The Asia LEDS Partnership is organizing a regional workshop on on bus rapid transit (BRT) systems during June 24-25, 2014 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The workshop aims to improve knowledge and capacity on quantifying benefits from BRT systems based on experience from different cities in Asia. The event will be hosted by the Malaysia Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD), with additional funding from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and support from Asia LEDS Partnership members including the World Resources Institute – EMBARQ, Clean Air Asia, and the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES).
BRT systems now serve more than 150 cities globally with nearly 4,400 km of dedicated corridors that have helped transform mobility in cities. Constructing BRT systems yields a stream of benefits including saving fuel, reducing travel time, increasing access to transportation services, reducing emissions, reducing the frequency of accidents, improving public health, and generally improving the liveability of cities.
However, many of these BRT system benefits are often not quantified due to barriers such as lack of knowledge, appropriate methodologies, and data. These barriers hinder decision making to develop BRT systems, with stakeholders not acknowledging the full impacts of the system. In recent years, tools and methodologies have emerged which now provide easy quantification of benefits, helping to better brand BRT systems and facilitate greater stakeholder support.
More details, including the draft agenda, are available here.