Today, China has more than 160 cities with populations over 1 million, and is adding more cities to this category every year. How those cities are planned and built will have major implications for the future of China and the world. The rapid pace of development in China over the last few decades has produced more “business-as-usual” developments, such as roads and parking for cars, as China has become the world’s largest car-buying market. Traffic in Chinese cities is legendary, with frequent reports of traffic jams lasting for weeks on some of the largest freeways in the world, many of which are up to 50 lanes of traffic. At the same time, China is a leader in sustainable transport, having built more kilometers of transit than the entire rest of the world in the last decade, and continues to have the largest bike share programs in the world.
ITDP China works with city governments and agencies to provide technical support for sustainable transit projects and policies, and spread the replication of these projects and promote best practices in China and the East Asia region. In partnership with cities, ITDP China’s projects and policies support smart growth that is accessible to all city residents and reduces the environmental costs of transit. These projects include the Guangzhou BRT, which has served as many as a million people per day since opening in 2010; other BRT projects in Lanzhou, Yichang, Tianjin, among other cities; support for greenways, bike sharing, bicycle and pedestrian facilities, complete street projects, parking reform, and road safety.