A Rough Road For BRT Systems in New Delhi

High-speed bus systems in crowded urban areas have taken off from Brazil to China, but introducing this form of mass transit to the teeming Indian capital of New Delhi has proven to be a vexing challenge. Read more @ Yale 360

Against Public Interest - Undermining BRT in Delhi, India

Welcome to New Delhi’s “bus rapid transit,” or BRT, system, an initiative designed to help ease traffic congestion, encourage use of public transportation, and reduce air pollution in this congested capital city of 13.8 million. But Delhi’s six-year-old BRT project has run into numerous snags, including the incursion of cars and other vehicles into the BRT lanes — a development that can defeat the purpose of a system designed to be faster than general traffic. City officials once hoped to create 14 additional BRT corridors, but the system has not expanded beyond its inaugural 3.6-mile stretch.

Enrique Penalosa at the TEDCity2.0 Talking About the Importance of Buses and Public Transport in the Cities

Since 2007, India’s transportation planners have conducted an ambitious experiment by introducing high-speed buses to congested megacities. They have modeled their BRT networks on similar systems, with designated high-speed lanes, that have delivered myriad benefits for urban transit grids around the world, including in Bogotá, Tehran, and several cities in China.

Delhi Government to Dismantle the 6km BRT Lane in the City !!

India’s BRT experiment faces unique challenges, Hidalgo adds. Latin American cities that introduced BRT systems already had robust public bus networks, making a conversion to higher-speed ones relatively easy, whereas Indian cities are typically filled with cyclists and three-wheeled auto rickshaws, he explains.

Delhi BRT is Now in a Society Class Divide (BBC)

Hidalgo says that even though India’s BRT systems are growing steadily —seven extensive BRT systems now operate nationwide and several others are in the planning stages — they have made only a small dent on India’s increasingly car-centric transportation landscape. “The big challenge for India is if they keep motorizing, they will face enormous difficulties,” he says, including the exacerbation of an already severe air pollution problem.

Shortage in Bus Manufacturing Leading to Scrapped Buses Plying on the Delhi Roads

Read more @ Yale 360