NRDC Releases 'Bus Priority Toolkit'

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Bloomberg Philanthropies American Cities Climate Challenge have released a Bus Priority Toolkit "created jointly with Nelson\Nygaard, NACTO, and the cities of Atlanta, Honolulu, Los Angeles, Portland, Ore., and Washington, D.C.," write Zak Accuardi and Jordan Fraade. The toolkit is designed "to help planners and policy makers at cities and transit agencies solve two key two key bus priority implementation challenges: 1) Building the case for bus priority infrastructure by identifying effective ways to tell the story about why bus priority measures are key tools for climate, transportation access, and equity; and 2) Evaluating the benefits and performance of bus priority measures once they have been implemented."

"Dedicated bus lanes and other transit priority measures are becoming increasingly common in the U.S., but cities working to implement them in recent years have often faced similar challenges as they work to scale up impact from small, one-off projects to comprehensive investments." Because of this, "implementation is easier when cities and transit advocates can communicate the benefits of bus priority measures as part of a clear and compelling story" with a "rigorous performance measurement strategy."

According to the authors, "[t]he technology isn’t complicated, and what’s often missing is simply a compelling narrative, a strategy to measure and communicate the positive benefits, and political will." The kit "provides graphic elements to help tell the story of the benefits of bus priority projects as well as analytic methods for use by city and transit agency staff."