BRT accessibility guidelines

PDFTech ReportBus rapid transitBus transitPublic transitAccessibilityGuidelinesPhysical handicapsPhysically handicapped personsColombiaWorld BankRickert, TomWorld BankNTL-ECONOMICS AND FINANCE-Transit Economics and FinanceNTL-PLANNING AND POLICY-Transit Planning and PolicyNTL-PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION-Bus TransportationNTL-PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION-Transit Planning and PolicyUS Transportation CollectionIn recent years helpful guides have appeared in both English and Spanish to assist plannersand officials to construct accessible buildings and pedestrian infrastructure which are usableby seniors, persons with disabilities, and all others who especially benefit from universaldesign. Less has been written about access to public transport systems. Very little guidanceis available concerning specific issues which confront those planning Bus Rapid Transit(BRT) systems \ue2\u20ac\u201c mass transit systems which incorporate a spectrum of design andoperational features on integrated trunk and feeder routes and which were initiated in LatinAmerica and are now spreading throughout the region and beyond.In Colombia, BRT systems are in different stages ofplanning, implementation, and expansion. Bogota\ue2\u20ac\u2122swell-known TransMilenio is expanding and Pereira\ue2\u20ac\u2122sMegab\uc3\ubas BRT system recently opened. Planningand construction are moving forward for Cali\ue2\u20ac\u2122s ElMIO, the Metropl\uc3\ubas system in Medell\uc3\uadn, Metrol\uc3\uadneain Bucaramanga, Transmetro in Barranquilla, andTranscaribe in Cartagena, all scheduled to beingoperation in 2007 or 2008. Colombia will thus be thefirst country in the world to provide integratedsystems of mass transport in most of its major cities.External funding for these systems is provided by theWorld Bank, with the exception of Cali, where funding is provided by the Inter-AmericanDevelopment Bank. Conscious of their role in promoting \ue2\u20ac\u153transport for all\ue2\u20ac? around the world,institutions such as the World Bank are working with the national Ministry of Transport andmunicipal stakeholders to promote the accessible design and operation of BRT systems inColombia and beyond. The Bank has learned much from the pioneering accessibilityfeatures of TransMilenio and from Medell\uc3\uadn\ue2\u20ac\u2122s Metro and Metrocable systems, as well as fromexisting and planned BRT systems throughout Latin America. This experience, combinedwith what has been learned from other regions, has resulted in the publication of these BRTAccessibility Guidelines.The guidelines focus on the BRT environment and assume that interested parties can takeadvantage of existing guidelines to clarify general issues of access to public space, buildings,and pedestrian infrastructure. The guidelines generally follow the travel path of a passengerusing a full-featured Bus Rapid Transit system. The accessible travel chain begins withsidewalks and pedestrian crossings and continues into a typical mid-island station served bybuses with left-side doors (in countries where traffic drives on the right side). Buses pull up toan enclosed station with a ramped platform the height of the bus floor. The guidelines thenConstruction of BRT line inCali, ColombiaBRT Accessibility Guidelines2focus on station features, crossing the gap into the bus, and bus features. Due to theintegrated nature of BRT, the guidelines focus equally on both trunk line and feeder lineissues while acknowledging that a long-term planning process may be needed to identifyfunding for improved feeder line infrastructure and vehicles. Costs and benefits arediscussed in a separate document, but most of the featuresdiscussed in this guide are low cost or even without cost innew features. The accessibility features are usuallyexamples of universal design which not only assist disabledpassengers but also make BRT more attractive to othercategories of passengers. The guidelines put specialemphasis on BRT features which have proven to beproblematic according to findings by planners andpassengers. Special \ue2\u20ac\u153alert\ue2\u20ac? notices are placed to furtheremphasize these sections. References are provided withfurther information on the topics in the guide. Information onthe references is found in the Resources section at the rearof this report. A Check List to assist task manages to apply the guidelines is added as anappendix. The CD version of this guide provides additional resource materials. Photos notcredited are by the author.Appreciation is expressed to those who have commented on the draft version of theseguidelines, including but not limited to the Ministry of Transport of the Republic of Colombia;representatives of agencies in all seven of the Colombian cities operating or phasing in BRTsystems; and persons with disabilities and their NGOs in Bogot\uc3\ua1, Cartagena, Cali,Bucaramanga, and Medell\uc3\uadn. Special thanks to other individual reviewers, including Arq.Claudia S\uc3\ua1nchez (Colombia), Dr. CGB (Kit) Mitchell (United Kingdom), Dr. Christoffel Venter(South Africa), Arq. Silvia Coriat (Argentina), Ing. Gerhard Menckhoff (World Bank), and Lic.Mar\uc3\uada Eugenia Ant\uc3\ubanez and Arq. Andr\uc3\ua9s Balc\uc3\ua1zar (M\uc3\ua9xico)