Abstract:

Policy makers in many large cities in Asia recently started to consider the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) as an option for their urban transport. On 15 January 2004, the TransJakarta busway was started along a 12.9 km corridor through the city centre. On 1 July 2004, BRT corridors were installed as a part of Seoul’s reform of its public transport system. On 25 December 2004, the first stage commercial operation of BRT was started in Beijing. In Bangkok, the plan for BRT was declared in 2004 by the newly elected governor of Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) indicating that the first BRT lines would be opened in October 2005, although the plan was postponed. This research aims to uncover the reason why introductions of BRTs in Asia were accelerated around 2004 from the perspective of lesson-drawing. Specifically, through comparative study of three Asian cities, this study examines: (1) who played important roles in lesson-drawing processes of BRTs and what were their roles; and (2) what factors motivated those actors to draw BRT lessons. Case studies are conducted on Jakarta, Seoul, and Beijing. The hypotheses of this study include: (1) international organizations play the important role in lesson-drawing; (2) political will provides opportunity structure for lesson-drawing to occur; (3) economic crisis changes the preference of policy makers to turn to lower cost options. The above hypotheses are tested through (1) review of newspaper articles on the BRT in Jakarta, Seoul, and Beijing and (2) a questionnaire survey with the individuals who were involved in adoption processes of the BRT systems in those cities.

Presentation: http://www.cleanairnet.org/baq2006/1757/docs/SW21_4.ppt

Full paper:

Analysis of Policy Making Processes for Bus Rapid Transit in Asian cities: Comparison of Beijing, Jakarta, and Seoul [.doc, 327.6Kb]