Buckling restrained braces (BRBs) have a similar behavior under compression and tension loadings. Therefore, they have a high energy dissipation capacity, and can be applied as an appropriate lateral load resisting system for structures. In the performance-based earthquake engineering (PBEE) framework, an intermediate variable called intensity measure (IM) links the results of seismic hazard analysis with the structural response analyses. Peak ground acceleration (PGA), and pseudo spectral acceleration at the fundamental period of the structure (Sa(T1)) are the most common scalar IMs. The ability of an IM to predict the structural response with low dispersion is called efficiency. In fact, the use of an efficient IM increases the reliability of the seismic performance assessments. Generally, near-fault ground motions have a distinctive feature called forward directivity. This phenomenon includes a two-sided (full-cycle) long-period velocity pulse that contains most of the ground motion energy. The structural response is mostly affected by the period of this pulse. In this research, the efficiency of some traditional and advanced scalar IMs to predict maximum interstory drift ratio (MIDR) demand in steel structures with BRBs, under near-fault ground motion records, is investigated.