Integrated Transport

Lahore announced that its 32-kilometer bus rapid transit (BRT) system will be set to begin operations by September, emulating Istanbul’s Metrobus transit system, with a gift of 100 articulated buses from Istanbul Mayor Kadir Tobbaş.

The San Francisco County Transportation Authority approved the design of San Francisco’s first BRT Corridor, along Van Ness Avenue, one of San Francisco’s most trafficked corridors.

The Los Angeles Metro will open a 4-mile extension of its 26,670 passenger-per-day Orange Line BRT this Saturday. It is an extension of the system’s most quickly growing lines, according to ridership.

The Chief Minister of the Indian state of Dehli announced her commitment to expanding BRT, which has seen higher than 80 percent satisfaction rates among users.

Urban Development and Accessibility

Cebu City, a large South Philippines municipality, is planning a transit-oriented pedestrian BRT plaza and retail space with more than $230 million in available loan funding by The World Bank and Agence Française de Développement.

South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan announced that inadequate transport infrastructure investment and skills shortages are hindering the country’s economic growth. Meanwhile, Rustenburg, an exurb of Pretoria, has announced the construction of a BRT system.

Air Quality and Climate Change

The director of EMBARQ (the producer of this blog) Holger Dalkmann sees hope in a $175 billion commitment made by the world’s largest multi-lateral development banks to invest in sustainable transport, announced at last week‘s United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20.

Tunis was rated by The Economist Intelligence unit to be one of Africa’s most sustainable cities due to above-average performance in air quality, sanitation and urban transport.

Health and Road Safety

In India, an average of 410 people perish each day due to road accidents, despite the establishment of the  Indian Ministry of Shipping’s Sunder Committee on Road Safety and Traffic Management.

Punjab University in Punjab State, India will now require road safety as part of its compulsory curriculum.

As Vancouver’s bike share program is being planned, debate by the city council  over the program’s viability continues as the Province of British Columbia’s laws requiring bike helmets for all cyclists may prove a challenge in attracting riders.

Marketing and Communications

CreditDonkey.com, a financial advice site, produced a clean, simple infographic on mass transit ridership in the United States, noting that transit users walk 13 minutes (or 316 percent) more than non-transit users in the United States.

Transport For London, the London metropolitan area’s transportation authority, has preempted the crush of visitors for the 2012 Olympics with a traffic prediction map, noting which areas to avoid on southern England’s road network during the international mega-event.