Urban Public Transport Systems - Essay Example

Running Head: Urban Planning and Public Transport Systems Department . Planning is can be a very complex in development yet it is very crucial to the achievement of development goals. This can be seen in personal planning, national planning, urban planning and many other scenarios. In urban planning for instance a number of factors come forth for consideration and careful consideration the factors is what determines the successful planning as well as implementation of the project. These factors include sustainability; cost of implementation for the plan, sources of funding for the plan, economic and environmental impacts, job creation, ease of cost business and many others. It is therefore very important to the understand the planning aspect of urban development and the various forces as well as factors that come into play to influence the direction strategies on development in our urban cities. One very important factor is selecting the best plan option out of the many available options. This in my opinion requires a very detailed, careful and well consulted analysis of the possible options in order to settle on one that is more appropriate for the situation at hand. In many American cities such as Cleveland, Pittsburgh, New York and others for instance, city planners have had to choose between light rail and BRT. The choice of model to be implemented in both cases was made after carefully considering the benefits of both, the cost aspects, ease of implementation, convenience for the commuters, sustainability and economic benefits. In both cases BRT is more appealing for its convenience and ease of implementation. The cost of implementation for the urban transportation system of choice is a very crucial factor in planning stages. At the level of planning is highly important to put into consideration the costs associated with the various available options and choose the most cost effective option that can give the same desired results. In the Cleveland decongestion plan which favored BRT the total expenditure on the upgrade was $200 million and the city was able to eliminate forty stops, install boxes for payment of fare at all stations, and have a separate traffic lane for the bus complete with own signals. Constructing a light-rail with comparable features would have cost the city a total of $800 million yet BRT expended just a quarter the cost and has given results beyond what was expected. Careful analysis of the cost element therefore saved the city a total of $600 million, decongested the city tremendously and proved the efficiency of BRT. Another very important element of urban transport planning is the source of funds for implanting the plan. There are very many options available sources of funding for urban transport systems which range from public to private sources. It is therefore important for the planning phase to incorporate the funding aspect when dealing with such projects which require huge amounts of funds and really plays a significant role in informing the model to be implemented. This especially important so as to avoid overburdening the tax payer as much as the project might have more long-term economic benefits; in Cleveland implementation of BRT was largely funded by medical institutions where as the governors of Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida rejected large sums of Federal money to fund high speed rail systems. There concern was on the taxpayers whom they argued would be hooked if they were not going to get private investors fund the project. Good city planning should therefore carefully put into consideration the cost element of projects while considering the sources of funds and impacts on the tax payers in order to have a smooth implementation of development. Convenience of the selected option over the others in terms making commuting more easily as well as its sustainability are factors that should also be addressed during the planning stages. In the Cleveland case which has since been referred to as the “gold standard” BRT, what was a four lane road was transformed into a one lane both direction road to all a bus lanes, and they had to set aside space for bike lines. The RTA worked with the churches, business community and the entire residence community during design phase and concerns by businesses over loss of packing as well as loading areas were addressed by implementing a model after another. Some proposed stops were even moved to allow addition of new driveways on the system. The most important goal was to achieve decongestion with a transport system that is sustainable and at the same time convenient for the business environment as well as the commuters. This was the end result of BRT in the cities that have taken and implemented it; decongestion was achieved, sustainability assured, business concerns addressed more development sparked and more importantly bus transport became more appealing. The sustainability and convenience of the transport system across the board is therefore a very crucial that should be well considered during the planning phases a any city’s transport system plan. There is also an important aspect of urban transport and planning which has to do with the impacts of the transport system adopted on the city’s economy and environment. Economy and environment are key factors to a city and a public transport that system that assures sustainable economic development and environmental impact is therefore the goal of any city. This again is a factor of influence in the city planning departments as everyone concerned about their city’s development apart from convenience in traffic for those who commute to work. High speed light rail transport has been the traditional solution for it is considered to efficient on the use of energy, but BRT has more advantages when the two are compared. BRT is more easier to implement, it is cheaper in terms of cost as compared to rail system and is capable of incorporating various aspects such as bus lanes, bike lanes etc. Where BRT has been adopted and implemented in a systematic way it has been found to perfectly interconnect the parts of the city, reduce the time spent by commuters in traffic, create jobs, and ultimately decongest the cities. BRT through efficient connection of major city points is able to spark economic development on top of making public transport a preferable mode of transport. In Cleveland BRT made it possible to move from one stop to another in just 30 minutes, spark development worth approximately $ 4 billion. In conclusion therefore planning of any kind whether personal, for business, urban planning or any development project is a very complex process that attracts many forces and opinions. Planning teams should be ready to take a considerable amount of time and evaluate all the possible implications of the project as well as the all the available options of completing the project. it is also important that all factors such as economic benefits, sustainability costs, sources of funds and ease of life for the public are considered. When all these factors are thoroughly analyzed then it is possible that the end product is city plan the makes the cost of living or doing business in a town is a affordable as well as the achieving sustainable environmental impact. By decongesting a city, the plan is able to achieve more public confidence, attract investments and developments and ultimately reduce the cost of transport which makes life comfortable. References. 1. Darrin Youker. (2011). Now Boarding the 5:15 Express; Bus Rapid Transit Could be the Economical Answer to Light Rail. The Magazine of the American Planning Association. Read More