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Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Tehran and the challenges of a metropolis in the millennium

 by Maryam Ala Amjadi
When it comes to convenient public transportation in Tehran, one always thinks of the bus and the subway. But when it comes to the question of the most convenient bus, the recently established BRT is an all-time favorite among the commuters of the city.
Officially inaugurated in 2008, the BRT like any of its brother and sister buses across the world aims at a system in which it could provide the near service quality of rail transit plus the affordability and flexibility of the bus transit. A special bus lane that allows the bus to operate separately and majorly skip the traffic without an interruption, makes the red colored BRT a popular choice among the citizens, particularly in the high traffic hours (7AM to 9AM & 4PM to 8PM).
Passengers can travel for 200 Tomans (roughly about 0.23 dollars) via the BRT special lines which travels very quickly from Azadi square (west of Tehran) directly to the East (Terminal-e-Shargh) and Imam Khomeini square (South of Tehran) directly to the North (Tajrish square) .
As of 2011, there is a network line of 100 kilometers dedicated to the BRT but the government plans to extend it to 300 Kilometers. It is also estimated about 1.8 million passengers travel on the BRT daily. As with the subway and normal buses, the men and women’s seat and queues are segregated. The contactless ticket validator, special air conditioning and convenient seats have made the BRT the top favorite of all public transportation systems. 

Tehran Metro, the city’s underground heart

If you want to travel across Tehran and save on two inevitably crucial factors of a modern life, that being time and money in a cosmopolitan city, then it is suggested that you take the subway and experience the necessity of the underground scene of transportation. 
Compared with industrial cities of the world, Tehran’s Metro is indeed a new metropolitan phenomenon; nevertheless one could say that it has been beautifully integrated into the city’s everyday life of transportation. Although construction of a metro system began a while before the Islamic revolution in 1979, due to the financial issues and the years of the imposed Iran-Iraq war, the first mass transit did not open until March 1999.

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A winter day in the streets of Tehran, photo by HAMED MASOUMI

Parkway highway and bridge in the north of Tehran, photo by wvs

more about urban problems of Tehran:

Interconnections of Urban Green Spaces and Environmental Quality of Tehran

Low Carbon Housing for `Young Cities`: Experiences from Hashtgerd New Town, Iran

A GIS-based Traffic Control Strategy Planning at Urban Intersections

Urban Planning for Tehran, By Using Environmental Modeling and GIS/RS

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