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LESSONS LEARNED element for the sustainability of any transit system.
A well-built transit system that is not aligned with
Rapid economic growth and urbanization in India
the land use and permitting structure of an urban
and China present extraordinary challenges to sus-
area will not be fully effective. Given the very high
tainability. Federal, state, and local agencies have
pace of urbanization in both India and China, the ef-
made impressive strides in building and operating
fective integration of land use and transit planning
robust public transit systems as components of their
may be the most important factor in determining the
transportation systems. They have implemented well-
ultimate make-up of urban areas. The team encoun-
built, well-designed, and well-planned systems that
tered several examples of effective, integrated land
contain many lessons for public transit agencies in
use planning around station areas in Ahmedabad,
the United States.
Guangzhou, and Hangzhou. One of the strongest ex-
Create a culture of using public transit. Both China amples of integrated planning was the Janmarg BRT
and India have established cultures that support system in Ahmedabad. The system was planned in
public transit. Although market share data is difficult coordination with the local university (CEPT Univer-
to gather and standardize, public transit has a relatively sity). Given the inherent orientation of the university's
high share of total transportation trips. This strong program toward land use patterns, the resulting BRT
market penetration provides an excellent basis for planning was integrated into the local land use patterns
political support and customer knowledge and for from early design.
acceptance of transit as an important element of the
transportation system. Focus on quality service. The team was impressed
with how the officials at the visited transit agencies
Adopt proven best practices. In the cities that the were focused on providing quality transit services to
team visited, the policy makers and the planning customers. The officials viewed the provision of air-
staff were very aware of best practices in transit conditioned, clean, comfortable, and not-overcrowded
worldwide and had in several instances conducted buses and trains as essential design elements of the
international surveys of best practices. For example, systems.
in India, the government commissioned a study of
BRT systems worldwide to identify key character- Make aggressive use of public-private partner-
istics of various BRT systems. This focus on best ships. Officials were invariably focused on finan-
practices is reflected in thoughtful, well-planned cial sustainability. Given the limited resources avail-
facilities with good pedestrian access, signage, and able for transit expansion, particularly in India, the
intermodal access. visited cities have abandoned the legacy govern-
ment-run systems and instead are relying on private
Enact national policies to support transit. The operation for their new BRT and metro services.
national governments of both India and China have The Janmarg BRT system, for example, has only
enacted a policy framework that supports the devel- six employees. The Guangzhou BRT system has
opment and operation of public transit as an important as many as six private operators providing service
element of national development strategies. on its system.
Implement technology-based fare collection sys- Convert to alternative fuels. All the visited systems
tems. Both India and China have implemented inte- have moved aggressively to eliminate diesel-fueled
grated fare-collection systems based on smartcard bus fleets as a response to the need to improve air qual-
technologies. Although some cities lack a full modal ity. Delhi Metro operates the world's largest fleet of
integration of payment systems, technology-based CNG buses. Guangzhou's air quality improved fol-
fare collection systems are widely applied. Use of lowing the introduction of CNG buses and the ban-
these systems encourages ridership, provides impor- ning of gasoline-powered taxis and motorcycles. The
tant ridership data, supports bicycle-share systems, world's only operational super-capacitor bus system
and ultimately benefits multimodal integration. operates in downtown Shanghai. The Chinese gov-
ernment's "Ten Cities, Thousand Vehicles" program
Integrate land use and transit planning. The in- will eventually result in the deployment of 10,000
tegration of land use and transit planning is a critical alternative fuel buses.
17
