Emissions Analysis: Bus Rapid Transit on the Geary Corridor in San Francisco

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems are often described as "metro systems on wheels", as they include dedidcated bus lanes, fixed stops and schedules, and off-vehicle fare collection systems.   BRT has become transit’s latest trend, and because of the international success stories, cities in the United States have begun to investigate the concept. 

U.S. attempts at BRT implementation have not resulted in “full” BRT systems.  Examples such as the San Pablo Avenue “Rapid” line in Alameda County, California have been touted as BRT, but these BRT "lite" systems lack many elements of true BRT.

One possible location of a new BRT system is on Geary Boulevard, in San Francisco, California; the project is still in the design phase, and several of the construction options include components of BRT "lite" and "full."

Along with Dr. Arpad Horvath and a team of fellow students (listed below), Tobias developed a life-cycle assessment of some of these scenarios for the Geary Corridor.

In synopsis, the project results found that while the BRT "lite" systems resulted in no emissions reductions, the BRT "full" systems resulted in large emissions reductions. These reductions are due to large increases in bus ridership, caused by the dramatically improved service of the BRT system; passengers are much more enticed to leave their automobiles when a high-functioningg transit system like BRT is available.

The full paper will be published later this year.

Co-Authors (alphabetical):

  • Mikhail Chester
  • Nicholas Deforest
  • Dr. Arpad Horvath
  • James Lew
  • Brittany Montgomery
  • Dr. Lee Schipper
  • Tobias Schultz
  • Leonard Tu