Throughout the week of September 17th, former Bogotá mayor and ITDP board president Enrique Peñalosa, along with a delegation of ITDP and GMEDRI staff, held site tours and meetings with government officials and partner organizations in Yichang, Lanzhou, and Shenyang to promote integration of sustainable transport and land development as China pushes forward rapid urban development.
In Yichang, ITDP met with senior development agency officials and the Asian Development Bank, presenting extensive plans for the first phase of the city’s sustainable transport, primarily BRT, pedestrian infrastructure, greenways and cycle sharing. In Lanzhou, the geographical center of China, ITDP visited the city’s new BRT corridor, on track to open by the end of the year as part of the Xiyuan subdistrict urban regeneration master plan. Mayor Peñalosa gave an enthusiastically received presentation to representatives from construction, parking, transportation, city and land development reinforcing ITDP’s key messages of principles for sustainable development.
In Shenyang, Liaoning province, Mayor Peñalosa gave the keynote presentation and participated in a panel discussion at the 10th Annual REG Summit,“2012 Forum on the Future of Sustainable Development”, before an audience of China’s top real estate developers, designers, and government representatives. Peñalosa and other ITDP presenters, including East and Southeast Asia Regional director Karl Fjellstrom, Technical Director Luc Nadal, and Consultant Zoltan Gyarmati promoted the inclusion of BRT, cycling and walking infrastructure, and parking reform policies into China’s land and urban development plans.