Studying The Impact of BRT on Traffic ( A Case Study of Tabriz 2009)

As one of the large cities of Iran, Tabriz is now facing traffic problems. To get rid of traffic difficulties, in 2008, a group of cityorganizers began establishment of BRT lines within the city. The aimof this study is to show that establishment of BRT lines has improved the quality of bus services and has seized travel via other systems aswell. In this research, a field study has been done and for completion of information, library records and information available in Tabrizbus service organization have been used. Based on the results obtained in present study, it is proven that establishment of BRTlines in Tabriz city, has attracted the attention of people and the speed of travelling by buses has raised to 15 km/h, as it was 10 km/h previously. Waiting time in bus stations has decreased to 3.5min while it was 18min before the establishment of BRT lines. The number of passengers transported by a bus per day has been increased significantly. Besides these advantages, establishment ofthese lines has caused an extended traffic load in the parallel routes. In addition, it is shown that passengers decision for choosing the vehicle, depends on travel expenses, availability of the vehicle, reduction in the waiting time in the stations, decrease in travel time, safety, quality of bus regarding convenience, station designation and providing information, respectively. It was also found that most ofthe ravels by BRT buses have been done with work and educationalpurposes.