Promoting sustainable and equitable transportation worldwide
The Guangzhou BRT opened in 2010 after ITDP China, with the Guangzhou Municipal Engineering Design and Research Institute (GMEDRI), led the planning, design and implementation from the conceptual design in 2005 through detailed engineering design and construction. The Guangzhou BRT has an average daily ridership of more than 850,000 passengers and carries 28,000 passengers per hour in 350 buses in a single direction past the peak demand point, higher than most metro and all light rail lines worldwide, and second only to Bogota's Transmilenio BRT system. The Guangzhou BRT won the Sustainable Transport Award in 2011, a United Nations Lighthouse Project award in 2012, was displayed by the Smithsonian in the lobby of the United Nations building, and received numerous other awards. It is the only Gold Standard BRT in Asia, and the first of around five 'gold standard BRT and urban development corridors' needed to revive the reputation of BRT in China.
More about the Guangzhou BRT.
ITDP China has been centrally involved in all aspects of the Guangzhou BRT planning since the earliest project conceptual plans starting in late 2004 through the detailed engineering design in 2008, construction in 2009, and operation from early 2010. ITDP’s China director led the team of local and international experts who prepared the detailed BRT conceptual plan in Guangzhou. This detailed conceptual plan and related follow-up work by ITDP together with GMEDRI in 2008-2010 aliressed all of the key issues in the BRT system design including:
The Guangzhou BRT won the Sustainable Transport Award in 2011 and UNFCCC the “Light House” Activities Award in 2012 and many other national and international awards. The Guangzhou BRT is also the only “Gold Standard” BRT corridor in China. It has been covered in numerous national and international media, displayed by the Smithsonian in the lobby of the United Nations Building in New York (Oct-Nov 2011) and has re-defined perceptions of BRT operations and capacity.
ITDP China provided the main technical input to the Guangzhou Communication Commission’s bike sharing system planning and implementation. The bike sharing system opened in June 2010, with stations located along the BRT corridor, nearby commercial areas and residential areas, to solve ‘the last mile’ issue of BRT station access. It has 113 stations with 5,000 bikes and around 20,000 people use the system every day. Of those, more than two-thirds were previously motorized trips.
ITDP-China also provides direct technical support to several Chinese cities on bike sharing policy, planning, implementation and operation, including Dongguan, Shenzhen, Jiangmen, Lanzhou, and Yichang, Tianjin and Jakarta. Site visits, publications, presentations, a website, and other resources have influenced many other cities in China & worldwide. For more information, please visit www.publicbike.net/
As part of the development of the BRT system, ITDP worked with the city to plan, design and implement a multi-modal transit corridor which includes a new greenway, high-quality public spaces on both sides of the corridor, bicycle parking and bike sharing at stations, attractive station architecture, and world class performance. This package of features has resulted in land values increasing 30% higher along the BRT corridor compared to the Tianhe District average. Since 2011 ITDP has also co-hosted the annual Real Estate Summit with the Real Estate Guide and the China Mayors’ Forum.
Based on the suggestion from ITDP, the on-street parking reform has been implemented in Guangzhou, including parking zoning and price discrimination. As a result, the central area of Guangzhou is now one of the city with the highest parking fee in China. After the Parking Guidebook for Chinese Cities was published in 2010, quite a few setback parking along Guangzhou BRT corridor were cancelled, transforming into public spaces. In 2012, the advices on limiting number of plates in Guangzhou presented by ITDP-China was adopted and implemented, and ITDP-China is providing technical support for the research of congestion fee.