California Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology

This report documents a research effort to understand the current practice and issues associated with Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) planning and deployment. It reviewed the design options incorporated into existing BRT deployments across California and the nation. The project team interviewed practitioners of California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) Districts and transit agencies to understand the BRT project approval decision-making process, the impacts of BRT implementation and the Measures of Effectiveness (MOEs) for transit and non-transit system performance. The studies revealed that though Caltrans and transit agencies do use a similar set of MOEs for the evaluation of BRT projects, the emphasis and parametric assumptions for the MOEs may be different and can influence the results of the evaluation. Other evaluation criteria and factors must be considered. This study concluded that a systematic approach needs to be developed and taken in the BRT planning process.