Curitiba, Brazil is known for being the birthplace of BRT. Photo by Robert Blackie.
Three global organizations today launched a new public database of bus rapid transit (BRT) systems around the world.
Here are some need-to-know numbers of BRT trends:
13 – Cities with BRT systems in the United States
24 – Cities with BRT systems in Asia
36 – Countries with BRT systems worldwide
95 – Different indicators used in the brtdata.org database
129 – New corridors implemented globally since 2000
134 – Cities with BRT systems
560 – Kilometers (348 miles) of BRT and busways in Brazil—more than any other country
3,358 – Kilometers (2,087 miles) of BRT worldwide
110,000 – Passengers on New York City’s BX Select Bus Service, the highest volume of passengers of all U.S. systems
600,000 – passenger trips daily on U.S. BRT systems
22 million – passenger trips daily worldwide
The new site, BRTdata.org, provides reliable and up-to-date data to help researchers, transit agencies, city officials, and NGOs understand and make better decisions to improve BRT and bus corridors in their cities. This is the first time that this publicly available data has been compiled in one place.
The website was created by EMBARQ (the producer of this blog) and the Across Latitudes and Cultures – Bus Rapid Transit Centre of Excellence (ALC-BRT CoE), in collaboration with the International Energy Agency (IEA). Users are invited to improve the knowledge base by reporting data inconsistencies or sharing additional data to fill in any gaps. Contact: info [at] brtdata [dot] org.
LEARN MORE:
Read our report: Cities with BRT have a unique opportunity to market and brand their systems and position themselves as efficient and convenient transport options, as EMBARQ highlighted in its report, “From Here to There: A Creative Guide to Making Public Transport the Way to Go.”
Watch videos: Check out EMBARQ’s YouTube playlist of original videos about BRT systems around the world.
Join the discussion: For an introduction to BRTdata.org and a chance to ask questions to the partners behind the project, tune into a webinar on Tuesday, April 10 at 12:00 p.m. EDT. Register here.
Get a tour: Watch this screencast tutorial on how to use new website.
Correction, 4/4/12: A previous version of this post incorrectly stated that there were 560 kilometers of BRT in Brazil. In fact, there are 560 kilometers of BRT and busways.
