BRT: METHODOLOGYBelo Horizonte

Ralph GakenheimerClean Air Institute

Challenges

• Arrange radial access for demand that will grow relative to supply in spite of all efforts.

• Retain strength of city center• Provide radial access that will compete successfully in speed,

cost and service with other modes• Extend mobility to low income suburban residents.• Encourage higher density of development on the

metropolitan periphery

Plano de Mobilidade Leads the Way

• Plano is based on assumptions of radial BRT spines• Bicycle ways in the vicinity of transit centers in the North, South

and City Center. • Pedestrian continuity at axes termini in the city center, and some of

the axis subcenters. • Reduction of parking in city center and main arteries. • Taxi posting on the corridor transit stations• More effective transit priority in traffic management• Additional favela bus lines to connect with main transit lines• Discussion of traffic ban (rodizio) and congestion pricing toward

future possibilities, other forms of personal vehicle reduction.

The Planning and Programming Process

Activities for simultaneous, not sequential, attention:• Basic structuring questions• Participation in the planning• Detailing initial corridor plan and BRT path• Local conditions that facilitate or obstruct densification• Alternative sketch development scenarios• Refined housing demand and urban growth studies• Promotion of the corridor• Ways of providing infrastructure services. • Defending against sprawl

Basic Structuring Questions

Partly quoted from Planners at the Politicas Urbanas Office:

• What actions taken to encourage/require densification, if any?

• What levels of densification for specific distances from center?

• What breadth of the corridors where densification is raised?• What related activity requirements for the outlying nodes?

Participation in the Planning

Basically covered by the terms of reference.

• Important to include significant public agencies

• Important to include the land development community, whose decisions to build will be fundamental.

• Important to create decision mechanism to assure decisive settlement of stalemates.

Initial Trial Design

To get a sense of the space required for BRT and the options of different scales

• Initial choice of BRT transit vehicle type• Lane width, intermittent passing lane according to demand

indications.• Space for stations and station approaches—after seeing

different solutions, since they vary greatly. • Space for transfer buses• Space for transfer parking• Space for public amenities—stores, plazas…• Initial geometry for the dense development corridors

Local Conditions that Facilitate or Obstruct Densification.

Discovered soon enough, some obstructions may be relieved.

• Limitations on densification may include parcels held by religious organizations, public agencies, the military, low density residential development, existing industrial establishments…

• Areas that should not be sought for densification include agricultural and ecologically productive lands.

• Attention to dealing with properties held in speculation of rising land values.

Housing Demand and Urban Growth Studies

VERY IMPORTANT SINCE DEVELOPMENT WILL NOT PROCEED WITHOUT DEMAND FOR CATEGRORIES IN POINT.

• Requires analysis of what development categories fit the available parcels

• Requires analysis of the housing starts and institutional locating behavior in the metropolitan region.

Promotion of the Corridor

AN ESSENTIAL ACTIVITY:• Release information to the media• Hold public programs of explanation• Provide media information about successful BRT systems

elsewhere in Brazil• Hold urban design competitions for indicative designs• Pursue possible institutional and corporate project sponsors;

offer assistance in their evaluations• Advertize in trade journals• Provide staff assistance to potential locators.

Land Assembly and Infrastructure Services

Preparations to consider whether and how to use of instruments for land assembly and the financing of infrastructure, such as

• Land readjustment and other land assembly means• Transfer of development rights (especially to save agricultural

land• Density bonuses• CEPAC, bond purchases to finance infrastructure• Betterment levies (valorización), plusvalia• Providing prior infrastructure to attract development.

Defending Against Sprawl

Finding means of defending the agricultural and natural land of the metropolitan area, and discouragement of low density residential development.

For examples:• Transfer of development rights that require the preservation

of parts of large parcels as agricultural land.• Zoning of natural lands to be preserved.