ITDP’s New Web-Based SCOPE Tool Allows Users to Estimate Climate and Air Quality Impacts of Bus Rapid Transit Systems

The BRT SCOPE tool is designed to help policymakers and practitioners by providing preliminary evaluations of the impacts of sustainable transport networks.

WASHINGTON, DC, DC, UNITED STATES, April 23, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- ITDP’s Simple Calculators of Project Effects (SCOPE) offer users critical estimates of climate and air quality impacts, making them invaluable for organizations involved in the design and planning of urban transport projects. While initially released as an Excel-based tool, ITDP has now developed a web-based version of its Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) SCOPE, available at scope.itdp.org. It has high-quality default inputs and a user-friendly design in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.

This new resource is the only free, quick, and context-sensitive tool available for estimating the impacts of BRT projects. Everyone interested in BRT can use this new web tool, including people without technical experience and those interested in methodological details. The web interface streamlines the input process by focusing on the most commonly available user data, enhancing accessibility for a wider audience.

New features of the BRT SCOPE allow a user to draw the route of a new BRT on a map and predict the number of people impacted. The tool makes it simple to enter and change inputs, save multiple scenarios, and download and export results, making sharing BRT plans and their potential impacts even easier.

This modeling tool is particularly beneficial during the preliminary phases of project development, enabling high-level comparisons between different transport alternatives, such as contrasting BRT lines with highway options. It can also be utilized at other stages of project development, providing first-order estimates during the concept phase or allowing for more precise evaluations with observed data after project implementation.

Stakeholders ranging from development banks to city planners can leverage the outputs from this new web platform to help make the case for investing in sustainable transport solutions. The SCOPE tools are designed for two primary audiences: funding organizations that need to estimate carbon mitigation impacts, and transportation planners assessing air pollution reduction.

In addition, ITDP tools for off-street parking reform and cycle lane networks are available as Excel models, with plans for web-based versions in the future. For more information on the SCOPE tools and to access the new web interface, please visit scope.itdp.org.

Alphonse Tam
Institute for Transportation and Development Policy
+1 212-629-8001
alphonse.tam@itdp.org