St. Louis BRT / Curitiba BRT

In the long range plans for the future of St. Louis, Metro's Moving Transit Forward plan calls for the creation of BRT corridors along the highways.

BRT stands for Bus Rapid Transit.  It implies a bus route that's about as good as a light-rail line.  Stops are spaced farther apart, and the bus is generally given its own dedicated right-of-way.  The buses might be longer to hold more people ('articulated' as the industry calls them).  Most importantly, the buses come at a higher frequency.  There is great debate out there between speed and frequency.  How long a person needs to wait at the bus stop is just as important as speed.  Speed is a factor of more than speed limits and is also addressed by reducing the number of turns and stops or removing obstructing traffic.  No interstate is required, just a dedicated bus lane and smart traffic lights.

Curitiba, Brazil is the most cited example of working BRT in the world.  They use fancy articulated buses and iconic loading platforms.

The loading platforms and articulated buses advertise the system.  People know they're on the BRT corridor when they see the bus stops and the long buses.  Articulated buses with multiple doors also addresses the time lag from on and off loading.  Speed is addressed by the dedicated bus lanes.

Another function of BRT is its crosswalk enhancing attributes.  Bus stops should be near things worth seeing and doing.  Interstates are generally dead zones with no sidewalks to be found.  BRT on a wide street like Grand, Market, or Gravois however can connect to the existing crosswalks and make them wider, safer, and more active.

The images of Curitiba's bus system above demonstrate transit users constantly being dropped off in the middle of the road ready to use the crosswalks.  Others are crossing the street to get to the bus stations.  People just trying to cross the street are given the benefit of having the crosswalk broken into three sections.  If the signal changes and leaves a pedestrian stranded in the middle of the street, they don't have to run.  They can just wait at the bus stop for the signal to change again.  There are four places to wait in order to cross the street, and when there are people standing in all four places, the crossing pedestrian traffic blends faster.

BRT can improve crosswalks, which means better connections on both sides.  Interstates don't have crosswalks, but overpasses.  It is very expensive to build the BRT under an overpass, build the infrastructure to get people up to it, expand the overpass for pedestrians, and build TOD near the highway despite the disincentives of noise and other highway problems.  Building along the highways would not encourage ridership either.

BRT should be on boulevards like the one City to River is calling for downtown.  I-70 is being rerouted across the river at Cass on the new bridge.  City to River wants to make the old elevated and depressed sections downtown into an at-grade boulevard.  With such a boulevard, Metro could put BRT stations right in front of the Old Courthouse.  The entire length of the arch grounds could be stitched up with active crosswalks.  Visitors to the arch would be able to walk towards the Old Courthouse, see the fancy buses, and check out the route maps to see where they go.  The stations would be visitor centers in their own right.  Look at the Moving Transit Forward map again.

The downtown BRT is the place where the I-70, I-64, I-44, and I-55 BRT lines all merge.  All of these lines should converge on a vibrant urban boulevard.

Now, enjoy these videos about buses in Curitiba,