Photo: Darchelle Strickland Love of Detroit makes a comment at the Green Boot Camp, our first Climate Leadership Academy on building energy retrofits.

Taking place in Cleveland, OH from March 26-28, the event will bring together teams from 10 regions across the country who are planning, designing, or implementing BRT systems.

There is a growing body of evidence that BRT—when done right—offers great promise for improving quality of life by increasing mobility, social equity, and economic opportunity while reducing overall cost and environmental and climate impacts. A recent report by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), entitled “Recapturing Global Leadership in Bus Rapid Transit,” cited several potential benefits of BRT systems over traditional car-dependent urban transportation systems and other forms of public transit:

• BRT typically is both quicker and less expensive to build than subways or light rail;
• Travel speeds and carrying capabilities can be comparable to subways or light rail; and
• It’s often easier to establish BRT, since it can utilize existing road infrastructure.

Despite these and other potential benefits, there are relatively few high-quality BRT systems in the U.S. This Academy workshop will help advance new and existing BRT systems in the U.S. by bringing leading experts together with cross-sector, inter-jurisdictional teams of practitioners from regions across the country to learn, share, and strategize around how to build high-quality BRT systems.

The Climate Leadership Academy: Bus Rapid Transit workshop is supported by the Rockefeller Foundation.

Applications are due January 31st. Applications are now closed. 

brt, scla