To connect some of the Madison metro area’s most popular destinations, including the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, retail/commercial anchors, and the downtown core, four primary travel corridors were studied for potential implementation of various bus rapid transit (BRT) concepts. BRT concepts ranged from services operating in mixed traffic to guideway-based operations.

As the lead consultant, SRF was actively involved throughout the study and managed the following activities:

• Public involvement
• Concept development
• Service planning
• Origin-destination survey
• Ridership estimates
• Cost and operations analysis
• Community impacts analysis
• Evaluation
• Documentation

This study, which followed FTA criteria for New Starts projects, began with identifying community objectives. Mode and alignment options were then developed, screened, and analyzed for benefits, costs, and impacts. Final tasks included a detailed evaluation of the concepts against project goals and leading to the recommendation of a preferred BRT implementation strategy for each of the four study corridors.