BUS RAPID TRANSIT IN CHINA 363 BUILT ENVIRONMENT VOL 36 NO 3 Bus Rapid Transit in China KARL FJELLSTROM Over the last five years, Bus Rapid Transit has expanded faster in China than in any other region, with 320 km of BRT systems opened in thirteen cities. While these systems have impressive features, they were all relatively low capacity, low- to-medium demand systems either in peripheral corridors, or with a low demand design in central corridors; that is, until the opening of the Guangzhou BRT in February 2010. The Guangzhou BRT carries more passengers in a single direction than all the subway lines in mainland China, with the exception of the Beijing Line 2 subway, and is in many ways a generational advance on the earlier systems. This article describes the development trends of BRT in China ranging from the earliest median busway in Kunming in 1999 through to the metro-replacement level BRT in Guangzhou in 2010. It identifies a trend towards direct-service operations rather than ‘trunk and feeder’ operations, and finishes with a summary of key lessons learned from the Guangzhou BRT. BRT and Urban Development in China Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Pro- vince, has nearly double the population of Hong Kong and is the largest city of the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration. Thirty years ago, residents lived in the historic core, in socialist era housing blocks, or in compact urban villages which all featured mixed land uses, narrow streets and stimulating, walkable environments ringing with bicycle bells. Afer three decades of rapid modernization, these walkable environments and vibrant streetscapes remain the dominant urban forms of the city, but Guangzhou and other Chinese cities are increasingly under threat from a rising tide of private automobiles and associated infrastructure. SUVs, passé in the West but booming in China, 1 allow people literally to rise above the masses, with deadly bumper bars set at torso heights for children. These and other cars congest the roads, park on walkways, intimidate pedestrians, make streets off-limits for children, and ofen with the eager complicity of planners have decimated the mode share of bicycles. Elevated roads, interchanges and wide new roads built to accommodate them deaden swathes of the cityscape; especially in newer development areas dominated by gated superblocks. But elements within many Chinese cities are fighting back, with district-level initia- tives to reclaim street space and control automobile traffic and parking, and city- level initiatives to prioritize public transport. Transit prioritization has taken two main forms: underground heavy rail metros, which provide excellent service but are very expensive and slow to roll out, and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems, which are an order of magnitude cheaper and can be planned and implemented within 2 years. Indeed in the last 6 years, twelve BRT systems have opened in China. In this context, BRT development in China is a key part of an effort to define urban life in terms that do not revolve around private automobiles. Can BRT serve corridors lined with new high-rises and dense low-rise developments, making transit-oriented development viable? Or do these systems show that BRT is only for small