Current proposals for the development of legislative frameworks to improve the legal regulation of the bus rapid transit system

The relevance of this study stems from the fact that Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems are currently operated in at least 380 cities worldwide, including cities within the Russian Federation as well as urban areas in neighboring countries such as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Georgia. However, due to the absence of a unified and internationally recognized definition of the concept of “Bus Rapid Transit,” including within the academic community, and the lack of such a definition in the legislation of the Russian Federation, the legal framework governing the use of this type of transport infrastructure appears to require substantial improvement.

The scientific novelty of this article lies in the proposal of possible legislative approaches to defining Bus Rapid Transit and establishing a set of basic criteria for the technical configuration of BRT systems in the Russian Federation. These measures are intended to enhance the effectiveness of legal regulation in the organization of public transport operations, facilitate the further standardization of useful technical solutions employed within such transport systems, and promote their successful implementation. The article also presents relevant foreign experience in the legal regulation of Bus Rapid Transit systems, enabling certain elements of this experience to be reasonably incorporated into various institutions of Russian transport law.

The principal research methods employed in this study include theoretical-analytical, empirical, descriptive, formal-legal, and comparative-legal methods, as well as several other research approaches. The overall objective of the study is to develop a conceptual framework for the operation of Bus Rapid Transit systems and to substantiate the necessity of introducing corresponding amendments to the regulatory legal acts of the Russian Federation. The specific objectives of the research are: to examine international experience in the legal regulation of Bus Rapid Transit systems; to provide an analytical description of the legal framework governing the operation of Bus Rapid Transit systems in the Russian Federation; and to identify legal gaps and shortcomings within the existing regulatory mechanism that are of scholarly significance.

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