At 9:30 on January 13 (8:30 pm, January 12, local time), at the annual conference of the Commission of World Sustainable Transport Award awarded, Yichang was announced as the winner of "2016 World sustainable Transport Award " in  Washington, USA for its outstanding achievements in promoting sustainable transport reform such as BRT, transit-oriented development, cycling, parking reform and other aspects. Municipal Committee, vice Mayor Mao Chuanqiang received the award on behalf of Yichang City.

Yichang BRT project is a major livelihood project for the construction of efficient green and sustainable transport system, and is the effective practice to implement energy conservation, green development, and put the national policy into urban action. During the past six months, BRT serves 73.4 million riders and 3.9 million riders have free access to the transit. BRT total trips reached 77,160 with total trip times of 348,648 and daily average rate of 2248. The operating speed increased from 10-15 kilometers per hour to 20-25 kilometers per hour, changing the concept of public travel and earning a 20% traffic pattern shift.

It is informed that the reason for the award is that in the process of BRT project implementation, Yichang adhered to the people-oriented and ecology-priority construction theory. Within a short period of time, the domestic longest single lane, with largest number of stations and max difficulty of BRT project, has been completed, successfully improving the road traffic order and achieving the intensification and velocity of bus traffic. It also implemented the upgrading of greenery belts of 30,000 square meters and the facade renovation of 224 buildings, meanwhile 12.7-kilometer bike lanes, taxi stops and temporary weather-proof galleries and other value-added facilities have been completed, achieving integration of various transport modes, greatly enhancing the quality of Yichang and further improving the urban functions.

The Sustainable Transport Award (STA) is an important international award presented annually to a city that has shown leadership in the field of sustainable transportation and urban livability in the preceding year. The Sustainable Transport Award Steering committee includes the United Nations Centre for Regional Development, Transportation and Development Policy Institute, Environmental Defense Fund and other ten international organizations. Moscow, Russia, Rosario , Argentina and other 8 cities around the world participated in the awards, Yichang is the only honored city this year, and is the second honored city of the award in China. Moscow and Rosario receive honorable mention.

Mao Chuanqiang said it is the significant recognition and praise for Yichang BRT implementation because of the award. Yichang government will proceed to sum up the experiences of urban sustainable development and green development in order to further research and optimize Yichang traffic management system, upgrade BRT system and make the lane set a better example in public transport and green travel tools. Bicycle system construction will be launched in the coming years with the number of 2000 bicycles within one or two years, and the construction of green sidewalk system will also be launched to achieve about 2000 kilometers in entire municipal area of Yichang within two or three years. We are confident that, in the future, with the green and sustainable development concept, we will persist in dealing with problems of residents and make green transportation become a business card of Yichang due to city development and transport development  (reporter: Xiao Min; correspondent: Ouyang Bo, Zhang Xinhuan)