This article appears in the June 2009 issue of EM Magazine, a publication of the Air & Waste Management Association.

Some of the most important technical innovations in the transportation field have nothing to do with vehicle technology or alternative fuels. Rather, they involve the way bus services are operated and infrastructure is used to optimize their speed, comfort, and capacity. The U.S. Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has helped to popularize a term for such measures: Bus Rapid Transit, or BRT. This article introduces the core concepts of BRT and discusses the future of the BRT around the world.