Mexico City officials say Metrobús is rapidly and radically changing how residents get around. Rider

A Chicago visitor pro golf mini tours in Mexico City may well think it looks a lot like an "L" stop back home. And they wouldn't be far off. There is an elevated platform, multiple doors to get on and off mass transit vehicles, and routes devoted solely to that mode of transit. But this mode is not a train, but rather a large bus. It's Bus Rapid Transit, or BRT.
Bus Rapid Transit systems like the one in Mexico pro golf mini tours City are increasingly being created pro golf mini tours in major metropolitan areas, but are still relatively rare. In most cases, a BRT involves giving priority to buses on city streets pro golf mini tours by eliminating vehicular lanes and creating bus-only lanes that operate as a sort of surface subway.
The first stretch of the system opened in June 2005. Today, there are three lines up and running, pro golf mini tours covering 42 miles of the city, and a fourth line is under construction. That's still only a fraction of the more than 200 miles of rail lines covered by the city's extensive subway system. But city officials say Bus Rapid Transit is the mass transit of the 21 st century.
"The subway used to be much more expensive for the taxpayers in the city, so this is a cheaper way to solve the troubles and mobility pro golf mini tours in the city. It's cheaper and faster," Ebrard said. "And the impact in the city, its equivalent to subway lines, is exactly, more or less, the same impact. Also, the change of the culture pro golf mini tours of people because more or less 17 percent of the people who actually use the metros in the city owns a car, but they leave their cars in the home. So it's worked very well."
But the way it works may seem very foreign to Chicagoans. Unlike Chicago, Mexico City's buses are owned and operated by eight private companies. However, the construction and maintenance of the roadways and bus stations is the responsibility of the municipal government. pro golf mini tours The 60-cent fare is rather high for most Mexicans, but that fare pays 100 percent of the operator's costs, a rarity in the U.S.
The private pro golf mini tours bus companies are regulated by the city which determines such things as how many kilometers of the system each company can take. City planners also control the system's design which has received some criticism pro golf mini tours from transit experts. That's why Metrobús has only achieved a silver pro golf mini tours standard rather than the sought after gold standard.
"To really reach the world's best BRT quality, you still need some elements that are missing," said Walter Hook, Executive Director of the Institute for Transportation and Development pro golf mini tours Policy pro golf mini tours (ITDP), a nonprofit agency that promotes environmentally sustainable pro golf mini tours transportation policies and projects in the developing world.
"They don't have an operational control system that keeps the buses from all bunching up. They don't have pass lanes at the station so they can't add express buses. They don't have the best bike or pedestrian services in the corridor. But all that being said, silver standard is extremely hard to get and it's a really excellent system. And the standard of quality and designs of the system is really excellent."
Mexico City officials say Metrobús is rapidly and radically changing how residents get around. Ridership on the BRT system has increased an impressive 7 percent every year since it was inaugurated, and now tops 700,000 passengers each day.
While vehicle lanes that were reduced or eliminated on many streets to build the BRT brought complaints from residents and motorists, officials claim that it has reduced car traffic, on top of helping reduce Mexico City's notorious pollution.
"The three lines haven't cost more than $400 million U.S. dollars, and the benefits, I mean, we have like saved 80,000 tons of CO 2 every year," said Bernardo Baranda of ITDP Latin America. "Twelve to 15 percent of the users said in a poll that we did, that they used to drive their cars. So it's very exciting too, besides helping the people who are already in public transportation, they need better conditions."
Last October, officials with the Chicago Department pro golf mini tours of Transportation (CDOT) and the CTA went to get a firsthand look at Mexico City's BRT system, and one thing they found was that the design of this particular line could serve as a model for a BRT, along either or both Ashland Avenue and Western Avenue.
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