Yichang wins 2016 Sustainable Transport Award

Yichang, the second largest city in China’s Hubei Province, has won the 2016 Sustainable Transport Award in Washington DC.

Yichang won the award ahead of finalists Moscow, Russia, and Rosario, Argentina. The Sustainable Transport Award (STA) is awarded annually to a city that has implemented innovative and sustainable transport projects.

The Chinese city has reformed its transport system by launching a successful bus rapid transit system (BRT), implementing parking improvements and introducing a new bike share scheme.

Yichang’s BRT system, funded by a US$150 million loan from the Asian Development Bank, has been a success since it opened last summer. Stretching 20 kilometres along one of the city’s busiest roads. It is estimated that, of the 240,000 people who ride the buses each day, 20 percent previously drove a car or took a taxi.

Yichang’s sustainable urban corridor has recently benefited from half of the parking spaces along the bus rapid transit route being eliminated and the remainder subject to improved management. The city also improved conditions for bicycles and pedestrians with 30 kilometres of bike lanes introduced and 700 trees planted together with 29 new safe pedestrian crossings. A bike share system is set to open in the next month.

Chuanqiang Mao, Vice Mayor of Yichang, was presented with the award by Clayton Lane, CEO of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) at a ceremony at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington DC.

Mao told Cities Today: “Our policy is that green transportation and sustainable development is a key solution to solving traffic problems. We are encouraging non-motorised transport in the form of improving our BRT system and building our bike-sharing systems and prioritising buses.

“We were lucky because we learnt from the experiences and failures of previous BRT systems and we benefited from good design. The government and the citizens have supported us and that accounts for why, though we’ve only operated BRT for a short time, we have experienced success.”

Lane, ITDP CEO, said: “Yichang is developing a model for the future of sustainable transportation in cities.”

Moscow received an Honourable Mention at the awards for adding hundreds of kilometres of bicycle lanes, expanding its bike sharing system, and improving parking management.

Vadim Yuryev, Head of Moscow’s Traffic Management Centre, told Cities Today: “For the last four years, Moscow has started thinking about transportation. Before 2011 there was not even a transportation department–nobody cared for it and it was part of utilities. In 2013 Moscow was number one in the world for transport problems.

“But now because we have done a lot in improving the bus and metro system and managing traffic lights, we are now not number one but number four. This award was a surprise for us because we are only at the starting point. It’s a good vote for us but we still need to do a lot of things.”

Rosario, Argentina’s third largest city, was also cited for making significant investments in cycling infrastructure, extending dedicated bus lanes, and improving the accessibility and integration of transit across the city.

Monica Alvarado, speaking on behalf of the Mayor of Rosario, Monica Fein, said: “It’s because of political will that these changes have happened. We have seen unanimous support from council, as well from citizens, for mass transit improvement, higher quality of service and an integrated transport system.”

The Sustainable Transport Awards programme also featured a keynote address from Shin-pei Tsay, Deputy Executive Director of TransitCenter, lead sponsor of the STA.

Tsay said: “The economic, environmental, and social challenges for cities are greater now than ever before. The Sustainable Transport Award highlights just how critical and transformative the right leadership at the right time can be for a city’s long-term success.”