Lanzhou's Bus Rapid Transit System Brings Quick Relief to Busy City

This publication showcases how an ordinary road network expansion can be transformed into a sustainable urban development initiative through the use of an innovative and green transport system. 

The city of Lanzhou, in the People’s Republic of China's Gansu province, is home to around 3.6 million inhabitants. As a busy city, and a transport hub at that, it has been suffering from congestion. The Lanzhou Municipal Government (LMG) planned to decongest it by expanding its center onto one of its four districts. 

However, its original plan merely involved constructing and rehabilitating roads to connect the city hub to its desired expansion site. With the assistance of the Asian Development Bank, the LMG dramatically transformed its plan from a road network expansion initiative into a sustainable urban transport project. LMG’s improved master plan includes a bus rapid transport system or BRT that has special components on clean development mechanism and non-motorized transport, complemented with systems on global positioning, travel information, and advanced traffic parking and management.

This knowledge showcase discusses the Lanzhou’s BRT system, and how this mode of transport has given new life to a city that once suffered from the negative effects of rapid urbanization. It illustrates how innovativeness and openness to change can reap more than expected results.