Integrating the BRT with the city’s urban environment
This project proposes to investigate the relationship between BRT stations and the urban surroundings and their roles as public spaces. While answering this question requires a large study of a great variety of BRT stations at locations of varying geographical, topological, and socio-economic characteristics, this research serves as a pilot study to guide further research and wider investigation on this topic.
As a pilot study, this study will investigate all currently (and soon) working BRT stations in Malmö. Concretely this involves five stations at five urban locations with different socio-economical characteristics.
One of the results of the project will be the added knowledge about the role of the BRT system not only as transit spaces (space of transportation) but also as part of the city’s urban and social infrastructure. A related result is an enhanced understanding of the challenges and possibilities of integrating BRT stations into the city’s urban and social fabric and the way BRT stations may work as public spaces. A concrete result of the project will include findings about the features of BRT’s pedestrian access (design, placement, and location) that contribute to integrating BRT stations into the urban surroundings. These results will contribute to Malmö city’s ongoing work with expanding the bus network in which several BRT stations are being constructed or planned. These findings will also contribute to ongoing planning work for new BRT or further developing existing BRT in other Swedish municipalities.