Guangzhou, China opened its first, 22.5-kilometer Bus Rapid Transit corridor in 2010 in an effort to cut congestion on one of the city’s busiest roads, Zhongshan Avenue, and to improve the efficiency of the city’s bus system. The system has already won awards and garnered the city lots of favorable press, both locally and internationally.
ITDP started collecting data before the project was built and continues to monitor the project’s impacts, working towards a comprehensive report that will be released in the months ahead. The findings regarding the system’s impacts on Guangzhou’s CO2 and other air pollution emissions are ready and today ITDP is releasing an interim report with these results.
Key findings include:
* The system will reduce Guangzhou’s CO2 emissions by 86,000 tonnes annually, mostly through improved bus operations efficiency.
* Travel times have improved for motorists and bus riders along the corridor 20% and 29% respectively.
* The system now has 805,000 daily boardings. It is carrying more passengers per hour than any metro line in mainland China outside of Beijing, and more than triples the capacity limits achieved with any other BRT system in Asia.
* The project includes a new greenway parallel to the BRT corridor and a 5,000 bike public bike share system. Bicycle ridership is up approximately 50% since the corridor opened.
Download the report.
Download the press release.
Watch a short film about the Guangzhou BRT.