Research On The Bus Rapid Transit System Pattern

Since the first Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system was developed in Curitiba from1970’s, it has played an important role in many big cities’ public transit, and isbecoming an important means to ease traffic congestion. Now more than30BRTsystems were built in the world, including more than10BRT systems in china since2005. Because each city has its own characteristic and the understanding of BRT,each city’s BRT system is different in function, capacity, and passenger volume etc.So it is confusing for the choice of BRT system pattern to Chinese big cities whichplan to develop BRT system. Although BRT theory is becoming more and moreperfect in40years, the BRT system pattern still needs to study.This paper analysis the existing BRT systems in the world, and the result becomethe study base. Considering the defect of the exiting BRT system patterns, which werebased on the single factor, the new BRT system patterns are advanced bysummarizing the variation of the BRT elements. The new patterns are closed pattern,open pattern, mixed pattern.Each new pattern is analyzed with a typical case study. The analysis includes theBRT development history, the main feature, the Implementation effect. And then theapplicability study, what kind of BRT system pattern will be chose in differentsituations, is discussed.This paper takes the Tianjin BRT plan as a case study in the last. From the trafficdemand, traffic supply, traffic running, Tianjin’s traffic situation is analyzed. Then thedevelopment necessity of the BRT in Tianjin is explained. The BRT Function, SystemPattern and other detailed design for Tianjin are proposed. Based on the applicabilitystudy result, the open pattern is recommended for Tianjin.This paper conducts the Useful exploration of the BRT System Pattern, hoping tosupport the Chinese big cities’ decision about BRT system pattern choice, and alsopromote the BRT development in Tianjin and other Chinese big Cities.