Bus Rapid Transit in the United States

A decade ago, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) was poised for rapid expansion in the USA. The US Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announced a ten-city BRT demonstration programme and an action plan was released seeking deployment of BRT in twenty-two cities by 2008. In 2004, the FTA released 'Characteristics of Bus Rapid Transit for Decision-Making' (CBRT), a comprehensive planning guide designed to help cities evaluate and implement new BRT systems. An updated version of the CBRT was released in 2009. Despite these strong efforts to support BRT deployments, the track record in the US appears mixed. On one hand, several cities implemented important, precedent-setting BRT projects. On the other, many cities cited in the action plan either significantly delayed or cancelled their projects. Moreover, most US BRT projects have been incremental improvements to existing bus services, not rail-like BRT systems typically found in other parts of the world, such as Latin America. The potential future direction of BRT in US cities is considered