Bus rapid transit creep
BRT creep is a phenomenon commonly defined as a Bus rapid transit system that fails to meet the requirements to be considered "true BRT". These systems are often marketed as a full bus rapid transit system, but end up being described as more of an improvement to regular bus service by proponents of the "BRT creep" term. Notably, the ITDP published several guidelines in an attempt to define what constitutes the term of "true BRT", known as the BRT Standard, in an attempt to avert this phenomenon.
Bus rapid transit is a form of mass transit that uses buses in a dedicated right-of-way, ideally providing speed and volume of service similar to rail transportation like rapid transit or light rail. A commonly cited advantage of BRT is the lack of need to build new rail infrastructure, as new rail is more expensive than using existing roads and cannot be changed easily. The flexibility of BRT, with its greater similarity to other forms of bus transportation, also means that there are fewer obstacles to removing expensive or difficult-to-implement features such as dedicated lanes.
Description
The most extreme versions of BRT creep lead to systems that cannot even truly be recognized as "Bus Rapid Transit". For example, a rating from the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy determined that the Boston Silver Line was best classified as "Not BRT" after local decision makers gradually decided to do away with most BRT-specific features. The study also evaluates New York City's Select Bus Service as "Not BRT".Worried about similar circumstances, Virginia writer Kevin Beekman urges residents in areas planned for BRT development to use the ITDP scoring worksheet as an assessment tool. Another Washington-area writer, Dan Reed, furthers this sentiment, writing that if BRT creep is allowed to reach its full conclusion, it's "bad for commuters, but it's also bad for taxpayers who were sold a high-end service only to find out that we just painted the buses a different color".
According to Dan Malouff, a transit planner who was one of the earliest people to use the phrase, the slippery slope towards BRT creep varies widely from system to system. He says in a piece republished by The Washington Post that "there are a thousand corners like that you can cut that individually may or may not hurt too much, but collectively add up to the difference between BRT and a regular bus". Major compromises in service are highlighted by one or more common symptoms:
- The bus runs in shared HOV lanes or general purpose lanes rather than true dedicated lanes
- True "stations" instead become "stops"
- Pre-pay is done away with, slowing passenger boarding
- The bus does not receive priority at traffic lights
Counterarguments, remediation, and alternative labels
Author and activist Matthew Yglesias has argued in Slate Magazine that BRT creep is a very real worry, but that the issue is not "a problem with buses, it's a problem with cheapskates".Houston Tomorrow points out some ways local legislation can prevent BRT creep: "The new section on Bus Rapid Transit specifically defines it as having a separated right-of-way, defined stations, short headways and signal priority."
At least one political candidate has also referred to BRT creep using the less widely used term "bus creep".
One drawback to the phrase is that it uses "creep" in a way that is contradictory to other terms such as "scope creep", "feature creep", and "mission creep". "BRT creep" refers to how features can be eaten away due to lack of funding or political will, while the other terms typically refer to an expanding scope.
Additional examples
- In Curitiba, Brazil, Rede Integrada de Transporte has failed to integrate its growing suburbs into a coherent regional plan.
- In London, Seattle and the San Jose region, plans for BRT lines were scaled back to allow "mixed traffic" operation on large portions of the lines
- In San Jose, the Alum Rock-Santa Clara BRT line includes only one mile of dedicated bus lanes along the seven-mile route, while plans for a second BRT route along El Camino saw the proposed dedicated bus lanes dropped before the project itself was eventually cancelled.
- In Portland, dedicated lanes were scrapped early in the planning process, while the BRT label was kept.
- In Delhi, dedicated lanes got built, only to be rolled back by a pair of judges who did not understand why cars should not drive in them. That decision was eventually reversed, after considerable damage to the BRT line's reputation for speed.
- In New York City and East Lansing, plans for physically separated lanes were discarded in favor of difficult-to-enforce painted curbside lanes.
- In Cleveland, the HealthLine—often cited as a BRT success story—BRT creep nonetheless occurred when traffic signal priority was turned off, following complaints from local motorists
- In Boston, the Silver Line is branded as BRT but lacks most BRT-quality features such as enforced exclusive bus lanes, high level platforms, or off-vehicle fare collection. Notably, Route SL1 operates in mixed traffic along a routing that has been widely criticized as inefficient and unnecessarily convoluted, including a mixed-traffic freeway segment that often experiences severe congestion.
- In the Denver-Boulder area of Colorado, the "Flatiron Flyer," which was originally pitched as a BRT service, gradually did away with advance ticketing, signal priority and most dedicated lanes.
- In Fresno, California, administrators eliminated exclusive bus lanes, articulated buses, level boarding, stations and short headways, while continuing to use "BRT" as a descriptor for what eventually amounted to a normal bus line with two-door boarding.
- In Las Vegas, the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada's four lines branded as BRT lack many key modal features. The SDX, Boulder Highway Express, and Sahara Express routes operate in dedicated lines only along portions of their route, have simplified "stops" instead of stations, and no longer use specifically branded vehicles. A fifth line, the MAX line along Las Vegas Blvd North and branded as an early BRT system, was later converted to a higher frequency local route.
- In San Francisco, the Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit project omits raised platforms for level boarding; station platforms will be built at standard sidewalk height instead.
- In Buenos Aires, Argentina, the Metrobus lacks of pre-pay feature to reduce delays on passengers boarding, the buses don't get any priority at intersections neither extended green phase or reduced the red phase. Platform-level is not different from regular sidewalks.
- In the Minneapolis/St. Paul region there are two routes marketed as BRT, but do not actually achieve the standards of BRT. The first is the METRO Red Line, which opened in 2013 between Apple Valley, Minnesota and Mall of America in the southern suburban region of Minneapolis. Headways are every 20 minutes, there is no off-board fare payment, and buses do not have a dedicated right-of-way. The other route is the A Line, which opened in 2016 between South Minneapolis and Roseville, Minnesota. The A Line is locally referred to as arterial BRT. While the entire route has no dedicated right-of-way, headways are every 10 minutes and there is off-board fare payment.
- In Guangzhou, China, authorities decided to open GBRT lanes to mixed traffic during peak hours; as a result, the BRT system's average peak hour speeds dropped to 16 km/h from their previous average of 20 km/h.