Dr.T.Sivakumar-Delivers-the-2012-John-Diandas-Memorial-Lecture-PDF.pdf

7/24/2019 Dr.T.Sivakumar-Delivers-the-2012-John-Diandas-Memorial-Lecture-PDF.pdf

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1. Background

Cities in developing countries are facing severe

transportation related problems due to rapid growth ineconomy, urbanization as well as migration of people to

cities. When consider Asia as a whole, with almost 3.9

billion people, Asia has 61% of the world population. Its

share of the world population rose from 9% in 1920 to

more than 48% in 2005, and expected to reach 54% in

20301. The Figure-1 shows the trend of urban population

growth rate. ADB has estimated that 80% of Asia's neweconomic growth will in future be generated in its urban

economics. However, there will also be large numbers of

urban residents who are poor. The Figure-2 shows the

urban status and trend. This mixture of different income

group population makes the urban transportation

problems in developing countries much more complex.

The Figure-3 depicts this complex as vicious-circle of

urban degradation.

Figure 1 Urban Population Growth in billions2

1ADB, 2010, Sustainable Transport Initiative, Manila.

2

UN,2006, Dept.of Economic and Social Affairs,PopulationDivision.


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Figure 2 Urban Population Status and Trend3

Figure 3 Vicious Circle of Urban Transport Degradation

Although both high income population and low income

population demands for more and more transport

facilities but due to their varied affordability their mode

preference also varies. It causes congestion because of

limited capacity existence with excesses demand. The

real challenge faced by the transport professionals is how

to break this vicious circle and to relieve congestion.

2. Unlearning Traditional Unrealistic Assumptions

Humankind is fascinated with speed. Speed escalation

during the early twentieth century was too much for

3

World Bank Report, 2005.


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professional disciplines, politicians and the society.

Effortlessness of speed has not been understood till today.

Due to rapid changes we have not had enough time to

understand the systemic effects of speed, since engineers,politicians and society were happy with the new

opportunities and could not recognize the losses that go

hand in hand with promoting speed. If we examine the

transport science we have to recognize that what operates

is a kind of ideology instead of rationality and in

transport policy what works is an increasing populism

instead of responsibility7

. The most common dogmas andmyths are: (a) growth of mobility, (b) saving time by

increasing speed, (c) freedom of modal choice.

2.1 Growth of Mobility

With increasing motorization mobility increases. The

number of trips a person makes a day increases with

number of cars per inhabitants. More cars mean more

mobility. In textbooks of the twentieth century, this was

the traditional definition of mobility. We failed to ask

why mobility outside the house is necessary. Each trip is

related to a purpose. This purpose is to compensate the

existence of local deficits of the origin at the destination.

Mobility can therefore only increase if local deficits

increase, which means poor urban planning, poor

logistics, poor management. All these deficits have to becompensated by physical mobility. But the number of

purposes in society have not changed during increased

motorization. Mobility has nothing to do with car

ownership since it is purpose-related. Each trip with the

car replaces a trip of another mode as shown in Figure-4.


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Increasing car mobility means decreasing mobility for

pedestrians, cyclists or public transport. There is no

growth of mobility in the transport system. The number

of trips remains constant.

Figure 4 Reality of Motorization and Mobility

For an example, In the early seventies, Austrian city

brought a new transport plan to convert its motorway topedestrian areas and then Vienna is one of the most

livable cities today. Though motorization in developed

countries was broken by changing the physical structures

during 1990s, developing countries still fails to learn the

lesson.

2.2 Saving Time by Increasing Speed

All investments in transport infrastructure are based oncalculations, which assume less travel time by increasing

speed according to physics, as mentioned in Equation-1.

(The signs of +ve and -ve is just shown purposefully to

represent its trend only.)

(-TT)[L] / (+ ) ............................. Eq-1

Motorization

Pedestrians,

cyclists, and PT

Constant number of trip per person per day

No.oftrip

perpersonperday

Trip by CAR


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The above assumption is purely based on the myth of trip

length is constant. In macro picture of urban transport,

motorization do increases travel speed but unfortunatelydo not reduces travel time instead people trend to travel

longer. Therefore, motorization does not reduces travel

time but increases their choice through longer travel

length.

2.3 Freedom of Modal Choice

Passengers can be split based on their choices into (1)

Captive riders who does not own a vehicle and has no

choice other than public transport and (2) Choice riders

who own a vehicle and can choose their mode. Since

humans have invented vehicle (new transport mode) they

are also able to control and master them, and park them at

house door. Figure-5 shows the acceptance of pedestrians

towards walking from car-oriented cities in Europe.

Figure 5 Acceptance function for pedestrians4

4Peperna. O., 1982, The catchment areas of public transport stops

in the middle Straenbahnund Bus routes, the Technical University

of Vienna.


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Thus the assumption of "freedom of modal choice" is not

accepted by drivers and complained "When we dont use

public transport we are punished by congestion/road

pricing". Proper land use control and land valuetheory/policy are not in place and therefore parking

location and people's acceptable walking distance are not

matched.

Equity between cars and public transport would be

necessary everywhere. This means the walking distance

to a parking place has to be at least as long as the walkingdistance to the public transport stop 5. Cars have to be

stored in garages, situated as far away as public transport

stops (PTS) as given in Figure-6. If PTS and parking

could not be located closer, then place them separately so

that the distance to both could be still more or less same.

Figure 6 Equal distance to park and public transport

5 Knoflacher H., 1989, Transport concept in Eisenstadt-performed

leads on behalf of the state capital Eisenstadt.


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3. Congestion

Growing population both from low income and high

income groups and their mobilization needs via formaland informal mode of transport in urban cities along with

inadequate infrastructure, poor traffic control, poor land

use control, indiscipline drivers and road users create

heavy congestion in urban areas, costing more and more

to the society in terms of hours lost in traffic, longer

commuting times, etc., as shown in Figure-7. The

informal sector, cars and motorcycles are all contributingto this congestion6.

Figure 7 Cause and Effect of Congestion

6 UITP, 2003, Better urban mobility in developing countries

Air pollution

Noise

Time/Energy

lost

Urban sprawl

Urban population-Volume

Road Capacity

Traffic Mix -

Informal modes

Indiscipline Road

Users

Deficient Land

Use

Indiscipline Road

Users

TrafficAccidents

Mental stress

C

O

N

GE

S

T

I

O

N


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3.1 Traditional Approach to Congestion Relieve

Congestion is judged by traffic volume to roadway

capacity ratio (v/c). Congestion will be observed when

traffic volume approaches the roadway capacity (v/c1).

If traffic volume (flow) exceeds the capacity of a road,

traditional transport engineers tend to add additional

lanes to reduce density and enhance the speed. This is the

effect of traditional transport education. If density is

decreased, the car transport sector becomes more

attractive, more people use the car, the speed is enhancednot only locally; this produces more car traffic and finally

the same congestion appears, but only on a higher level7

as depicted in Figure-8.

Figure 8 Immediate Effect and Systemic Effect5

This is the inevitable outcome of traditional transport

treatment methods. This has been studied on an urban

7Knoflacher. H., Sadhana Vol. 32, Part 4, August 2007, pp.293

307.

Year1977 1978 1988

Before:

22,000

Immediately after:

7,000 - Forecasted byTraditional models

80,000

How system really works

26,000


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motorway in Vienna5 where traditional transport planning

had forecasted a reduction in traffic flow when the

motorway was opened. Ten years later, the urban roads

had more traffic than before and there was about fourtimes more car traffic on the motorway. This was because

the motorway produced its own urban structure

consisting of urban sprawl and economic activities along

the motorways.

Another example, in the 1970s, it was considered a

symbol of progress when the Cheonggye River in Seoul,Korea, was covered by a road and elevated freeway were

built above it. But by the year 2000, the Cheonggye area

was considered the most congested and noisy part of

Seoul, badly in need of revitalization, and people agreed

that nothing could be done to improve the area as long as

the freeway remained. One of the key campaign promises

by the Mayor who got elected in 2001 was to remove this

freeway and restore the Cheonggye river8.

Figure 9 Conversion of expressway back to river in Seoul8

8 Kumarage. A.S., 2012, Sri Lanka transport sector policy note,

World Bank


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These are the reasons why Rahmah9 worried saying "Like

most metropolitan cities in developing country, the

Government has overemphasized on road projects than

the projects that support public transport and pedestrianaccess" about the government of Jakarta. It's high time

for us also to think.

3.2 Differently approach to Congestion Relive

The unit of volume mentioned above in volume to

roadway capacity ratios (v/c) is vehicle/hr/lane which

takes account of vehicle. Whereas a simple definition oftransport is defined as "moving people or goods from one

point to another" which does not care about vehicle in

which it transported. Therefore, fundamentally, the

traditional approach has lost focus in terms of volume

from "people movement" to "vehicular movement" as

later one easily countable.

The car (vehicle) is the innovation of our technical

civilization, but has adverse social effects. Road is a

public space and, made and maintained by taxpayers

money. Concerning the basic rights of humans in public

space, if pedestrians were to behave in the same manner

as car drivers and use the same amount of space as shown

in figure-10, he/she would be called crazy by our society.

The misuse of public space especially in urban areas is

the so-called congestion problem5. The same is true with

the parking problem. It seems totally crazy to leave four

empty slots (four people) in a precious public space to

9 Rahmah. A, 2004, "Sustainable Urban Transport in Asia and

Europe", International Symposium, Muenster, Germany.


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block all other activities, and act as a barrier to

pedestrians, cyclists, trees, etc5.

Figure 10 A pedestrian using a "walking tool"5

Every driver needs to be consciously reconsider to use thepublic space efficiently. Therefore vehicle occupancy (no

of people carried) must be focused than the no of vehicle

moved. In this regards, there are several initiatives like;

High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane, Diamond lane, Car

free lane, ride sharing, van/car pool and obviously all

modes of public transport.

4. Focused Area: Colombo Metropolitan Region

4.1 Demand for Passenger Mobility

Demand estimation in 2011 for modal shares of the

country reported in Table18. The comparison of Veh.km

and Pax.km between busses and private vehicle clearly

shows the efficient of public transport.

Table 1 Transport Activity and Modal shares9

Mode Vehicle km (mn.) % Passenger km(mn.) %

Buses 1,379 5 55,177 55Railways 9 0 5,365 5Private Vehicles 16,605 60 25,759 26Para-Transit 4,841 18 11,348 11Goods Vehicles 4,819 17 2,585 3Water Transport 3 0 0

Total 27,657 100 100,236 100


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4.2 Motor Vehicles and ownership rates

Number of motor vehicles in western province in 2010

and vehicle ownership rate (VOR) in the country arereported in Table29. As motor cycles and three wheelers

which are imported at very comparatively low duty rates

have become the actual competition to public transport9.

Among four wheel vehicle category, private vehicles

represent higher portion and posses a VOR as 14 per

1000 persons noticeably.

Table 2 Motor vehicles and ownership rate9

Vehicle Category Western

Province %

VOR/1000Persons

Buses 19,006 2 2

Dual Purpose 105,831 10 9

Private Vehicle 200,986 19 14

Land Vehicle 88,570 8 10

Good Transport Veh. 15,404 1 4Motor bike 464,435 43 66

Three wheeler 179,124 17 23

Others 1,743 0 0

1,075,099 100

4.3 Demand forecasting

Traffic demand forecasted and presented in Figure-11

shows that bus transport share of passenger km wouldreduce from 55 percent to 20 percent by 2031 and that

private travel share would increase from 26 percent to 57

percent. Bus transport is seen to lose significance by

dropping to 45 mn passenger kms by 2031, even though

it will increase from the current 56 mn passenger km to

61 mn passenger kms by 20219.


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Figure 11 Modal Share Projections (2011-2031)9

5. Public Transport Alternatives

It is widely agreed that provision of extensive and well-

organized public transportation is fundamental to

resolving urban mobility challenges 10 . Mass transit

allows large numbers of people to be moved along a

single axis. This is essential for larger cities where the

number of people to be transported is highlyconcentrated, and the travel distances may be relatively

long. Mass transit has traditionally been provided by rail-

based modes, usually metro, commuter rail, light rail,

mono-rail, etc. More recently, bus has also been used to

provide mass transit in a wide range of countries, and is

now usually referred to as Bus Rapid Transit (BRT).

While mass transit is the most effective means of movinglarge numbers of people rapidly across an urban area, it

faces a number of challenges which are relevant

everywhere, and can be highly significant in developing

countries;

10Finn. B.M., 2010, Proceedings of ITRN, University College

Dublin, Ireland.


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Mass transit systems can be expensive. Rail-based

systems such as underground metro can cost in excess

$100 million per kilometer (Table-5).

The lead time to develop systems can be long. Metroprojects often take a decade or more from

commencing design to being operational.

The combination of raising the finance and the lead

time to system opening often means that the transport

demand grows faster than new capacity can be added.

Financing mechanisms for the more expensive transit

systems can result in public authorities facing long-term debt servicing.

The economic case for rail-based transit is often

marginal due to the high investment requirements,

and is dependent on the value attributed to anticipated

economic development arising from the improved

infrastructure.

Disruption during a long construction period cancause sustained and serious mobility problems on a

corridor which was already under pressure, and can

cause closure of businesses.

Many transit systems require a large number of the

passengers to travel to/from the stations, with an

expensive network of feeder services and

inconvenience and/or cost of interchange.

Rail-based transit systems displace the existing bus

operators. In many countries, these are extensive

private companies whose business may be severely

curtailed with no means of participation in the new

transit system.


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6. Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)

6.1 Why BRT

While rail based public transports are superior in carryingcapacity, speed and reliability, they suffers from ROW

flexibility thus less accessibility to passengers. Whereas

tyre-based public transport (buses) has highest freedom

of route flexibility but suffers from capacity.

The developing countries were on search of new

alternative public transport which would combinepositive attributes of both rail based mode (high

capacity) and bus based mode (route flexibility) while

affordable. Eventually, with the success of Latin-

American bus based transport system, a world stunning

term "Bus Rapid Transit" is coined now. It is not a bus

but an integrated system.

BRT has emerged as a solution that meets most or all of

those challenges mentioned above. In most cases (but not

all), bus-based transit can meet the transportation

capacity requirements when given dedicated running

ways11. Investment costs for BRT are significantly lower

and are affordable to city authorities many BRT

systems have been implemented for less than the cost of

one kilometer of metro. The economic case is usually farsuperior, and many systems generate financial surpluses

which can either contribute to debt servicing or be used

for system expansion or upgrade. Lead times to

implementation are significantly shorter than for rail-

based systems, allowing cities to quickly make significant

11

ITDP, 2007, "Bus Rapid Transit Planning Guide".


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additions to passenger carrying capacity10.

Cities have also appreciated that the organizational

structure can accommodate existing operators, either byfranchising/contracting routes to bus operators where

they already have the capability, or acting as an agent of

transformation for low-grade big-bus operators (e.g.

Bogota) or for paratransit operators to move to big-bus

operations (e.g. Lagos). The paratransit sector can also be

engaged to provide feeder services and integrated with

the BRT (e.g. Cape Town). The private operators oftensupply or take financial responsibility for the rolling

stock, which reduces the investment requirements of city

or national government and provides the operators with a

greater stake in the system and its success10. The global

overview of BRT systems is shown in Table-3.

Table 3 Global overview of BRT systems10

Region Major Cities with BRTSouth

America

Bogota, Cali, Curitiba, Porto Alegre, Quito, Recife,

Santiago, Sao Paulo

NorthAmerica

Cleveland, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Pittsburgh,Vancouver

Asia Amman*, Cebu*, Istanbul, Jakarta, Manila*,

Nagoya, Seoul, Taipei

China Beijing, Chengzhou, Dalian, Kunming, Guangzhou,

Hangzhou, Jinan,

India Ahmedabad, Delhi, Indore, Pune

Australia Adelaide, Brisbane, Sydney

Africa Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria (Tswane),

Lagos, Accra*

6.2 Evidence of BRT

New perspectives have emerged, many of which have

shown that previous assumptions about bus transit were


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incorrect, which in turn misinformed transit alternatives

appraisal10.

For example, it was widely held that metro and tramsstimulate property and economic development, and lead

to an uplift in property values, but that bus did not.

Appraisals took this perception into account. However,

property development valued at $4.3 billion has taken

place along the Cleveland BRT alignment while the

property sector has generally been depressed elsewhere in

the city; development to the value of $800 million hastake place along the Pittsburgh BRT alignment. Research

in Seoul has revealed uplift in property prices and rental

values in the vicinity of BRT stations12.

It was also widely held that metro, LRT and tram attract

car users, whereas bus systems are far less successful in

doing so. In fact, while BRT achieves major increases in

ridership, a large part of this ridership increase is in trips

new to transit, even in North American and Australian

cities with high car ownership as shown in Table-4.

Table 4 Ridership gains by BRT10

City % Ridership Gain inCorridor

% of ridership newtransit trips

Los Angeles +40% >30%

Miami +85% >50%Brisbane +60% >45%Vancouver +30% >25%Boston +100% >30%Mexico City >50%Bogota >10%

12 Cervero, Robert and Kang, C.D., 2009, Bus Rapid Transit

impacts on land uses and land values in Seoul, UC Berkley.


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6.3 Investment Cost and Capacity of BRT systems

The investment cost per kilometer in million dollars and

their actual capacity (ridership; not maximum) in

passengers per hour per direction are shown in Table-5.In general, bus-based systems can be matched or

exceeded the capacity of tram and of LRT, and the top-

end BRT systems (e.g. Bogota) can match the ridership of

many metro systems10.

Table 5 Investment cost and capacity of BRT systems13

Line Capital Cost

/Km ($M)

Actual capacity

(pax /hour / direction)Hong Kong Metro $220 81,000Bangkok Skytrain $74 25,000 50,000Caracas Metro $90 21,600-32,000Mexico City Metro $41 19,500 - 39,300Kuala Lumpur LRT $50 10,000 30,000Bogota TransMilenio $5 35,000 - 45,000Sao Paulo Busways $2 27,000 -35,000Porto Alegre Busway $2 28,000

Curitiba Busway $2 15,000Quito Electric Trolley BRT $5 9,000-15,000TransJakarta $1 8,000

In general, BRT can provide the same transportation

capacity for between a third and a tenth of the investment

cost of rail alternatives. This does not necessarily mean

that BRT is automatically the investment option with

greatest economic return, since many other factors mayalso be relevant. However, it does mean that bus transit

options which can achieve the transportation performance

requirements should be taken as the Base Case in transit

13 ITDP, 2003, Sustainable Transport, Fall 2003.


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investment appraisals, and that significantly more

expensive technologies should only be selected where

they can demonstrate a superior economic return10.

6.4 Characteristics of BRT

There is a wide variety of BRT systems, but they can be

all be described in terms of the following key elements:

Dedicated running way, either total segregation or

with priority at intersection and other network

interface points. High quality interchanges, terminals, stations,

stopping places, etc.

Enhanced network and service plan, with reliable, fast,

higher frequency services, that typically form part of a

comprehensive, integrated transit network.

High quality vehicles, sometimes of high capacity and

unique to the BRT system. Advanced operational and customer-facing systems -

including ITS, fare collection and passenger

information and back-office, planning and revenue

apportionment or contract payments systems.

6.5 Elements of BRT

6.5.1 Running waySome kind of priority measures is necessary to get travel

time benefit compared to mix traffic. Therefore it

necessary to consider dedicated bus lane partially or fully

which could be placed at median or curb with flow or on

counter flow.


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Figure 13 Station design supported by neighborhood businesses

6.5.3 Vehicles

The vehicles utilized in BRT also vary widely. The main

factors in choice are the volume of passengers to be

transported, the target frequency and operational concept,

the target system image, available budget, and who isfinancing the vehicles10. The main categories of vehicle

are:

Bi-articulated vehicles, where very high capacity is

sought (e.g. Curitiba; Figure-14)

Articulated vehicles for high capacity (e.g. Bogota,

Beijing, Cleveland, Nantes)

Standard urban buses, where multiple routes use theBRT, and/or where the operators finance the vehicles

(e.g. Brisbane, Lagos, Seoul)

Figure 14 Bi-Articulated BRT vehicle

An additional feature sought on vehicles is "level floor"

boarding and alighting which minimizes the time of

passenger movement at station by any one of the


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following means:

Buses with doors located high up on the bus in order

to allow level boarding on raised platforms, in the

style of metro or LRT (e.g. Bogota, Pereira) Buses with doors on both sides to allow both median

and lateral running (e.g. Beijing, Cleveland)

Buses with guidance wheels either to allow precision

docking (e.g. Cleveland), or for operation in guided

lanes (e.g. Adelaide, Leeds)

Kneeling buses- Busses kneel for passenger boarding

and alighting and raise back on running.

(a) High Floor Buses (b) Low floor buses

Figure 15 Level floor boarding and alighting

6.5.4 Service Plans

The service plan is the route or network concept for the

bus services operating on the BRT. Again, these vary

widely but can be clustered in the following categories10:

Trunk and feeder or Closed systems in the style of

metro or tram where a single route operates end-to-

end and no other route operates on the running way

(e.g. Beijing, Cleveland, Lagos, Nantes)

Limited set of routes with dedicated special vehicles

which operate only on the BRT and special tributaries

(e.g. Bogota)


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(Semi)-Open system where multiple authorised routes

use the BRT running way, either along its entire

length or joining/leaving where best suited (e.g.

Adelaide, Amsterdam, Brisbane, Paris TVM,Pittsburgh, Santiago)

Open system where all urban buses may use the BRT

facility (e.g. Seoul)

Comprehensive networks with BRT routes, orbital

routes, local routes and feeders (e.g. Curitiba)

Figure 16 Open vs Trunk & Feeder system of BRT operation

6.5.5 Support Systems and ITS

Most BRT systems have invested in advanced customer-

facing services, operations management systems, and

back-office management and planning systems10. Such

systems include: Vehicle location technology, headway control,

operations management, and other ITS systems

Interface with traffic control systems for priority at

junctions


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Fare collection systems, smart cards, off-vehicle

ticketing vending and back-office revenue

apportionment systems

Trip planners, travel information and real timepassenger information

CCTV and image processing system for security and

station management

Fleet and asset management systems, maintenance

and inventory management

Signal priority - gives priority via signals at

intersection by detecting BRT vehicles.

(a)Passenger info at station (b)Passenger info in-veh

Figure 17 Passenger information system

6.6 Branding and Marketing of BRT

Branding and marketing is a fundamental aspect of the

more successful BRT system, although it must be

acknowledged that many BRT systems do not pay

sufficient attention to this aspect10. A number of commonstrategies are:

Establishing a system name and strong public

presence (e.g. Trasmilenio in Bogota. Hopefully, we

may use "TransColombo").

Designing strong brand identity and visual presence.


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Develop unique elements not used anywhere else in

the transit system (e.g. Amsterdam)

Develop and maintain high quality throughout the

system - Unique stations, lane markings (pavementcolor), vehicle (color code based of services).

Engaging a Political Champion to profile the BRT

and gain public approval (e.g. Bogota, Curitiba)

Vehicle

(a) Yellow bus - Local (b) Red bus - Metro Rapid

RunningWay

(c) Red Lane - Paris (d) Blue Lane -Auckland

Station

(e) Tube Station-Curitiba (f) Bogotas TransMilenio

Figure 18 Uniqueness in design of BRT elements

A strong visual design, logo and strong color are

universally accepted marketing strategy to win the bad

image of "BUS" among users in developing countries.


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6.7 BRT definitions and options

There are several definitions of BRT. For example, Diaz

and Schneck 14 defined BRT as distinct from

conventional bus transit in a way it combines technology,the operational plan and the customer interface to create

higher quality of service. Whereas TRB15 defined it as

rubber-tired light rail transit (LRT) but with greater

operating flexibility and potentially lower capital and

operating costs. Definitions by many researchers and

practitioners vary broadly and according to its purpose.

Therefore, the authors categorize BRT into three optionsbased on developing countries capability of stage

implementation and users understanding16 , as given in

Table-6.

Table 6 BRT categorization according to its elements16

Option 1 Option 2 Option 3 Some means of

separation from mixedtrafficAll along or partiallyBus lane, by road

marking/ bit raisedmedian

Some means of quickboarding & alighting

Pre collection of fareNew low-floor bus

Unique appearance ofbus, stops, lanes

Additional priority

measuresAt at-gradeintersection

Passengerinformation atstation andonboard

Modalcoordination(Operation &payment)

Feeder system, Park& Ride

Sophisticated

ITSSignalpriority

Vehicletracking

Real timepassengerinformation

Enables pre-planned trips(web based)

14 Diaz, R., B., Schneck, D., C. (2000) An overview of bus rapidtransit technologies in the Americas, Transportation Research Board15 TRB. (2003) Bus Rapid Transit, Volume 2: Implementationguidelines, TCRP 90, Washington, D.C.16Sivakumar.T., 2007, A systematic approach for questionnaire design

on new transit system implementation in developing countries,

EASTS.


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6.8 Feasible corridors for BRT

A reason study9 identified based on passenger demand

that there are eight transport corridors in CMR which

have more than 80,000 passengers per day. As shown inTable-7, two of these, the Kandy Road and the Galle

Road have flows exceeding half a million passengers per

day per in both directions.

Table 7 Number of passenger per day per direction in Colombo

No. Corridor

Private

Vehicle

passenger

Bus

Passenger

Rail

Passenger1 Parliament Rd/Kotta Rd 60,332 33,757 -

2 Kandy Rd 48,064 89,609 46,952

3 Galle Rd 35,512 113,468 33,403

4 Negombo Rd 39,570 60,386 20,122

5 High Level Rd 21,184 72,119 4,912

6 Horana Rd 24,234 31,080 -

7 Dematagoda-Wellampitiya 9,431 18,831 -

8 Orugodawatta-Wellampitiya 9,832 19,122 -Total(%)

248,158(31%)

438,372(55%)

105,389(13%)

Table-7 also shows that the bus share is greater than 50%

in 8 out of the 10 corridors. However it is considerably

lower in two corridors where bus services have not

developed adequately. For example the lowest bus modal

share of 35% is on the Parliament Road/Cotta Roadcorridor where private vehicle share actually exceeds bus

shares even without a railway operation. The Negombo

road also has a lower bus passenger share of 42%.

Overall the 8 corridors in CMR carry 438,372 bus

passengers daily constituting 55% of all passengers to the

city.


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The primary intervention recommended9 is to introduce

BRT on priority basis in order to arrest the continuing

loss of bus ridership to private vehicles as follows;

Col ombo - (i) Kandy road;

(ii) Galle road;

(iii) Parliament road;

(iv) Negombo road and

(v) Horana road.

It is emphasized to go for BRT first even if forecastedpassenger movement counts warranted for Mass Rapid

Transit (MRT) since Colombo has not yet experience any

line-haul rapid transit.

7. ConclusionAs shown in Figure-7 of 'Cause and Effect of congestion',

congestion is a multi-factoral phenomena which needs to

consider as many factors as possible to make any

decisions and make the solution sustainable. Therefore,

if we were to implement BRT firstly we must think

whether we have planned and worked out enough to get

natural support from the following three dimensions of

management (Land use ~ Demand ~ Supply) as shown in

Figure-19.

The following are some of the keys to a successful BRT

system;

Land use integration/ land use controls;

System integration - Feeder system plus

multimodal connectivity;


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Institutional Arrangements and political support;

Users (customers) acceptance;

while the system essentially attributed the followings; Speed;

Reliability;

Identity and image;

Better permanence.

Figure 19 Conceptual planning concept

Transit oriented development is inevitable for sustainable

relieve from congestion problem in urban roads. Among

the available public transport alternatives, Bus Rapid

Transit (BRT) is a viable solution to relieve congestedroad space in Colombo. Furthermore, Bus Rapid Transit

MUST be the take-off system for Colombo before steps

into any higher order transits.


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Acknowledgement:

The author gratefully acknowledges Knoflacher. H.,

Finn. B.M., and Kumarage. A.S., as this article is

compiled from their articles.

John would have been glad to see that his utmost

wish, the "public transport priority" be now realized

in the form of BRT possibly named as

"TransColombo"

Dr.T.Sivakumar-Delivers-the-2012-John-Diandas-Memorial-Lecture-PDF.pdf

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