Development of Bus Rapid Transit Information Clearinghouse

This report documents the development of the bus rapid transit information clearinghouse, which is a web-based informational tool on bus rapid transit systems. It may be accessed at the following website address: http://path.berkeley.edu/informationclearinghouse/. This web-based tool provides users with a comprehensive and organized first-stop way of performing bus rapid transit-related research and investigations. The initial version of the BRT Information Clearinghouse has three primary elements consisting of the Planning Support Tool, the Publications Database, and BRT Resources. The Planning Support Tool provides users directly with or pointers to information resources by walking users through the scope of a given situation and the nature of the issues being addressed to arrive at a set of resources to provide the necessary support. The Publications Database provides access to fully abstracted records of published and/or otherwise publicly available materials from professional journals, technical and trade magazines, academic publications, conference proceedings, technical reports, government documents, and links to related websites. Direct links to the documents (in PDF) are provided where available. In BRT Resources users will find access portals to BRT-related information including links for site-specific BRT systems around the world, BRT-focused websites, organizations, search engines and research databases, and technical information, assistance and training. We designed and administered a survey to transit industry professionals to review the Information Clearinghouse prior to its official release. Survey responses show that, overall, the Information Clearinghouse fills a gap in the set of informational tools that currently exist in the arena of bus rapid transit systems and that the Information Clearinghouse website is a valuable and useful part of this informational tool collection.