ABSTRACT
The country with the largest growing energy consumption today is China. The transport sector, in particular, consumes vast quantities of oil and this will cause growing problems, and not just for theenvironment. Therefore innovative projects that deal with the transportation system in Chinese citiesare extremely important.
In growing mega-cities in China urban development is a rapid process ("high-speed urbanism") and in this process the long-term perspective of sustainability is often neglected. Transport growth, in particular, is an unavoidable problem. In general, there is a lack of modern concepts of transportation systems that could very well influence, not just the environment, but also the quality of life of the population as a whole.
The project proposed here will be based on such a modern concept of the transportation system, which will be (and must be) developed in close co-operation with a growing mega-city in China. It has to be an integrated concept of transportation and urban expansion and has to be based on a hierarchical concept of transportation. A hierarchical transportation concept gives clear roles and priorities in cases of conflict in the limited urban space to all modes of transportation and its users. After the definition of such a concept the project partners will demonstrate the concept with a practical example: In an exemplary transport relationship and with modern technology a system, that is transferable to similar situations in other mega-cities, will be planned and installed.
The aim of the project is to achieve a substantial improvement in local public transport with a focus on the secondary system (Bus-Rapid-Transit (BRT), modern bus-technology). The aim is not only to give a solution to a specific problem of transportation but also to transfer experience of how to adapt technologies in an adequate and sustainable way and to produce local capacity building. For this purpose scientists and a world market leading producer of public transport equipment will work jointly.
BRT, bus, bus rapid transit, Wuhan, China, mass transit, public transport, sustainable transport, travel demand management, traffic management |
