Reinventing Transport

TransJakarta Corridor 1 station and bus Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) has a 'branding problem'! Bus improvements of many kinds are being called BRT. This is muddying debate over BRT in many places. Bogota clearly has superb BRT. More and more cities do. But is Delhi's 'first BRT corridor' really BRT? Are Taipei's median bus priority lanes BRT? How about Jakarta's busways? Walter Hook of ITDP has an interesting answer: It's not BRT if it's not on the map! Here is the relevant quote from an interview with Walter on Streetsblog NYC : A rule of thumb should be whether or not a map company would include the BRT system in a map of New York City. If it doesn't appear on any map other than as a standard bus route, then it has failed to enter the public consciousness as something above and beyond normal bus services. I knew TransJakarta had succeeded when I bought a 2007 tourist map and it included a map of TransJakarta and its stations. The Orange Line in LA...

[Update: Looking for more parking policy information?   Try Reinventing Parking. ] Problem 1: Is parking a hellish nightmare for your local business or shopping district? Do drivers complain that they can never find a parking space? Is the roadway clogged with honking vehicles searching for a parking spot? Problem 2: And are the local public facilities in terrible shape? Are the footways cracked? Drain covers broken? Rubbish uncollected? Are the street plantings (if any) dying? Does that sound familiar? Donald Shoup suggests a single solution to both of these problems : Performance-based pricing (would solve Problem 1) with the revenues returned to the local area to be spent on solving Problem 2. Shoup explains more in an article in the Feb 2009 edition of the Parking Today magazine: The Price of Parking on a Great Street As I have said before , I suspect this policy would be perfect for many of Asia's cities. Can anyone suggest a city in Asia that might be willing...

Who knew? Many Latin American city cores have wonderful pedestrian zones that rival those of European cities in quality. A new post by Barbara Knecht at Planetizen Interchange highlights the region's downtown pedestrian zones and its many Ciclovia (car-free Sunday's with certain roads closed to motor vehicles and opened to feet and non-motorised wheels). In a recent trip from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Santiago, Chile I traveled through Montevideo and Colonia, Uruguay; Rosario, Mendoza, San Juan and Cordoba, Argentina; Viña del Mar and Valparaiso, Chile. All ten cities had significant thriving downtown pedestrian zones. The smallest was perhaps 5 blocks in San Juan, the largest 30 blocks in Santiago. Actually, I did know. The photos with this post are mine, taken in Puebla, Mexico.