Operational Challenges and Mega Sporting Events Legacy: The Case of BRT Systems in the Global South

Emma Ferranti,Stuart Paul Denoon-Stevens,Andrew Quinn,Daniel Oberling,Lauren Andres,Lorena Melgaço

doi:10.3390/su12041609

Abstract

This paper examines the bus rapid transit (BRT) legacies of mega sporting events (MSEs) held in the Global South cities of Cape Town and Rio de Janeiro. It discusses the extent to which these transport systems have been operationally sustainable, post-MSE; in other words, their ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level and hence their ability to act as public good as planned and according to specific needs. It argues that in both cities, long-term operational challenges have emerged due to conflictual temporalities between the priorities of the MSE and the mid/long term requirements of a transport system, supplemented by a poor spatial contextualisation of BRT design. These include financial viability, providing a service with appropriate frequency and capacity, integration with other transport systems, and resilience to external shocks such as extreme weather. These findings have key academic and policy implications both by opening further areas of research towards MSEs as a tool to deliver sustainable urban transport, and provides important lessons for future MSE hosts and cities considering BRT.

Highlights

Mega sporting events (MSEs) such as the Olympic Games or the FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) Football World Cup can have a long-term impact on the infrastructure of their host cities
This paper focuses on two cities whose transport network has been significantly impacted by hosting MSEs: Cape Town (South Africa) with the 2010 FIFA Football World Cup, and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) with the 2016 Olympic Games
The different challenges to operational sustainability outlined in Section 4 are derived from the same two causes which impact the funding, viability, and operationality of the infrastructure and are linked to the conflicting temporalities that arose from the MSE hosting: (i) limited contextualization of bus rapid transit (BRT) design, and, (ii) prioritisation of the short-term transport requirements for the MSE rather than the long-term transport demands and movement patterns of the residents

Summary

Introduction

Mega sporting events (MSEs) such as the Olympic Games or the FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) Football World Cup can have a long-term impact on the infrastructure of their host cities. This may include new public transport infrastructure that fundamentally changes both the urban form of the city and the daily travel patterns of its residents, for decades after the MSE. We look here at the possible tensions of priorities between short-term ambitions (MSE) and long-term everyday needs This has a key impact on the authorities and operators who manage and fund public transport systems, and on the passengers who rely on it. We do so by bringing together the literature on MSE, sustainability, transport management, and infrastructure [8,9,10,11,12]

Methods

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Discussion

Conclusion