IMPLEMENTING AN ALTERNATIV APPROACH TO RAPID SYSTEM IN SERBIA

Belgrade, Serbia 2012
               

Bus rapid system of transportation in Belgrade, Serbia is projectmade by students Branko Jovovic and Dusana Petrovic from the UniversityPolitecnico di Milano for their final thesis project on the Master studies. Themain idea was to create an alternative approach to rapid system in Belgrade,the Bus Rapid System with all its benefits. Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) combinesthe benefits of light rail transit with the flexibility and efficiency of bustransit. This system combines the technology of intelligent transportationsystems, traffic signal priority, cleaner and quieter vehicles, rapid andconvenient fare collection, and integration with land use policy. It hasdemonstrated improvements in public transportation service and enabledimprovements that can be implemented at relatively low cost. Various projectsaround the world have indicated that BRT as an effective alternative forcongested cities at a relatively low construction and operation cost. Project also includes two BRT stationswitch are connecting two lines with highest population flow.

Around the stations there aregreen areas which both have common and different role. Common role is that theyare representing some kind of tampon zone i.e. they are dividing traffic zonefrom service area. On the left side, there is Old Fairground, which will in thefuture become memorial museum, while on the right side there is Usce shoppingcenter as a service zone.

Let's start with the left side or with the sidewhere is Old Fairground. Here we have anticipated some type of outdoor exhibitionarea. Given the reason that we can’t find this type of open spaces in Belgrade,our aim was to use this unregulated green spaces for this purpose, and also infavor that this area is close to future memorial museum. Of course, this areadoesn’t have to be strictly used for the exhibition but also for other content,for example, open space lectures, music concerts for amateur groups, etc. Herewe have also randomly passed a surface with openings in order to take advantageof space that includes the trees. Large round openings that are filled with agreen surface are positioned and angled so that people can use them towards thearea where they can relax and enjoy the company of friends and surrounding. Inthe case of open air exhibitions, concrete benches that are on this open space,can serve people for the smooth and relaxing enjoy of exhibition or the contentthat take place in this open space.

Here, on the right side, we have done some changes on the area in front of shopping center Usce. For paving we used concrete slabsthat we can find on the site even today and which lines are following the linesof the shopping center. What we did is that we have extended lines of concretepanels up to the sidewalk so that we can get a good connection between the busstation and the entrance to the shopping center. To preserve as much greenspace and trees that are now on the site we have interleave concrete panelswith holes in the places where there are trees, so that we can get theimpression of the fusion between concrete and green areas. Also we have addedbenches that follow the line of floor panels where people can use them forsocializing and relaxation and not only as a communication between two objects.

The stations are built with prefabricated materials so it can be install very quickly. Also the positive side of this prefabrication is that we can easily choose what size of the station will be, because it is built from several modules or parts. Our module have dimensions 240x215.

ENTRANCE DOOR
Security door about 1000/2000 mm,exterior with aluminium

GLASS SURFACES
In order to ensure the breakresistance of the large glass areas and achieve a good insulation KW 1, 1 withdouble-glazing, we use a 8 and 10 mm safety glass. The form-stable aluminiumframe construction allows frequent transport and is capable of being extended.
Through the application of highvalue materials for i.e. insulation and interior fittings a very pleasingatmosphere and acoustic are obtained.

INNER SHELL
We have decided on recycledplastic as a surface material for the inner shell but also for outdoor shell.It consists of pure natural materials and features a very good and naturalsurface condition.

FLOOR
Also with floor materials weattach importance to quality, naturalness and functionality. We used stoneslabs to create as much natural environment that can fit into outdoorenvironment.

Because of intersection oftwo bus lines, stations are connected with underground passageway for fasterand easier communication. We can get to this lower level of station byelevator, escalator or staircase. This passage has curve sides because wewanted to follow lines of the passage with the lines of stations. There is nomany functional activates because this passage is use only for fastcommunication between the stations.

For outdoor look we have chosenrecycled plastic but also perforated façade which have not only ecstatic rolebut also functional. From functional point of view perforation covers one partof the station façade where sanitary facilities are placed. On the other handin daylight this perforated façade creates interesting shadow inside of thestation and during the night lighting in the station are creating shadowthrough perforation and showing on sidewalk.

In the caseof rain there is small canal who collects water and after drain-away throughstation to sewage pipe.

 Before and after implementing bus rapid stations

Belgrade,which is capital city of Serbia, a city of very turbulent history, is one ofthe oldest cities in Europe. Its history lasts full 7,000 years. On this history time line, we have selected one of the most important years in history ofBelgrade.

Our proposal has 4 lines with the total of 133km and 143 stations. We made these lines considering all the data that we have collected and important points in Belgrade that need to be easy accessed. These important points are places of culture, government, places of tourist interest, hospitals, airport, sport object etc. The important thing to note is that the BRT lines that we made are functioning together with the tram lines, since tram is already considered to be a good public transportation system. These lines were made by the instructions of APTA Bus Rapid Transit Working Group in their official BRT guide. 

To show how efficient thisnetwork is we used isochrones maps for the current condition, recentlymentioned metro proposal for Belgrade and our BRT proposal.
An isochrone is an isoline fortravel time; it is a curve of equal travel time. We made isochrones maps forevery type of transportation, we have drawn the lines, gave them the frequencyand the speed they have, in order to see which one has the best results. The general idea about the BRT inBelgrade is to make an alternative rapid transit to the metro proposal thatwill have the same efficiency, but will cost much less. The public transport inBelgrade is very slow (around 16km/h in average) and has very low frequency 15min in average. When we put thedata we get this map. It shows where you can be every 30 min, starting from thecity center. On the next one we see the same thing but for the metro proposal. Metrois supposed to have the speed of 30km/h and the average frequency of 9min. Andthe last one is our proposal with the average speed of 27km/h and the averagefrequency of 5 min. Down here we did the same thing, just changed the startingpoint of isochrones, now it is on our project location. In both cases we cansee that the best coverage is with BRT proposal.