronto itself. (A recurring theme within your videos is that your definition of the GTA routinely omit York Region, but include Peel and Durham regions, and sometimes includes Halton Region; the conventional definition includes all four, plus the City of Toronto itself.)
Viva Blue's proper BRT portions are fairly recently built and have not been scored by the ITDP, which is probably why they were left out.
Thanks for the education. Is "York Region" really not included in the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area? Because that's what I would generally use (although for the HSR video I folded in Hamilton and Oshawa). York isn't listed as a separate Census Metropolitan Area...what am I missing here?
@@CityNerd All of York and Peel and most of Halton region should be included in the CMA? However most of Durham is excluded. The CMA boundaries don't completely follow city boundaries so that could be what's causing confusion? I will say that for Canada it may be better to use what are known as Population Centre Boundries published by Statistics Canada.
@@ReubenSinha Interesting. I really want to be using apples-to-apples metro area comparisons when including Canada and the US (and Mexico) together, and it's a challenge trying to find other countries' analogs of US census-designated metropolitan areas.
Speaking of the GTA, let's not forget its only grade separated BRT, the Mississauga Transitway, where you'll definitely have to take a bus to get to your bus.
When I lived in Ottawa, I used the BRT all the time. It was usually great. The main annoyance was connecting to other buses that went to or from the stations which sometimes were not the most reliable, especially in the winter. I left before they implemented light rail, which will hopefully speed things up travelling in the north south direction which wasn't great.
From Eugene, Oregon, great content, as a bicycle commuter and sometime EMX user, thanks for highlighting the Euge!
It's deserved! Building that first line on Franklin was visionary, really.
It’s cool to see that you’ve worked on projects like Swift, because even if they’re not “true BRT” they can be a major upgrade over local bus routes for minimal investment.
There's a lot of value in improving vehicles, stop spacing and amenities, and signal priority even if you don't get all the way to ITDP recognition. I'm proud to be associated with Swift and the other projects.
I would love to hear more of your thoughts on the Albuquerque BRT. It was a massive controversy when it went in and might be worth looking further into.
Yep, native Burqueno here. Would love it if you dug into ART and shared your thoughts, City Nerd!
The O-Bahn busway in Adelaide, South Australia is what got me into public transport, it's a very interesting and unique busway system
If they'd have only eliminated all those red lights at the entrances and exits....
When I was Mexico in the 80’s I was impressed by the collectivos, VW busses that ran up and down one or two streets. Every town had them, painted a bright color with a big route number. You just waited at a corner for one to come by, hopped on and paid 5cents to go a few blocks. Don’t know if they still have them but think they would be a great addition to any US city.
combi exists everywhere in mexico
The Curitiba BRT was originally easily able to keep up with demand when it was built, but the city's population has grown so much since then that it's becoming severely overcrowded even with such an innovative system.
Which is the main reason they're converting to rail.
(Ottawa resident) I would just like to point out that most (if not all) of the stations on the Ottawa transitway do in fact have off board payment. A few stations are also fare-paid zones.
Love the channel!
I think I've learned more about Mexico in the last few weeks through your channel than the entire rest of my life! lol. What can I say. We don't have many Mexicans in London.
I struggled to find good Mexican food in London. There was an OK place by Charing Cross that I don't think is there anymore (not Chipotle or Tortilla!) -- do people care for Mexican food there?
@@CityNerd It's not big. Probably because we don't have a lot of choice. It's one of those circular problems I guess. The UK doesn't have any cultural links to Mexico. We didn't colonise them, and don't have many immigrants, so we just don't get many places setting up shop.
Great content . Mexico City looks fascinating
overall, Pittsburgh's an adorably charming place, absolutely love it around there 🍸
Hey,
Watching all of these and thanks for the nerding.
Curitiba Brazil might be ripe for some content. Oh. There it is. Hah
But, as you know Jaime Lerner did a lot more with Curitiba than just transportation dealing with in situ accretion and so much more planning action.
I love #10! Rode it all of the time growing up!
We have a decent network of trolleybuses in Vancouver, but the B-Line buses don't count as BRT. Shame, because they're really great when they aren't stuck in traffic!
In Auckland, New Zealand (1.5M ppl) we have the Northern Express. Which is not the best but is great for us - once it gets onto its right of way its smooth sailing into town.
One day we will get light rail to the North, but until then we have to cope with busses and an aging/congested harbour crossing (its already had its width doubled once!).
Talking about archeducts have you ever saw Zurich's viadukt?
They use the arches below a 1896 viaduct as stores and restaurants to build a very nice street.
Haven't been to Zurich but that sounds cool.
in Cleveland there's the remains of an old viaduct that they built a little shopping center on, it's called Superior Viaduct. I love when old structures are reused, it saves a bit of history and yields more useable space.
The second BRT line opened recently, it's called Macroperiferico and it travels a whopping 70 km around the entire city's beltway. Not only it carries a lot of people, it also replaced the highly precarious 380 bus line that was so crowded it was even a hot spot for chikan and was known as "Sex-80".
Thank you for mentioning the Pulse, I live in Richmond and love our BRT, hoping they add more lines
It looks great!
Another Richmonder here - happily the CVTA & GRTC are working on plans to extend the current Pulse line further west to Short Pump (adding at least two new stations) AND they're taking the first steps to building a north-south line from the northern suburbs through the city to (at some point) Midlothian. I think the plan is to have at least a portion of the new second line (north south) operational by 2028.
@@CityNerd thanks for mentioning RVA's PULSE line. Very much looking forward to significant expansion with a much longer second line (running north-south) over the next 4 to 6 years.
The on screen numbers just had me dying of laughter. Nice touch.
Excellent video.
This was amazing. Informative, as always. It's great to see not just this ranking of US systems in terms of those in Mexico but also having them discussed in the same conversation. Those 4 lines in Mexico City really blow you away when you see them covered in the same breath.
I'm curious of what you think of the J-Line here in Los Angeles. Used to be "the Silver Line." 38 miles, 12 stations, ridership of 2.8M. What's your opinion of it compared to our G-Line (which, according to The World's Foremost Source of Unquestionably Factual Information, is 18 miles, 17 stations, 3.3M ridership)? Do you feel like it's lacking?
The RUTA in paper is a great system but it has a couple of problems, as a brt it's pretty robust, but it's not well maintained, a lot of the busses are not high capacity, and for a city this large the RUTA is not enough, but still I'm happy it was included 😊
Nice to see LA not getting ripped for once. A new BRT line from NoHo to Pasadena was just approved, which is super exciting. The section through Eagle Rock (my neighborhood) got some pushback, but fortunately the NIMBYs lost this one. A huge win for the city.
Love to hear that the NIMBYs lost this one!!
We've had it in Minneapolis for over ten years. Originally it ran every 10 minutes and had supplemental regular bus service on the same route with stops every block for those who couldn't walk up to 1/4 mile plus to the new " 7:25 stations". Now the BRT runs only every 15 minutes and the supplemental bus service has been abandoned. 😖
love your channel and content! and you should check out the system in Santiago Chile. We have some corridors that only run on electric buses and are very well run. Greetings from Sweden where i currently live and enjoy great bus services hehe
Hey, Guadalajara inhabitant here. The second Macrobús line is under construction, if we are lucky it'll open early 2022, it will be even longer than line 1 of Mexico City Metrobús with 41 km of length. That's due to being built on the Periférico ring road that encircles the city. It has some cool new concept for Guadalajara, like taking a feeder route that'll leave you on the station so you can take the main line.
Guadalajara is going through a hard situation with crime and violence so the least they deserve is a good new line. The one in Calzada was actually very good, they planned ahead of demand so that explains the very long and staggered stations
I would have to redo this list after the Periférico line opens -- Guadalajara would vault up the list, probably all the way to number two.
Crime and violence? Don't let the GDL Oficina de Visitantes y Convenciones hear you say that! And I will not be discouraged from riding the hell out of Macrobús when I visit next year. Nice try, though.
Thanks for your great comments on my videos -- it really means a lot!
Hi, yes in Guadalajara the brt "Macro Periférico" was recently open only 42.5 kilometers
CT Fastrak took time due to squabbling about rail vs bus. It was built over an abandoned rail line from Hartford to Waterbury via Bristol, and most long term planners wanted it to be rail so it could eventually continue down to Waterbury and take traffic off I-84. But the bus won out and they used their Federal funding to build it. It involved widening existing right of way, rebuilding all of the railroad bridges to accommodate two lanes, and keeping it separated from major streets and the Hartford-New Haven rail corridor. It is claimed to be easy to use due to the schedule app they developed, frequent service, and connectivity to other express bus routes and rail. I believe annual ridership goals were met in months, and 3x the projected number of passengers ride it.
Impressive. I've had a lot of comments from people who think BRT is always a bad compromise for an alignment that should be light rail. I really think every situation is different.
Great video! I think you check out the red line in Indianapolis. It’s an impressive project (especially for such a car-centric city) but it launched in late 2019 so it had some obvious issues with ridership. Also the local drivers have never seen anything of the sort so they’ve been a bit confused.
Yeah, I'd love to visit and check it out -- and the Cultural Trail too!
When he said we’re gonna talk about some cities we don’t usually talk about on this channel I knew it was hartfords time to shine
Up the Whalers! Wait, what happened to the Whalers?
@@CityNerd idk they came back for a little bit and are gone again ? Now the wolf pack might be coming back I heard? 🤷🏼♂️
@@alexzaleski6364 they moved to North Carolina and became the hurricanes
We have a BRT in my area as well in Provo, Utah. Back when I moved here in 2017 it was under construction. It goes from the Provo Frontrunner station (the commuter train that goes up to Salt Lake and Ogden) to downtown Provo, through BYU (Brigham Young University) then through downtown Orem through UVU ( Utah Valley University) and then the Orem Frontrunner Station. Though I hear rumors and of course it's rumors now that it might expand to the Provo Airport once the airport is done it's renovations. They are also building a BRT in Ogden, Utah that is currently under construction this once is supposed to go from the Ogden Frontrunner Station through downtown Ogden to Weber State University area. But I think they could also put a BRT in both Salt Lake City and St. George
You all have some super wide streets there -- ideal for BRT!
Ogden BRT is a disappointment. Only 1.5 miles of dedicated lanes and it’ll use shorter buses, unlike the articulated buses used on UVX
Wikipedia says there are possible future plans as well to expand possible BRT routes through Utah County along State Street, up to AF, and down to SF
I discovered CityNerd a week ago and have been hooked ever since! Keep up the good work!
I was disappointed that Utah Transit Authority's UVX (Utah Valley Express) was missing from ITDP's BRT rankings. Half of the 11-mile route is bus only lanes in the center median with signal priority at major intersections. The stops feature level boarding. It's currently fare free but will feature off-board payment once fares are instituted. Prior to the pandemic, it featured 6-minute headways during peak times. It's currently at 10-minute headways for most of the day. Pre-pandemic weekday ridership exceeded 15,000, which makes it competitive with Salt Lake City's light rail routes. The bus route that it replaced rarely exceeded 2,000 riders per weekday, which goes to show that BRT can be a serious transit mode when implemented correctly.
After looking over ITDP's ranking system, I would rank it somewhere between a 22 and 24, which would put it higher than Eugene's ranking of 20.
An honorable mention to the Optibús of León, México. At under 2 million people it has 5 BRT routes adding to a total of 61 km :)
Ohhh, I'll have to take a look! Thanks.
Pittsburgh is also building a new BRT system running from Oakland to Downtown to increase frequency and reliability of the 61’s and 71’s. Also, you really should’ve mentioned that the South Busway was North America’s first ever BRT system.
It's gonna be side running and it's gonna be crap
your flash-mention of The Vine in Vancouver WA is probably as close as I’ll ever get to a hometown shoutout on this channel lol. Glad to see Eugene on here properly, though
That new waterfront is super nice. I actually have a huge soft spot for the Couv.
Cool that you covered Guatemala and South America in this. Would like to see more Pan-American content.
And to answer your question on VIVA, the area is known as York Region. It's kind of like an equivalent to a county in the USA.
Last time I was in Mexico City, I saw the gondolas and was super-impressed. I was driving - and nearly dying every few minutes - so yes I was super-jealous of the gondola people above.
If you ever get a chance to revisit Richmond VA, it's an interesting little city that avoided a lot of the worst of the car centric development plaguing the South. It's got some surprisingly good urbanist bone structure for a small-mid sized Southern city.
The Pittsburg bus looks just beautiful!
Someone asked for a top ten underrated US cities list a few weeks ago. Pittsburgh would absolutely have to be on there.
I live between lines 1 & 3 in Mexico City. A few important things: I know peoplewho for some reason do not (ever !) take the metro but are comfortable riding the metrobus, whether due to class or fear (both pretty much umfounded), I know not. Also, the BRT lanes are used for emergency vehicles (ambulances and police) that rapidly course through the city when it would otherwise be impossible. And as you saw, the stations are a magnet for development, both commercial and residential.
What do you think about Houston’s MetroRapid Silver line? I wouldn’t put it on my top 10 either but seems worthy enough of an honorable mention. I believe Houston is building a few more “BRT” lines with the MetroRapid system too.
Yes! I freaking love the silver line, the drive is beautiful. It was supposed to be the gold line for metrorail, along a blue, green, and purple line, but only the green and purple lines were actually built. The Gold was turned into the silver BRT line and the blue line which runs horizontally all the way from westchase to 5th ward / east Houston is also becoming a BRT with some other 75 new miles of BRT being built according to the MetroNext plan, but we still got a long way to go before we stop this car dependency.
I'll have to spend some time checking it out. Houston is a super interesting city that I'd like to spend more time talking about on this channel.
Yes, and another BRT is planned to tower above I-10 on elevated BRT-dedicated lanes from the Northwest Transit Center (at the I-610 junction west of downtown) to downtown with very few stations/stops.
The proposed Houston terminus station for the Texas High Speed Rail is very near the METRO Northwest TC, so the BRT will likely be extended to the HSR station, allowing HSR passengers quick, very limited-stop service to/from Downtown Houston.
@@CityNerd , yes, you should.
The tired, overworked stereotypes are loooong gone. If you are one of those who last visited 30 years ago, you will be astounded at the changes, especially downtown.
MinuteMaid Park (Astr⚾️s), Toyota Center (R🏀ckets) and BBVA Stadium (Dynam⚽️ & Dash) are in a tight, easily-walkable triangle downtown with the Convention Center, TWO mega hotels and several other large hotels all inside this area. Sweet for the visiting conventioneer!
Do any other cities have two international airports AND a Spaceport inside the city limits?
The highly-diverse populous that speak over 145 languages, 30% of whom were born OUTSIDE the USA, create a HUGE variety of arts, food, music, food, culture, food, sexy architecture, museums and food. Did I mention the FOOD?
There is large-scale public art (murals, statuary) all over the city -- reminiscent of one of your (and my) favorite cities, CDMX.
It is funny to hear complaints about traffic, as in the 1980s, we were usually #2 in "congestion index", on the heels of #1 LA. Now, we are rarely in the top eight (Thanks to SoCal, Austin, Atlanta, SF, DC, Boston, Seattle, SoFla, etc...)
The Texas Medical Center, the world's largest medical complex, is about to start a huge expansion (called "TMC3") which will make it about 30% "huger".
Because we are a happy, welcoming citizenry AND because we aren't hemmed-in by geography (or our suburbs), people just keep coming...
You should take a peek!
@@CityNerd If I could make a request where is rapid transit (bus or train) that is used by over 10% in 2nd or 3rd tier cities, that are also walkable and bikeable, the USA? Having to leave the country and learn another language is a big obstacle when I just want to be able to catch the bus that runs every 15 minutes paying rent I can afford.
I quite like the infrastructure of a BRT system but I prefer a Lincoln tunnel esque service pattern where more infrequent suburban routes get funneled into a low interval arterial corridor. That way u get the main benefits of buses - wide service area, without sacrificing frequency where it counts. A single route BRT works well to build out a rapid transit network for cheap tho.
What I really dont get are grade separated BRT systems. If you're gonna spend the money ti grade separate, just make it rail honestly. Otherwise street running should be the way to go. Frankly I think street running (for both light rail and BRT) is underrated, it's a great way to make major avenues more pedestrian friendly and allows u to maximize system coverage which is just so important in north American urban sprawl. Worry about grade separation once u get the ridership or the funds ya know? We need viable transit now, not a decade from now when u secure the funding
Mississauga (western suburb of Toronto) has a much higher-quality BRT than the York Region BRT mentioned here. The Mississauga Transitway is fully grade-separated with passing lanes at stations. There are two separate segments, which are connected by an expressway with bus shoulders (limited-speed bus lanes which are only used to bypass traffic jams). It is used by regional (GO) buses as well as Mississauga Transit express buses.
OK, now I have to check it out.
Northern suburbs of Toronto are generally considered to be York Region, places like Vaughn, Richmond Hill, Aurora, and Markham. They even have commuter trains running through them!
you could argue that some boroughs in the city of Toronto count as northern suburbs, like North York (which is conveniently south of York region proper!), however, places within the city of Toronto seem to be intensifying much more quickly than the surrounding area, so they're becoming less of suburbs and more like a city proper
Yeah, that's the sense I get. Thanks for clarifying the region I was looking at!
BRT screams to be electric trolley busses. Makes the move to light rail even easier
Tempo BRT from AC transit is interesting. It’s not a real BRT but it’s getting close.
It's fairly good as far as BRT standard goes. Not the best but there was a desperate need for a local service to complement BART bypassing all of the high density neighborhoods, and it does that job well.
I'll have to check Tempo out.
We have a pretty sweet busway here in Auckland (Northern Busway) that is worth a look. Apart from not having off board payment it pretty much ticks all the boxes of high quality BRT and is currently being extended
BRT is a great solution for a lot of cities that don't/won't have metros.
VIVA is the BRT network in York Region, directly north of the City of Toronto. York Region has ~1.3 million people and it encompasses places like Richmond Hill, Vaughan, Markham, Aurora, and Newmarket. They're all periphery bedroom communities that grew to the point that they've started to densify and urbanize. It will take decades but at least the process has started.
Canada has always been much better at urbanizing its outlying areas than the US.
Apparently Calgary which has four long BRT routes, and has plans for more, hasn't been rated yet, because they're only about four years old. It would be cool to see how they rank when they do get rated because they're very nice and fast
This was a great video on my favorite way to travel. I am a female motorcoach driver as well. I was in South America for a year and that's where I grew to love riding the bus, whether a city transit or across country town-to-town.
I drove a bus in Aspen, CO for the RAFTA system. Do you know it? It was based on the south American bus systems. What I understand, it is the largest rural transit system in our nation with a 100-mile or so corridor. The acronym BRT stands for "BE RIGHT THERE" in that system so I didn't know the official acronym lol. Not sure what rating it has but it is really cool😎.
Pittsburgh’s bus way was pretty good when I used it a few years ago. Exception was when there was heavy rains and buses and cars get stuck on flooded Washington Bvld.
@@thebestbaseballguy I took the p10 bus to Hamar Park and Ride, so it would use Wash Blvd.
I’ve been to Curitiba, it’s a neat city!
Good BRT can make a world of difference for easy access to a city. Milwaukee has started adding several dedicated bus lanes for its new BRT, but so much more work needs to be done
Albuquerque resident here. Gotta say, ART does get at a real need in the ABQ area for good public transit, but I feel that it falls a bit short. The system really only services the downtown/university area, and does not exactly get riders out of the traffic they would be stuck in if they were in a car. This is especially true downtown. Albuquerque is a sprawling, car-centric city with little money to spend on these kinds of projects, so in order for ART to truly make a difference, lots of money would need to be spent on expansion of the network/modification of street infrastructure to ensure that the system is serving its intended purpose, which is to get people to their destination quicker and easier than a car would.
Minneapolis' new Orange Line BRT opens December 4th. 17 miles, 5 cities, some 2-level center running highway stations, I think the station at Lake St. alone was $50 million, and also a dedicated new bridge/off ramp into downtown.
Unfortunately the Orange Line has almost zero dedicated road space, so it will probably end up stuck in traffic. At least it's better than the Red Line. The planned Gold and Purple/Rush (if this one gets past the NIMBYs) Lines would probably be considered Bronze/Silver BRT if they get built according to current plans.
I'll have to check it out.
@@SparenofIria I'm most concerned about the exit ramp stations at 98th st and 66th st. However I think the rest of it will go smoothly as It will be using express lanes almost the entire way, which are priced to keep traffic at 55mph, and downtown I believe it will use bus only lanes.
@@armstrong9543 Definitely worried about those exit ramp stations too. Forcing the buses to weave out through traffic and back makes them very susceptible to traffic issues. But assuming money was the issue why median stations weren't used in those locations, it may be possible for dedicated median stations to be built in the future so that the buses can stay in the same lane.
@@SparenofIria Bloomington actually has a decent plan to up-zone and urbanize the Nicollet ave corridor and the 98th st. station area. How fast that plan comes to fruition is a bit up in the air, however the city did receive state approval for a redevelopment tif district for 98th st station this year which should at least get some projects proposed
Great video, love discussing transit.
As a St. Louis resident I know buses carry more people daily than our light rail does, so I was interested in BRT. In 2015 I visited Cleveland to check out the “rail like” Healthline.
As a wheelchair user I’d hoped I could easily board/unboard - the way I do light rail or modern trams. Unfortunately the operator had to leave the driver’s seat to grab a plastic bridge for the wide gap.
To me, rail like means I can come & go freely without having to involve the operator. I’m curious if any BRT line with level boarding platforms eliminates the need for such a gap bridge.
The Metrobus in Mexico City is all platform-level loading -- the stations are at a bit of an elevation, but it's a very gradual ramp and no steps. I'm afraid I can't recall whether there's any gap or retractable ramps for loading. I think that's the standard they're trying to meet though -- level boarding with no additional assistance required.
Come to chicago bet it will change your mind on this ‼️💯
Great channel. What about a video on inner-city gondolas?
I'll add it to the list. Novelties in some places, essential infra in others!
San Antonio Texas VIA Metropolitan Transit is planning to starting construction soon on BRT running north to south starting at the international airport.
I lived in Tijuana... it was terrifying! public transit was simple a bunch of unmarked vans and being on the roads in that city was truely scary.
Used to live in the Ottawa area. Great bus transit. Yes, too expensive.
8:55 Those would be Vaughan, Markham and Richmond Hill
A video on quasi-BRT lines and the various issues they have would be pretty cool.
Oh, just wait until Division BRT ("FX") opens in a year and starts piling up delay at the rail crossing at SE 8th.
@@CityNerd
I'm hoping that TriMet uses it as an excuse to push the city to finally grade separate that crossing.
I loved this video and the inclusion of cities like Puebla and Guadalajara, but as a resident of Querétaro, I had to laugh a bit at the Qrobús being described as "great infrastructure". It's finally a properly structured BRT system but it's so full of problems and it doesn't connect most of the population to where they actually want to go, it's incredibly expensive and most times you need to pay double fares because a single bus route won't get you to where you need to go and you can wait forever for a bus because schedules are nonexistent. When the locals say they miss the disorganised bus network before the BRT was built, you know you've done something really wrong. Great video though!!
Haha, I just like that they built proper center running stations and bus lanes, but I did notice there weren't any actual BRT services. Any plans for articulated buses? Querétaro is growing so fast! Just building more roads isn't going to cut it.
@@CityNerd That's fair haha. Unfortunately no plans for articulated buses so far, because even though there is a line of central running stations on one specific avenue, the buses that use it branch out like regular bus systems into small, usually unnoticeable stops in other neighborhoods and routes. That's also why I'd struggle to call it a proper BRT. I wish the government did more, we've grown into a massive collection of car oriented suburbs with very lackluster transit.
Multi-Modal Nerd Heaven - it has to be CityNerd.
I get disproportionately excited about some truly wonky crap.
When I was visiting Seattle, taking the bus which has off-loading payment, I asked the driver how often people just jump off and run without paying, he replied, "All the time." It might be faster, but it encourages theft.
In Indianapolis, we now have one BRT line in operation. Another is under construction, and a third is in the planning and design phase. That's progress, but it's not nearly enough. For the record, we have no trains, and the state legislature expressly prohibited us from building light rail.
Now THAT'S absolutely PHUCKED UP!
The Guadalajara's second BRT line will be 42 km long, being the longest in the Americas and one of the longest in the world. It is almos finished and is expected to open in January 2022. It will have all the specifications to get al lest Silver Standard, so with that Guadalajara would made to get in to the second place of your list.
Yes, I'll have to update. Maybe after I make a field trip to Guadalajara!
I love watching your channel! Check out the new rapid bus transit in Provo/Orem called the Utah Valley Express (UVX). It’s free
Indianapolis now uses exclusively battery electric buses on its BRT system. Hopefully, we'll see electric buses enter service in a lot more cities in the next few years.
There's gonna be a new line under construction in CDMX next year: line 8 (or 0 idk) which will go through the ring road circuito :D. I love using metrobus better than normal buses (except like 4, line 4 sucks) but it gets too crowded and even though it ain't that slow, the commute is kind of tedious, but to be fair it is better than nothing. I think it's supposed to be a complementary service to the metro system but some lines are replacing a metro line or a metro extension. Also mexibus is kind of shit haha, line 4 has been under construction for almost 10 years and you have to use each line's individual cards to access (transfers are not free) but it is safer for people in EDOMEX (gotta say the State of Mexico is regarded as kind of the Bronx and Jersey of Mexico, mostly because of the inept government there). I loved the video 💖
I can't wait for them to finish opening the should-have-been-opened-with-the-rest-of-the-line parts of Mexibús Línea 4.
I kinda wondered why the bus service was fragmented in that way. You see some of the same kinds of things in the US, though, where different agencies at the municipal, county, and regional level run different services that don't work well together. It's incredible the number of services that converge at Indios Verdes.
@@CityNerd In a few years, Santa Marta on Metro Line A will become Indios Verdes level of complicated, given that it will serve the metro, a gondola, and two elevated BRT lines. Mexico City is really interesting due to the multiple intermodal (but not exactly well-organized) hubs at the edge of the city.
Mexibús line 2 also took like 5 or 6 years to complete, which is absurd. Also, stations are kinda antipedestrian, unlike Metrobús, which always brings with it's lines (at least the most recent ones) ped and bike infrastructure.
And I always found it funny how for line 4, before 2020 they bought normal buses and made a makeshift express line to indios verdes because most of the stations and the dedicated lane weren't ready, all the while blaming CDMX for the delay saying that it was because they wouldn't allow the buses in Indios Verdes.
Anyway, as a mexiquense you learn to laugh at these things to preserve your mental health.
@@eduardovazquezramirez6564 And now CDMX companies are managing the construction of lines into EdoMex I think, with the Trolebús Elevado Chalco-Sta Marta? Of course that line really should have been a Línea A extension but at least something is getting built.
In Guadalajara they are about to open a BRT line in the periférico
Yup, I love to see it.
BRT sounds like light rail in the median without the rails. In some cities, it might be a good way to bootstrap light rail, i.e., get multiple lines up and running quicker and then install the rails incrementally later.
In many major American cities more than 100 years old, that's where the light rail USED to be. That and street running trolleys, which were better than buses on city streets.
"Sounds like" and "actually is" are two very different things altogether....
I live in one of the suburbs outside of Toronto with the VIVA BRT that you mentioned. It has great potential, but the way it is rn isn't the strongest. I can't speak for VIVA Yellow or VIVA Purple too much as I've mainly only used VIVA Blue and Orange, so your mileage may vary I guess.
Anyway VIVA Blue is the longest and arguably most important route (it connects 4 towns in York Region and has stops in northern Toronto, no other regular route connects more than one town in the region) only has rapidways in parts of the trip. This is not too bad if you're only taking the bus to get around the city of Richmond Hill, but if you are trying to get down to Toronto or north through Aurora/to Newmarket you'll more than likely end up going from a smooth experience to being stuck in a traffic jam. This is especially true during peak hours and it's frustrating. Frequency is also frustrating. It's not uncommon to sit there for 14-20 minutes waiting for the next bus then two come at the same time and then next one isn't for another 14-20 minutes. This doesn't sound too bad, especially when you consider a regular York Region Transit bus comes once every 40 minutes in most cases, but it honestly felt more frequent pre rapidway which makes no sense to me. Plus I feel like some spacing between the two buses could be nice so that instead of both coming together every 14 minutes for example one of them comes every 7. Other lines, like VIVA Orange, it's not uncommon to end up waiting for 20-30 instead of the 13 I mentioned for the Blue, although from my personal experience almost all of it has a rapidway which was really sweet when I was trying to get back home from college during rush hour.
There are plans to expand all the lines to have rapidways fully, as well as establishing new routes/rerouting older routes to cover more of York Region which is really neat. There's also POTENTIAL for the rapidways to be replaced with light rail in the future (though I highly doubt that future is anywhere near us) so I believe at some point, hopefully soon, it'll be great and reliable. But we're still working on it right now