A Taste of the Benefits

Cost Comparison

Bus Rapid Transit often finds itself cast as an inferior option to light rail. But when implemented at a high level, BRT has shown that it can rival light rail in speed and capacity at a much lower cost to build and maintain.

Based on recent BRT and light rail corridor development costs in the United States, on average, BRT can be 7 times more affordable than light rail, per mile.

That’s 25 miles of BRT infrastructure for the same cost of less than 4 miles of light rail. 

(25 miles is the total amount of the five proposed Boston corridors combined)

Results of Pilots in Greater Boston

Key Program Objectives

Reduce travel times on corridor; add dedicated space for passenger loading.

Action Strategy

Convert on-street parking to dedicated bus lanes; add queue jump lanes at key intersections.

Pilot Elements

All day bus/bike-only lanes in both directions; queue jump at Coolidge Ave; TSP at two Cambridge intersections

TIME SAVINGS

The BRT Study Group and ITDP also analyzed what kind of time savings Bostonians would experience if BRT were implemented here. This analysis began by looking at how long it takes riders to get from one end of the route to the other with the current bus system, then estimated how much time Gold Standard BRT would save riders, due to shorter wait times, transfers, boarding time, and time in traffic. Savings are significant, with corridors seeing up to 45% improvement.

“Saving 20 mins a day for a year = 2 weeks…like a vacation ”

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