Introducing BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) as Mass Public Transportation System for City of Skopje

Abstract

Skopje, as capital city, does not differ much in terms of traffic problems from the other cities that use transport system that primarily relies on the car. Although it is a city with more than half a million inhabitants, today's public transport system includes only a bus system. The network of lines relies on the concept of direct lines, city buses do not have any kind of priority, adding travel time loss due to traffic jams (transport speed is below 14 km/h), and relatively low frequency and reliability service (transported only 50 million passengers per year). Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) has been demonstrated to provide efficient and effective public transport that can even increase transit ridership and attractiveness within defined urban corridors in both developing and developed countries. The merit of the BRT system lies in its ability to provide a high-quality public transit service with limited infrastructure and at a relatively low capital and operating cost.

This paper summarized results of the BRT study for City of Skopje for implementation of optimal solution for Line no. 1. For this purpose, alternative solutions have been made for placement of the alignment in the cross-section profile of the roads. The setting of the BRT alignment can be performed in several different ways, and each of these solutions has its advantages and disadvantages, and a detailed analysis has been made for each of them. The subject is introduction of bus rapid system - BRT in the city of Skopje, i. e construction of line 1 with an alignment starting from Gjorce Petrov to Novo Lisice with an approximate length of 12.81 km in one direction and with 21 bus stops and two terminals. The objectives are reduction of traffic jam (attractive public transport and reducing the number of car travels), reduction of the travel time, reducing environmental pollution. In the process of designing line 1 as a part of the bus rapid system BRT which is planned for the city of Skopje, to provide fast, high-capacity, reliable, environmentally friendly and attractive public transport.