Bus Rapid Transit Corridor Planning Workshop Final Report June, 2014 brtod.net Contributors Santiago Team Boston Team PUC Felipe Arrué El Bosque Brookline Patricio Cifuentes Santiago Centro Dudley Carolina Fariña Santiago Centro Brookline Diego Garcia El Bosque Cambridge Soledad Guerrero San Miguel Dudley Carlos Johnson Los Morros Brookline Benjamin Lizana Los Morros Dudley Markus Niehaus San Miguel Brookline Jose Luis Palomera Portales Cambridge Sue Pot San Miguel Dudley Dany Rios San Miguel Somerville Juan Carlos Rodriguez Los Morros Somerville Tomas Rossetti Portales Somerville Lucia Valencia Portales Somerville Karin Villaroel El Bosque Cambridge Natan Waintrub Santiago Centro Cambridge MIT Rinal Chheda Portales Transportation, Cambridge Michael Dowd El Bosque Transportation, Cambridge Emily Eros Los Morros Funding, Dudley Annemarie Gray El Bosque Policy, Dudley Yafei Han Los Morros Transportation, Somerville Amalia Holub San Miguel Policy, Cambridge Deborah Perrotta El Bosque Transportation, Dudley Lilia Pharazyn da Silva Santiago Centro Policy, Somerville Katie Pincus Santiago Centro Transportation, Brookline Pablo Posada Portales Transportation, Brookline Anson Stewart San Miguel Funding, Somerville Maggie Tishman Los Morros Funding, Brookline Catherine Vanderwaart Portales Policy, Brookline Contents INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 7 PART I: SANTIAGO – GRAN AVENIDA ............................................................................................................................................................. 11 Context ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 11 Proposal Overview .............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 13 1 | Santiago Centro ............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 15 2 | San Miguel .................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 25 3 | Los Morros .................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 41 4 | El Bosque ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 57 5 | Portales ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 73 PART II: BOSTON – CIRCUMFERENTIAL TRANSIT .................................................................................................................................... 89 Context ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 89 Proposal: Transportation .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 93 Proposal: Policy and Institutions ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 99 Proposal: Funding and Financing ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 104 1 | Somerville ................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 110 2 | Cambridge ................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 119 3 | Brookline ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 127 4 | Dudley ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 139 LESSONS AND CHALLENGES ........................................................................................................................................................................... 147 5 Introduction Overview Faculty We aim to demonstrate how bus rapid transit (BRT) The workshop was led by Professors Rosanna Forray, Rocío corridors might be conducive to transit-oriented Hidalgo, Fábio Duarte, Jan Wampler, and Chris Zegras, with development (TOD), producing public spaces that give the support of the Departments of Urban Studies and large-scale structure to the city and driving equitable urban Planning and Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of development in the areas to which they are introduced. To Technology (MIT), the Faculty of Architecture and Urban explore the potential for realizing BRT-based TOD Studies and the Department of Transportation Engineering (BRTOD), we examined two distinct contexts – the regions and Logistics at the Pontifícia Universidad Católica de Chile of Boston, MA (USA) and Santiago de Chile – through a (PUC), and the Across Latitudes and Cultures Bus Rapid graduate-level urban planning and design workshop, co- Transit (ALC-BRT) Centre of Excellence. Other faculty taught August-December, 2013, at the Massachusetts from the ALC-BRT Centre and the Center of Sustainable Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Pontificia Urban Development (CEDEUS), Juan Carlos Muñoz and Juan Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC). Adopting an Carlos Herrera, also assisted in the workshop. integrated, cross-disciplinary approach to the design of transit routes, bus corridor infrastructure, surrounding Participants public spaces, real estate projects, public policy, and governance, students’ proposals for these two corridors The 29 participating students had diverse academic highlight the potential of BRT to transform diverse urban backgrounds and were enrolled in the PUC Master in Urban settings. Design, PUC Transportation Engineering, MIT Master of City Planning, and MIT Master of Science in Transportation degree programs. This multidisciplinary composition 7 encouraged participants to challenge each other’s thinking Based on these perspectives, and the students’ own and consider interactions between urban subsystems. analyses and diagnostics, the teams each developed segment-specific visions for physical, social, and Having participants from the United States, Chile, Brazil, environmental outcomes. They were then tasked with Canada, China, Colombia, Guatemala, India, and Mexico developing cross-cutting transportation, urban design, allowed for the sharing of a wide range of international planning, and funding strategies to realize these visions, perspectives on bus rapid transit and urban design. It also and integrating these strategies along the length of the gave students experience with the challenges of the corridor. increasing globalization of urban professions. Process Settings Relevant information about the two contexts is PUC students began with analysis of the Gran Avenida corridor in Santiago in 2013. The MIT students then summarized in Table 1. Santiago is a much denser city than traveled to Santiago in August, 2013 for a weeklong Boston, and its rapid economic growth in the past two workshop and charrette. Over the following six weeks, decades has transformed the urban landscape, with students worked in site-focused teams, collaborating considerable suburbanization, deindustrialization, and remotely to produce urban design proposals for segments densification, especially in the form of new commercial of the corridor. concentrations outside of the traditional CBD. Boston, with much slower recent economic growth relative to Santiago, In October, 2013, the PUC students traveled to Boston and has still seen important urban transformations, including joined the MIT students for in-person final presentations of new technology centers emerging near the major the Gran Avenida proposals. The students then shifted their universities and re-urbanization of former industrial zones. focus to the proposed Urban Ring corridor, working The higher density and lower auto ownership in Santiago together for a week, then in parallel over the subsequent