Busways and bus lanes in Brazil and Japan

Some cities in the world, especially those in developing countries, have adopted busways and bus lanes as cheap and feasible methods to alleviate the problems associated with high traffic demand and congestion. Rapid rail transit has proven to be unfeasible in most developing countries, requiring huge capital investments, sophisticated technology and technical expertise for its proper operation and maintenance of a level not likely to be found in most third world countries. It has been observed that with the appropriate mix of operational and design features such as exclusive lanes, bus priority traffic signal, overtaking at stops and high capacity vehicles, bus systems have been able to achieve the same performance levels as rail transit but for far lower costs, having the additional advantages of route flexibility and demand adaptability. In this paper, a comparison of the performance of busways and bus lanes between Brazil and Japan is presented, as well as a description of the special features, innovative solutions and measures introduced into each of the systems in order to improve management of them and their operational performance. An evaluation of the main features of busways and bus lanes that impact their efficiency and performance is included. To better understand the different treatment afforded busways and bus lanes between the two countries, four Brazilian busway systems and two Japanese bus lane systems have been included in this study