BRT is the first in China to include bike parking in its stations and to connect BRT stations to the subway via tunnels, reducing transfer time. Its twenty-six stations and forty-two bus routes are laid out along Zhongshan Avenue, whose innermost lanes form a 23-kilometer (14.3-mile) dedicated bus corridor linking the city center to the fast-growing eastern section of the city, twenty poorer urban villages, and business and residential areas, meeting the transportation needs for a cross-section of the population.
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| Guangzhow Before BRT System |
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| Bogota before Transmilenio System |
This model high-capacity transportation system, built with minimal infrastructure investment in a short period of time, can be transferred to other locations in China, Asia, and cities around the world as demand for sustainable transportation increases.
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| Guangzhow after BRT System |
Guangzhou, one of the fastest growing cities in the world, has gained almost three million inhabitants in the past decade. The resulting increase in traffic congestion led the city and its agencies, including the Guangzhou Metro Design Institute, to design a new high-capacity public-transit system, the Guangzhou Bus Rapid Transit (GBRT), to help cut carbon emissions, reduce gridlock, and reclaim streets and public spaces for residents. Curitiba, Brazil, developed the first Bus Rapid Transit system, and it has spread to Bogotá, Mexico City, Hanoi, Seoul, Istanbul, and more recently to Ahmedabad and Johannesburg.
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| Bogota after Transmilenio System |
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| Guangzhou BRT Station |
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| Bogota Transmilenio Station |
The GBRT system’s ridership of 800,000 a day,second only to Bogotá’s Transmilenio, surpassesthat of each of the five subway lines. The sustainable system features dedicated bus lanes and infrastructure improvements to move buses 30% faster; intermodal integration with subway lines and a bike-sharing system; and a pre-ticketing smart card, multiple large doors, and flush platforms to reduce boarding time.
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| Guangzhou |
One interesting aspect of the Transmilenio is its feeder lines. While red buses circulate along main arteries, smaller green buses circulate in the neighborhoods, picking up passengers for free and feeding them into the main stations. Making feeder buses free (while still recognizing the need for easy access to stations) gave the city a serious incentive to pave bike paths to stations. After all, every twenty or so people who bike to the Transmilenio equal one less green feeder bus that the city needs to operate.
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| Bogota's Transmilenio Station bike parking |
Today, Bogotá is one of the most bike-friendly cities in South America. In addition to paving bike paths, the city set up large, clean and free bicycle storage facilities at the stations, giving people even more incentive to do the first part of their journey to work on two wheels. (treehugger.com)
Credits to:
Treehugger.com
Showmecolombia.com
Travelpod.com
Imageshack.com
Transitmy.com
Poorbuthappy.com
MSU.edu
Terrapas.com
Designother90.org
Skyscrapercity.com
On the other hand and as you leave the downtown, biking in Anchorage gets reduced to this. This is what a biker in Anchorage during the winter has to deal with. I would say this is more walking than biking. So much for claiming independence from motor vehicles. Not possible in this city as I see it. You can see how the sidewalk has been completely covered by the snow that the Muni machines pick up from the road. I'd say that even if the side walk was clear from snow, the sidewalk is for pedestrians. Bikes have no lane, no sidewalk, no space, no warning signs, no respect and this continues to be the case for more than 50% of the city. As it this was not enough there are those red neck truck owners that throw stuff at you and tell you to get out of the road. Bikers continue to be second class citizens in a city designed and built for the car. There continues to be a complete disconnection between the traffic that bikes reduce and the drivers of motor vehicles in Alaska.
