Editing Bus rapid transit (section)

=== Comparison with conventional bus services ===
[[File:Chang'an avenue in Beijing.jpg|thumb|Conventional bus services being delayed by [[traffic congestion]] on [[Chang'an Avenue]] in [[Beijing]]]]
Conventional scheduled bus services use general traffic lanes, which can be slow due to [[traffic congestion]], and the speed of bus services is further reduced by long [[Dwell time (transportation)|dwell times]]. {{citation needed|date=June 2014}}

In 2013, the New York City authorities noted that buses on [[34th Street (Manhattan)|34th Street]], which carried 33,000 bus riders a day on local and express routes, traveled at {{convert|4.5|mph|km/h}}, only slightly faster than walking pace. Even despite the implementation of [[Select Bus Service]] (New York City's version of a bus rapid transit system), dedicated bus lanes, and traffic cameras on the 34th Street corridor, buses on the corridor were still found to travel at an average of 4.5&nbsp;mph.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nyc.gov/html/brt/html/routes/34th_transit.shtml|title=34th Street Select Bus Service|quote=Bus service along 34th Street is among the slowest in the city. Buses travel at an average of {{convert|4.5|mph}}, only slightly faster than walking. Despite these slow speeds, 34th Street is a major east-west bus corridor, carrying over 33,000 bus riders a day on local and express routes.|access-date=31 March 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170623124601/http://www.nyc.gov/html/brt/html/routes/34th_transit.shtml|archive-date=23 June 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In the 1960s, [[Reuben Smeed]] predicted that the average speed of traffic in central London would be {{convert|9|mph}} without other disincentives such as [[road pricing]], based on the theory that this was the minimum speed that people will tolerate. When the [[London congestion charge]] was introduced in 2003, the average traffic speed was indeed {{convert|14|km/h}} which was the highest speed since the 1970s.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/fifth-annual-impacts-monitoring-report-2007-07-07.pdf|title=Impacts monitoring&nbsp;— fifty annual report|work=Transport for London}}</ref> By way of contrast, typical speeds of BRT systems range from {{convert|17|to|30|mph}}.<ref name="nbrti.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.nbrti.org/docs/pdf/Characteristics_BRT_Decision-Making.pdf|title=Characteristics of BRT for decision making.|page=ES-5|publisher=Federal Transit Administration|date=1 August 2004|access-date=8 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160415111548/http://www.nbrti.org/docs/pdf/Characteristics_BRT_Decision-Making.pdf|archive-date=15 April 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>