California Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology

This report investigated the institutional aspects of Bus Rapid Transit through a macroscopic examination of relevant issues ascertained through a literature review, a series of project team brainstorming meetings, and input from members of the Federal Transit Administration’s Bus Rapid Transit staff. The literature review provided insight into the history of Bus Rapid Transit concepts ranging from very early research in the United States in the late 1950s, continuing with dual mode systems and early busways in the 1960s and 1970s, international experiences in Latin America and Canada, and the return of interest in and research on Bus Rapid Transit in the U.S. Several dozen issues were identified and were grouped into the following nine categories: intergovernmental and inter-organizational; intra-transit agency; political; public relations andmarketing; funding and finance; labor; safety and liability; planning and land use; and the physical environment. The issues that were investigated for this macroscopic examination form the basis of a survey currently being administered to members of the U.S. Bus Rapid Transit Consortium, a group of seventeen transit agencies who are each interested in developing their own Bus Rapid Transit system. Responses will provide valuable insight into and comment on Bus Rapid Transit institutional issues actually being experienced. This project will continue with site-specific case study analyses of institutional issues.