A 17-member delegation from the U.S. Transportation Research Board was in GuangZhou this week to examine the city’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system. Guangzhou’s public transportation infrastructure has been in the spotlight since winning the Sustainable Transport Award giving by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) at the end of 2010.

Guangzhou BRT: largest number of passengers in the world

An official from Seattle was amazed to see that up to ten buses can stop along the platform at the same time during peak hours. Furthermore, members were surprised to learn that buses operating on the BRT belong to six different companies yet they operate together smoothly.

Su Zequn, the Deputy Mayor of Guangzhou, said it took municipal authorities four years to decide on the construction and details of the BRT system. Today, Guangzhou BRT carries the most passengers amongst all other BRT systems worldwide and boasts the highest frequency of buses. The average number of passengers at the Zhongshan Dadao averages 800,000 people per day traveling at speeds of up to 18.1 Km./h during the rush hour.

Criticism before construction

Speaking of lessons learned from the experience, Su explained that the construction of the BRT seriously affected normal traffic. He believes that instead of building two platforms on each side of the BRT route, a central platform in the middle of the road would have been more convenient for passengers and occupied less space. What’s more, during the construction stage, the 22.9-kilometer BRT line should have been divided into two sections rather than several ones that required changing many bus routes.

During the meetings between chinese and American officials, the delegation raised many questions and in particular whether Guangzhou is considering building a second BRT line. To this question, Lu Yuan, the Deputy Director of the Guangzhou Municipal Construction Committee, explained that the city will continue developing public transportation including rail and bus transit systems, but the government will proceed with caution before deciding on the construction of a second BRT line.

Surprised by how few extra-long 18-meter buses were operating along the BRT, the American delegation suggested increasing their number. They believe this would reduce traffic congestion and reduce overcrowdedness onboard buses. In Seattle for instance, half of the fleet of 1,400 buses are extra-long buses though the city’s population is significantly smaller than Guangzhou.