Abstract:

Cities around the world face enormous problems of transport sustainability. Rapidly increasing populations and vehicle usage have created gridlock and sprawl, even in very poor cities, as well as unacceptably high levels of air pollution, noise, and accident rates. But improvements can be made. This publication explores how the provision of better bus services can bring concrete solutions. "Bus rapid transit" systems emerging in Latin America provide fast, reliable and efficient urban travel for large numbers of people. Express busways, employing high-capacity buses and new technologies such as GPS-based bus tracking systems, can conveniently and reliably move up to 10 times as many people along a route as can cars – and be profitable.