Untitled

Abstract

Pilot Chicago Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) routes proposed in 2008 were impractical to build, did not meet Institute for Transportation and Development Policy defined "gold standard" BRT, and were selected without considering the Livability Principles guiding investment by the U.S. government. Streets incompatible with BRT and not meeting basic constructability standards were eliminated. The remaining contiguous street sections were scored on the weighted performance of 14 quantitative proxies for the Livability Principles. Transit connectivity considerations further refined the pool to produce potential BRT routes. For discussion purposes, these routes were organized into a hypothetical BRT network to complement the existing rapid transit system; potential 2010 travel demand impacts were modeled. This study identified 10 potential BRT routes for further consideration. The integration of the Livability Principles into the study was promising but had limited impact because of the greater than anticipated influence of right-of-way width requirements.