The Impact of Policy Making, a Case Study of Brts in a Developing Context Promoting Sustainable Transportation through the Integration of Public Transit with Non Motorised Transit

Fast growing economies are paralleled with extensive sprawl and an increasing trend in auto-mobilization. Hence there is a direct effect on the travel demand on transport systems. Cities are confronted by challenges to achieve sustainable alternatives to the benign effects of the private motorcar. The move from an auto-oriented city towards a lesser car reliant city is of dire need. The ways in which people travel have an enormous impact in the urban morphology and also in urban transport systems. Travel patterns are characterized by the trip length, trip time, and trip rate; especially the purpose of travel determines the mode share preferred. Sustainable systems are aimed at reducing over consumption of fossil fuels and land cover therein reducing the emphasis of the private automobile as the primary mode of transport and encouraging shifts towards sustainable modes such as cycling, walking and public transit. The focus of this paper is on the promotion of sustainable urban transportation through the integration of nonmotorized transport systems (cycling, walking) with public transport network systems. A hybrid evolution, an outcome of the synergy between two modes of transport namely the bicycle and public transport, is an evidence of two complementary transport modes that would cater to diverse individual travel needs in a quick, efficient and sustainable manner. The current public transport system the bus rapid transit system of Ahmedabad in the context of a developing country, India is comparatively studied with bus rapid transit system of Curitiba, Brazil. A primary survey is done to analyze the inclination of commuters to shift from their private modes to the BRTS. Existing travel patterns of the city of Ahmedabad are studied to help predict the preferred modal choice and to understand people’s behaviour to switch to other modal choices. The pre-conditions and postconditions are also considered. Some areas of implementation are observed in detail to represent and communicate the issues of its un-sustainable impacts in the urban environment. The current state of the BRTS of Curitiba is compared to perceive what can be learnt from and what can be implemented in the Indian context, as the BRTS model of Curitiba was one of the earliest implemented BRT system that is functioning very efficiently. When scrutinizing the two scenarios, it shows that executing the BRTS can increase sustainable mobility to a certain extent. In the Indian context, the BRT system can be considered as a step towards implementing sustainable alternatives to the existing deterrent environment. This is done by addressing my hypothesis of how effective planning policies are, in its implementation of the integration of NMT with public transit systems.