Top 10 Cities for Bus Rapid Transit in North America - Plus Bonus Mexico City Content 

As a mexican, this has become one of my favorite YT channels, love to be included when discussing north american public transport and city related stuff

I hope that you'll look at how Philadelphia has allowed Greyhound, Bolt and Megabus to use a city street as their terminal in 2023. No shelter, no ticket booth, no rest room for travelers. Sit out on the sidewalk in rain or shine waiting for your connection. Reference - Phila Daily News, July 12, 2023, pages 6-7. Thank you!

A video on quasi-BRT lines and the various issues they have would be pretty cool.

To me, a true BRT system done right is as follows: -Dedicated lanes (with heavy fines for any who violate it (drive or park within it) and eventual license suspension or even revocation if they repeat this) -Priority at all signals alongside pedestrians -Frequency of AT LEAST 8 minutes off peak, no more than 12 minutes at max, preferably 5-8 minute frequency for the heavier used lines and 24/7 service is essential -Onboard payment -Camera systems onboard that automatically take a picture/video of anyone driving or parking in the bus lane, generate and send a report to the police -High capacity buses only, meaning no 40ft buses. Double Deckers at minimum, but strongly encourage strict use of articulated buses -NO trolleybuses whatsoever, or else, it's not BRT. Automatic disqualification for the fact it relies heavily on the wires to function, thus likely cannot reliably or safely detour/reroute around incidents, construction or other potential backups and blockades to the routes with a 100% guarantee The police have to be active with their enforcement of the law against violators of the bus lanes (anyone who drives or parks in the bus lane) and ensure they have a dedication to quick enforcement. No exceptions whatsoever. The fines have to be STEEP. Base fine for first offense is at least $1000, second offense at least $2500, third at least $5000. After the third violation, suspension or revocation of their license is the result. And if your first reaction is "that's way too expensive/harsh/steep" -EXACTLY. THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT. That way it guarantees most people will never even consider trying it at all, and the rare few idiots who do, will have to pay the price for being arrogant, impeding idiots. And the eventual revocation or suspension of their license ensures any richer folks who just don't care and want to toss their money at it because of the fact they do not care, to show it, makes sure they too are angered to the point of them being at their least likely to challenge or try it at all, too. Boom. All demographics of motorists are dealt with. Here in Portland, their sorry excuse for BRT is currently just sections of bus lanes in downtown and inner eastside, that quite literally, has traffic and parking on it all the damn time. So, there is quite literally ZERO point in them even spending the little time and money to paint those damn lanes with "bus only" in the first place. Waiting on Hawthorne or Belmont is a f**king joke, because you're sat there looking at a lane filled with parked cars that reads "bus only". But my god does that ever perfectly sum up TriMet to a damn T. TriMet drives me ballistic as a lifelong transit dependent rider AND diehard lifelong transit nut. They kill me inside all the time. But, as always, the continually show and prove that they don't give two damns about it or thus, us ridership. The fact that Vancouver and Eugene got true, proper BRT in place LONG before TriMet ever was willing to consider it or give it any thought despite the hordes of pressure from ridership for the last decade at least, in absolutely inexcusable. CTRAN and LTD both have FAR, FAR, FAR LESS ridership and population than TriMet does, but THEY implement and get it LONG before TriMet even is willing to give the thought the light of day? I mean REALLY?! Absolutely zero defense for such BS. It agitates the hell outta me all the time to have to acknowledge. The fact on why is, in reality, contrary to their literal propaganda, is the fact that they're only willing to implement new MAX lines. Buses? Never gave a flying **** about them. But MAX, you see, is the kickback paycheck machine for them and the local politicians! So of course, they only want to build more of it. The fact that they NEVER told a soul about WES, while they had JUST ONE WEEK PRIOR, put out endless "woe is us, we're so sick with such a severe lack of funds, we're dying" articles and statements saying that it meant they had no choice but to completely get rid of entire bus lines that were in fact, in VERY HIGH DEMAND mind you, AND cut loads of highly used runs off of so many other heavily used bus lines in the system, says a hell of a lot. Then, on top of WES, the next year, they're flaunting the Green Line MAX project to voters and ridership, ridership mind you BARELY voted in favor of it, and, thus also begun their tradition of JUST PRIOR TO THAT, launching another "Transportation Bond Measure", swearing on their lives practically that it was in fact, to improve, update and expand the system, and ensure the bus system especially got needed funding to bring it to a actually decent state, only, OF COURSE, to spend it ALL on the damn Green Line MAX, instead. And then just a few short years later, guess what they did? THE SAME THING. "Oh hey, here's another one of our great, TOTALLY FOR THE WHOLE SYSTEM AND TO BE FOCUSED ON IMPROVING AND UPDATING THE BUS SYSTEM, DEFINITELY THAT * cough * and uhhh... OH HEY ALSO WOULDN'T IT BE GRAND IF WE BUILT YET ANOTHER MAX LINE, THIS TIME WE CALL IT THE ORANGE LINE! YEAH! YOU LOVE THAT RIGHT!? PLEASE GIVE US MORE OF YOUR MONEY, AND IT TOTALLY IS NOT GONNA GO ENTIRELY INTO THAT MAX LINE. TOTALLY NOT. You can trust us." /RIGHT.../ and then the Orange line goes up for vote just after the TBM BARELY passed. Riders actually voted AGAINST the Orange Line's creation, so, they decided to throw their votes out the window since it wasn't a yes, and went instead to the elites and businesses of the "corridor" and they brand these things now. They voted in approval. So, we of course, paid for another MAX line, this time, that the majority of the residents of said corridor didn't want, alongside TriMet's ridership. And, I bet no one could possibly guess what they did, just another few years later... Another TBM and another new MAX proposal? Oh, how could you have possibly guessed correctly? I can't imagine how you did that. But fortunately, voters REJECTED the latest TBM, and residents and ridership both voted AGGRESSIVELY AGAINST the Purple Line MAX (SW Corridor Project) proposal, a whopping 83% emphatically rejecting it. And, of course, TriMet therefore threw away the vote that wasn't a yes, went to the elites and business of the "corridor" (remember, this is branding/advertising at work), and it BARELY got voted in favor of, by a margin of 153-147. Oh what fun! Because of this, the result was actually TriMet panicking and running into hiding on the TBM and SWCP making METRO do all the work and PR for them instead, while silently shoving the TBM vote out one year, but then realized the vehemence wasn't dying out, so they pushed it out yet another year, making it go out for vote TWO YEARS later than they initially planned for. And, I noted the results of the vote on it - it was rejected. THANK GOD. Now what is my point for noting ALL of this in such grave detail? This whole thing ultimately proves a point as to why ridership and regular transit users in places like the Portland Area are becoming increasingly for BRT and anti-LRT. Plus, when you make the taxpayers and ridership foot 95%-98% of the bill for each new LRT line, like TriMet does, they're going to get really mad and sick and tired of paying BILLIONS for a pathetic 7-10 miles of rail built at-grade, running through, in and across traffic, that fairly frequently finds itself having fits and issues that BRT simply would not have, or could easily mediate and get around/out of, that it, LRT, cannot. Why should people pay $5-$8 BILLION for a mode of transit like that, that on top of it all, literally is made specifically to gentrify them right out of their own damn homes/apartments within 5-10 years? I mean really? Again, another case of ZERO defensibly there. It simply proves further why more and more people that get stuck with this s**t are becoming increasingly anti-light rail, and emphatically more demanding of true BRT instead. Another fact about TriMet's MAX line debacle is that is always, no matter what, increases by an average of $2-$3 BILLION with each successive MAX line. The Orange line, the last one that got built despite the majority there voting against it, cost us a whopping $7 BILLION, for 7 miles. That's ONE BILLION DOLLARS PER MILE. Again, ZERO defense for such immoral crookedness. And with that increase, we'd be looking at a whopping $10-$12.5B for the Purple Line, that would be, if it was just those 7 measly miles. But the Purple Line will be anywhere from 8-11 miles, depending on the alignment. So, likely even higher than that $10B minimum price. And then considering the reality that over 75% of the Orange line was already existing, since it uses BNSF trackway for the majority of it (over 80% of it's entire length), it only being 7 miles AND IT STILL COST US $7B - do you REALLY need any more context and proof as to how or why more and more people, including in the transit world, are becoming deeply anti-LRT, and instead demanding of real, genuine BRT in it's stead? But I digress, as per usual lol. At least nobody can tell me I lack in detailed explanations.

Wow, so the green line in Boston wouldn't even qualify as BRT if it wasn't light rail

Apparently my comments in previous videos have set a high bar, so here goes for this one: ITDP's Scorecard only seems to have indirect references to what should be a pretty critical part of the "Rapid Transit" part of BRT. ***Frequency*** It's only mentioned in the points deduction section. I expected it to list time intervals like it does for station intervals. People won't care how nice your median lane and boarding experience is if you have to wait 20-30 minutes for a bus. That's Bus Regional Transit. To up my comment game, let's dig deeper into my home metro area's Viva as a horrible example of this. The BRT infrastructure cost around $2 billion (~$1.5 billion USD). In 2018 Viva moved 6.8 million people on 6 routes, and a good chunk is not on BRT infrastructure. In contrast, in 2018 a single TTC bus route, Steeles Ave West which runs on the York Region/Toronto border, moved 7.8 million people just counting weekdays (30k daily weekday ridership). As the germans say, organization before electronics before concrete. York Region leading the way backwards!

Coming from a Puebla resident that lives in a car centered suburb, México City really is absolutely impressive when it comes to effective mass transit!!

"Northern suburbs of Toronto, whatever they're called" seems about right.

Yes, give Pittsburgh some love! On each of my many visits, the transit has just WORKED. The busways are wonderful and the bus frequency is just constant.

hey love your content -- totally aligned with my urban interests. Great you are including Canada and Mexico in most of your analyses. I'm a Mexican born, naturalized Canadian so definitely can relate to both.

Guadalajara is supposed to get a BRT line that runs on the entire ring road called MacroPeriferico

I am loving this! Its all brilliant! Thought I should mention that the Mexico City Transit Card (exclusively the Movilidad Integrada one, not the previous ones) is pretty much the best thing ever to be implemented, it allows you to ride the metro and metrobus which you could aready do with the previous ones but now you can ride SO MUCH MORE with it, the trolleybus systems now accept the card, the cablecar does too, the government operated buses (RTP) do too and the past few weeks the city has started implementing it on concessioned routes, and of course the bike sharing system.

I live in Ottawa (AW-TA-WA btw), and I use our BRT all the time. It’s one of the oldest in the world. It’s mostly being converted to light metro now, so it’s definitely a piece of history that’s going away unfortunately. Great video.

It's also worth mentioning that mass transit in CDMX ( Mexico City) accepts NFC payments too, so you can pay with your smartwatch

The GREAT thing about BRT is that you are effectively reserving Road ROW for a future potential upgrade to rail. It's going to easier to tell people that you want to add buses... as opposed to a rail system... which people, for some reason, protest. Basically, what Ottawa is doing now.

"Oh-ttawa"?? Well now I know you're just trolling us Canadians.

In 1993-1994, I used to live 2-3 blocks from the Pittsburgh busway and used it to commute to my job downtown. I remember there being a snowstorm with 35 inches (90 cm) of snow overnight, but if you could walk to the busway, it was running.

As an Albuquerque resident, ART is a huge disappointment, and it's Gold rating for design is a joke. The system has been in operation for 3 years, and as you noted, ITDP never came back and rated it (and I'm pretty sure the city and ITDP want it that way, because it would make them both look like fools). The original electric busses had less than a 30 minute battery life, so they had to return them and get diesel. Local drivers don't respect the painted bus lane, so they had to go back and build piecemeal sections of barriers to keep drivers out (up until Covid wrecked their ridership and budget, so who knows if they'll ever finish). And, worst of all, both lines lack dedicated lanes, level boarding platforms, and off-bus ticketing in the eastern part of town, which is the poorest and most transit dependent. This leads to terrible bunching east of Louisiana Blvd., so that when you ride from downtown to Nob Hill, you'll wait maybe 5 or 10 minutes for your bus, but when you head back you might wait 25 minutes for 3 busses to show up stacked on each other. This is particularly frustrating because ART was pitched as a solution to the severe bunching on the RapidRide (high-capacity, limited-stop) system it replaced. However, having ridden both systems, I think it really only served to make the bunching more directional and predictable. I was really excited about ART, but now I'm forced to agree with local critics who said it was designed more as a catalyst for gentrification than as a legitimate transit system. PS Also, they never fill the ticket machine at my local station, so if my phone is dead, I have to either hold things up buying a ticket on board or ride without a ticket. So, yeah. If you wanted to know why they never rated ART again, it's because it's a mess.

Huge transit nerd here in San Francisco. Love your video! I just found out about BRT systems when Oakland debuted its BRT system in 2020 which serves mostly east Oakland in areas inbetween the two BART stations in that district. I love the trainlike feel! anyway I just followed on all platforms, cant wait for more content!

For reference: Viva is the BRT line associated with York Region Transit, and serves York Region north of Toronto. You described the Viva Orange and Viva Purple lines, which run on Highway 7, but fail to mention Viva Blue, which run on Yonge Street, and is considered the flagship line. The Viva lines serve Vaughan, Markham, Richmond Hill, Aurora, and Newmarket, all of which qualify as suburban municipalities in the GTA, but not part of Toronto itself. (A recurring theme within your videos is that your definition of the GTA routinely omit York Region, but include Peel and Durham regions, and sometimes includes Halton Region; the conventional definition includes all four, plus the City of Toronto itself.)

sbX is not located in Los Angeles. The system is located in San Bernardino, which also has hydrogen-powered light rail, multiple lines of Metrolink regional-rail service, multiple Metrolink stations, freeway-running express buses, an international airport, and an optional station location for California High-Speed Rail.

We have a decent network of trolleybuses in Vancouver, but the B-Line buses don't count as BRT. Shame, because they're really great when they aren't stuck in traffic!

I like your channel. Very good granular breakdown of everything. Mexico City actually sounds pretty cool. More like what I'd want out of urbanism. I'll subscribe.

I would love to hear more of your thoughts on the Albuquerque BRT. It was a massive controversy when it went in and might be worth looking further into.

BRT screams to be electric trolley busses. Makes the move to light rail even easier Tempo BRT from AC transit is interesting. It’s not a real BRT but it’s getting close.

It’s cool to see that you’ve worked on projects like Swift, because even if they’re not “true BRT” they can be a major upgrade over local bus routes for minimal investment.

What do you think about Houston’s MetroRapid Silver line? I wouldn’t put it on my top 10 either but seems worthy enough of an honorable mention. I believe Houston is building a few more “BRT” lines with the MetroRapid system too.

The RUTA in paper is a great system but it has a couple of problems, as a brt it's pretty robust, but it's not well maintained, a lot of the busses are not high capacity, and for a city this large the RUTA is not enough, but still I'm happy it was included 😊

Nice to see LA not getting ripped for once. A new BRT line from NoHo to Pasadena was just approved, which is super exciting. The section through Eagle Rock (my neighborhood) got some pushback, but fortunately the NIMBYs lost this one. A huge win for the city.

Are you familiar with systems accessible to physically disabled people? Thats a topic that doesnt get enough attention but in the end benefits everyone

What the ITDP doesn't tell you is that they intend to substitute metro lines with BRT in Mexico. City. Since its opening in 2005 MB1 has been consistently operating at over capacity even having more people moved than several metro lines. People just use it because it's there but almost no one enjoys going inside a bus that stops every 400 m for 30km just to get to another bus that takes them home. Also, BRT (at least in cdmx) is way more expensive to operate compared to metro, has a increased accident record and it's bus life span is just above 9 years compared to 25-30 of trains. 5 of the 7 routes are at over capacity right now, because they were originally planed for metro service. And it's logical: ITDP is financed by Volvo and Shell so they do lobby for their interests and in our corrupted political spectrum, it's working.

I quite like the infrastructure of a BRT system but I prefer a Lincoln tunnel esque service pattern where more infrequent suburban routes get funneled into a low interval arterial corridor. That way u get the main benefits of buses - wide service area, without sacrificing frequency where it counts. A single route BRT works well to build out a rapid transit network for cheap tho. What I really dont get are grade separated BRT systems. If you're gonna spend the money ti grade separate, just make it rail honestly. Otherwise street running should be the way to go. Frankly I think street running (for both light rail and BRT) is underrated, it's a great way to make major avenues more pedestrian friendly and allows u to maximize system coverage which is just so important in north American urban sprawl. Worry about grade separation once u get the ridership or the funds ya know? We need viable transit now, not a decade from now when u secure the funding

Talking about archeducts have you ever saw Zurich's viadukt? They use the arches below a 1896 viaduct as stores and restaurants to build a very nice street.

The Curitiba BRT was originally easily able to keep up with demand when it was built, but the city's population has grown so much since then that it's becoming severely overcrowded even with such an innovative system.

This was amazing. Informative, as always. It's great to see not just this ranking of US systems in terms of those in Mexico but also having them discussed in the same conversation. Those 4 lines in Mexico City really blow you away when you see them covered in the same breath. I'm curious of what you think of the J-Line here in Los Angeles. Used to be "the Silver Line." 38 miles, 12 stations, ridership of 2.8M. What's your opinion of it compared to our G-Line (which, according to The World's Foremost Source of Unquestionably Factual Information, is 18 miles, 17 stations, 3.3M ridership)? Do you feel like it's lacking?

Pittsburgh is also building a new BRT system running from Oakland to Downtown to increase frequency and reliability of the 61’s and 71’s. Also, you really should’ve mentioned that the South Busway was North America’s first ever BRT system.

I've always thought of BRT as also encompassing the notion of stopping every kilometer or so, rather than every 200m, as many city buses do. That's a key element of rapid.

Brisbane in Australia has a very impressive busway network that is all grade separated and has large stations and even an underground section under the city centre.

I loved this video and the inclusion of cities like Puebla and Guadalajara, but as a resident of Querétaro, I had to laugh a bit at the Qrobús being described as "great infrastructure". It's finally a properly structured BRT system but it's so full of problems and it doesn't connect most of the population to where they actually want to go, it's incredibly expensive and most times you need to pay double fares because a single bus route won't get you to where you need to go and you can wait forever for a bus because schedules are nonexistent. When the locals say they miss the disorganised bus network before the BRT was built, you know you've done something really wrong. Great video though!!

My introduction to truly rapid Bus Rapid Transit came when I was in Rio for the Olympics. Wow, that was a very robust line, and it was clearly a heavy lift infrastructure project. But in all my experiences, CDMX was the best.

We have a BRT in my area as well in Provo, Utah. Back when I moved here in 2017 it was under construction. It goes from the Provo Frontrunner station (the commuter train that goes up to Salt Lake and Ogden) to downtown Provo, through BYU (Brigham Young University) then through downtown Orem through UVU ( Utah Valley University) and then the Orem Frontrunner Station. Though I hear rumors and of course it's rumors now that it might expand to the Provo Airport once the airport is done it's renovations. They are also building a BRT in Ogden, Utah that is currently under construction this once is supposed to go from the Ogden Frontrunner Station through downtown Ogden to Weber State University area. But I think they could also put a BRT in both Salt Lake City and St. George

When I lived in Ottawa, I used the BRT all the time. It was usually great. The main annoyance was connecting to other buses that went to or from the stations which sometimes were not the most reliable, especially in the winter. I left before they implemented light rail, which will hopefully speed things up travelling in the north south direction which wasn't great.

When I was Mexico in the 80’s I was impressed by the collectivos, VW busses that ran up and down one or two streets. Every town had them, painted a bright color with a big route number. You just waited at a corner for one to come by, hopped on and paid 5cents to go a few blocks. Don’t know if they still have them but think they would be a great addition to any US city.

When I was visiting Seattle, taking the bus which has off-loading payment, I asked the driver how often people just jump off and run without paying, he replied, "All the time." It might be faster, but it encourages theft.

I love how cohesive Mexico City is, I take a RTP bus and with only $4 MXN y can move and transfer to a metro line, metrobús, trolley bus with no less than $10 MXN awesome. Awesome videos ❤ I did not know CT had a BRT

An honorable mention to the Optibús of León, México. At under 2 million people it has 5 BRT routes adding to a total of 61 km :)

excited to see Eugene on a list! we get a lot right for a city this size

Indianapolis now uses exclusively battery electric buses on its BRT system. Hopefully, we'll see electric buses enter service in a lot more cities in the next few years.

I'd like to point out that off-board fare collection is an unnecessary criterion if your system uses tap cards, QR codes on your phone, or other electronic fare collection methods that obviate the need for operator interaction. If you can board and pay without breaking your stride then "mission accomplished." I would suggest they rephrase that item to read "No driver fare collection/interaction required."

Can't believe VIVA actually made this list. It somehow manages to be worse than a regular bus in Toronto..

Raleigh, NC starts BRT construction next year. 4 routes plus a 35 story mix-used tower + bus station connected to the train station.

Can you roast NYC’s pathetic “Special Bus Service” BRT wannabe?

The south busway in Pittsburgh is actually the oldest in the country and the second oldest in the world.

Yes BRT has low capital cost but is also has very high operational cost so transit agencies don't like to run high frequency service. If you're building an almost-fully-grade-separated BRT, you should probably be building a metro as the capital cost will be lower but the operational cost and service potential will be way higher

It's cool to see proper BRT like this as sort of a transitional system between regular bus service and trams/light rail. To me the big takeaway is that a lot of these routes might be more efficient if they were light rail, and the fact that some cities are doing that upgrade shows that it's a worthy goal. I think a lot of the time when people talk about what makes BRT great is the dedicated right of way, but I think the things that reduce dwell times are sometimes just as vital. I live in Ireland, and while the bus service is severely impacted by getting stuck in traffic, the dwell times are just as much of a killer. Payment is always on-board, and instead of the swipe on, swipe off service I've experienced in e.g., Asia, you have to put your transit card on a reader, tell the driver where you're going, he has to scroll through a list of options, select one, then wait for the transaction to complete. Every single boarding customer adds nearly a minute to the journey. Absolute madness, and plenty of places should be adopting some of these BRT standards to their regular bus service as well.

overall, Pittsburgh's an adorably charming place, absolutely love it around there 🍸

8:55 Those would be Vaughan, Markham and Richmond Hill

In Auckland, New Zealand (1.5M ppl) we have the Northern Express. Which is not the best but is great for us - once it gets onto its right of way its smooth sailing into town. One day we will get light rail to the North, but until then we have to cope with busses and an aging/congested harbour crossing (its already had its width doubled once!).

Can you do "Where should you live" by the New York Times opinion section my top 3 cities are Seattle, Minneapolis and Buffalo.

VIA Bus San Antonio, please take notice! Not exactly BRT iirc though it does have at least some of the traits. Loop 1604 had better dedicate HOV lanes for these buses. After all, isn't the point of all this to rival the private car?

I know it's not a top 10, but how do BRT and LRT compare in terms of costs and benefits?

Used to live in the Ottawa area. Great bus transit. Yes, too expensive.

Vancouver: It's too hard to make a proper BRT system, so we will convert our express buses into light metro instead.

Pittsburgh’s bus way was pretty good when I used it a few years ago. Exception was when there was heavy rains and buses and cars get stuck on flooded Washington Bvld.

The second BRT line opened recently, it's called Macroperiferico and it travels a whopping 70 km around the entire city's beltway. Not only it carries a lot of people, it also replaced the highly precarious 380 bus line that was so crowded it was even a hot spot for chikan and was known as "Sex-80".

I also love trolley buses! I'd like to see more of them, but I'm concerned that they aren't really practical. Almost like if you're going to go through the expense and route limitations of a trolley bus, you might as well make it a street car. Any thoughts on when the trolley bus makes sense?

This is my favorite of your videos. Very exciting. I never heard of BRT, nor have I seen it. And now I want to visit Mexico City. Thank you.

Cleveland's BRT is also 24hrs Cleveland has 24hr transit not many cities can say that

FYI, I am quite happy Cleveland's Health Line is not in the top 10; it's exclusive right of way is 100% pothole. I am genuinely surprised the bus didn't spontaneously disassemble around me en route to Windermere.

BRT sounds like light rail in the median without the rails. In some cities, it might be a good way to bootstrap light rail, i.e., get multiple lines up and running quicker and then install the rails incrementally later.

The problem with BRT is that is much more intrusive than tramways, but provides less capacity per departure. Essentially, it only works on places where labor is cheap.

commenting as a Pittsburgh resident, I and many others still end up feeling like we need a car. If you want to go to more than one neighborhood or generally more than one place with your time outside of work in a day, do you need a car. it is definitely less accommodating than Seattle.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think roads cost just as much as rail tracks do, buses and train cars roughly cost the same, the only thing extra about train is paying for the catenary and tunneling if it's under ground, as well as the station.

I often forget how spoiled we are here in CDMX, I think high speed rail is the only thing we are missing right now.

Of all the high-quality transit systems in southern California, sbX is the most pleasant. The platform-level boarding allows bicycles to be rolled into the passenger compartment and be stored in the on-board racks. All of the sbX vehicles have WiFi and AC outlets, and the seating is well-configured with much more cushioning than other transit vehicles usually have. sbX vehicles depart the stations every ten minutes, and the system connects at a new multimodal terminal with: (1.) multiple lines of Metrolink regional-rail service; (2.) the new Arrow battery-operated light-rail system to and from Esri's world headquarters, downtown Redlands, and the University of Redlands; (3.) several lines of freeway-running express buses that use the extensive H.O.V. lanes; and, the optional station location in San Bernardino for California High-Speed Rail providing service to and from L.A. in 30 minutes, San Diego in 50, and Ontario International Airport in ten.

Great channel. What about a video on inner-city gondolas?

The O-Bahn busway in Adelaide, South Australia is what got me into public transport, it's a very interesting and unique busway system

Love your channel. Wanted to add an honorable mention: the new Sunrunner in St. Petersburg, FL that started last Friday and meets almost all BRT standard criteria. Not sure about the alignment since cars have to left-turn out of the dedicated bus lane. Nevertheless, we are pretty excited!

You should take a look at Adam Something on RU-vid (Literally Adam Something, I’ve not just forgotten his last name). He’s a Hungarian living in Hamburg. He’s a passionate advocate of trains and other forms of public transportation as the core of good urban planning.

Dishonorable mention: the Silver Line in Boston, which the MBTA likes to claim is BRT, but is really nothing more than a dedicated bus lane that ends just before downtown, where the dedicated lanr is really needed.

An important reason why there are so many BRTs in Brazil is a systematic lack of investment from both state and federal governments in urban transport, which means that municipal governments end up picking the slack. Since Brazilian municipal governments don't have the money to build metro, they go for BRT instead, even though state or federal investment would allow for metro lines in their place. I'm not as familiar with Colombia but I think the Bogotá BRT was built by the city government as well, so again reflecting a lack of investment from the central government.

Apparently Calgary which has four long BRT routes, and has plans for more, hasn't been rated yet, because they're only about four years old. It would be cool to see how they rank when they do get rated because they're very nice and fast

Thank you for including Mexican cities, Mexican transportation systems, and other Mexican stuff like the aqueducts!! If you continue talking about Mexico, most of your subscribers will be Mexicans and your channel will grow exponentially. Remember, there are 35 millions Mexican-Americans in the US, so many Mexicans will be subscribing from the US. Also, your pronunciations aren't that bad, keep the good vibe and thanks again.

Ottawa's BRT ran out of capacity. Its star network design with express busses was great for door to door but not if you need to make connections.

CT Fastrak took time due to squabbling about rail vs bus. It was built over an abandoned rail line from Hartford to Waterbury via Bristol, and most long term planners wanted it to be rail so it could eventually continue down to Waterbury and take traffic off I-84. But the bus won out and they used their Federal funding to build it. It involved widening existing right of way, rebuilding all of the railroad bridges to accommodate two lanes, and keeping it separated from major streets and the Hartford-New Haven rail corridor. It is claimed to be easy to use due to the schedule app they developed, frequent service, and connectivity to other express bus routes and rail. I believe annual ridership goals were met in months, and 3x the projected number of passengers ride it.

Just found your channel after looking into BRT. This was such a great video, very informational!

There's gonna be a new line under construction in CDMX next year: line 8 (or 0 idk) which will go through the ring road circuito :D. I love using metrobus better than normal buses (except like 4, line 4 sucks) but it gets too crowded and even though it ain't that slow, the commute is kind of tedious, but to be fair it is better than nothing. I think it's supposed to be a complementary service to the metro system but some lines are replacing a metro line or a metro extension. Also mexibus is kind of shit haha, line 4 has been under construction for almost 10 years and you have to use each line's individual cards to access (transfers are not free) but it is safer for people in EDOMEX (gotta say the State of Mexico is regarded as kind of the Bronx and Jersey of Mexico, mostly because of the inept government there). I loved the video 💖

🖐Great content, just subbed! I'm from Europe and I'm not really aware of any real BRT systems in Europe. There are instances where some parts of a line are given priority with separate infrastructure but most are still running among other traffic in parts. BUS lanes are ordinary practice all over Europe but giving them unseparated lanes between white lines don't really qualify as BRT either. Occasionally larger capacity buses (double articulated) are used and in my city, some test runs were carried out with double-articulated trolleybuses as well. To be honest though, here's my verdict: like for the video, dislike for BRT generally. If anyone cares why, I'm happy to share in a more thorough comment. I'm a strategic planner and urbanist and I am convinced that BRT has very specific uses and should be avoided in other cases (which is most cases then). BRT excels in only a few aspects unfortunately, so it can be a great temporary solution if the situation calls for it but I can't imagine it being much more than that in the long run.

I have never used a rapid bus it does seem like an interesting concept. Would be interesting to compare a rapid buses output/ cost versus a light rail one like dart. ATL just announced they are building one. I know ATL promises many but delivers few. Let's hope

Really hope Cta ends up going back and doing the ashland BRT, would legitimately be a great addition to the system, a circle line lite if you will damn small business tyrants and their worry about parking

I am surprised you never mentioned Albuquerque. The only BRT system in the whole of the US to have the maximum rating of gold. It’s like a Light Rail if you removed the tracks and replaced with Bus Lanes. It only has these bus lanes on the shared section between the 766 and 777 lines but where there are no bus lanes, the line runs with very few stops to increase travel time. It goes to 3 different Transit Hubs in Albuquerque, Central & Unser Transit Center, Alvarado Transit Center and Uptown Transit Center, it goes to Old Town which has several museums and other tourist attractions, it goes to Downtown Albuquerque of course, it goes to the University of New Mexico, it goes to the Albuquerque Fairgrounds, there’s a big mall near the 766 Line’s terminus at Uptown Transit Center, and there’s a station just a short walk from the Lovelace Medical Center in Albuquerque. So it definitely deserves more attention.

When he said we’re gonna talk about some cities we don’t usually talk about on this channel I knew it was hartfords time to shine

I suspect that Mexico's BRT's are more numerous and better quality because most of the country has NOT jumped from Bicycle to Car like Beijing did. Anyone ever watch those social studies movies about life in China in the early 1970's? Well we got them and I remember seeing a city with just millions of people riding bicycles to work and the Freaking Skies were Blue and Clear and the Chinese were lean and strong people. But of course the American Capitalist nixed that way of life quite quickly. Thanks Tricky Dick and sidekick Henry K. Did we really need to open up China as a foil to Russian-Sino dominance of the world? No.

So, I am reminded of that other Bus Line called the Train Line. And here in the Treasure Coast of Car loving Florida, we have a new BRIGHTLINE highspeed train that goes from Miami to Orlando with stops in West Palm Beach near the PBI (airport) and next year 2025 we will Have A stop in Martin County in Stuart. So, Yes! soon I can walk to the Brightline station by the courthouse about 5/8 of a mile with my carryon luggage and catch a cheap ride to Orlando or West Palm to then fly to Europe for my Summer without having to either rent a car one way which is cheaper than leaving a car in long term $7/day parking at the airport for 85 or so days. It's looking at one one basic, not the premium fare being in the $28 to $38 dollar range at this point, which is cheaper than renting a car from Enterprise and dropping it off at the airport at $90 or so or doing an Uber which could be about as much or more.

Can't people just program the traffic lights to be in sync with the bus schedule?

SIEMENS, New Flyer, Bombardier etc... are just some of the players intimately involved in the production of cutting-edge transportation platforms of Tomorrow. That's trains, trams, buses AND more. ALL of these manufacturing facilities are worth contacting and exploring. When you know about the hardware, you're able to make an informed presentation.

Cool that you covered Guatemala and South America in this. Would like to see more Pan-American content. And to answer your question on VIVA, the area is known as York Region. It's kind of like an equivalent to a county in the USA.

RTD Denver-Boulder US36 Flatiron Flyer "BRT" sour grapes: - shares road with regular traffic but + allowed to use express lane, + also allowed to use shoulder at 15 MPH over traffic speed, but - has to merge back into slow traffic at each exit, where shoulder use ends - subject to traffic signal at highway exit off ramp accessing on-ramp bus stop. ☹️

In Guadalajara they are about to open a BRT line in the periférico

I live between lines 1 & 3 in Mexico City. A few important things: I know peoplewho for some reason do not (ever !) take the metro but are comfortable riding the metrobus, whether due to class or fear (both pretty much umfounded), I know not. Also, the BRT lanes are used for emergency vehicles (ambulances and police) that rapidly course through the city when it would otherwise be impossible. And as you saw, the stations are a magnet for development, both commercial and residential.