An integrated method to optimise the infrastructure costs of bus rapid transit systems

A significant effort has been directed in many countries to develop economically feasible transportation solutions which include, in many cases, buses that run on express lanes or that are used as part of a feeder system; these systems are identified as 'bus rapid transit systems' (BRT). The purpose of this paper is to present a reliability cost-based optimisation model of these systems. The model couples the transportation requirements and the mechanical performance of asphalt pavement structures. Also it includes critical transportation parameters such as bus sizes, frequency of the routes and passenger demands. Regarding the pavement, the model takes into account the life-cycle of existing or new pavements, which involves a stochastic model of the pavement's mechanical properties and its overall performance. The model is applied to the actual case of Bogota's rapid transportation system, i.e. Transmilenio, showing the importance of this integrated approach to build efficient BRT systems.