Supporting green transportation with transport impact assessment: Its deficiency in Chinese cities

Transport Impact Assessment (TIA) is one of the promising tools used by many city governments around the world to manage the transport impacts of land development, but how it has been implemented in Chinese cities is rarely studied. This paper attempts to fill this knowledge gap by researching cases of TIA in Shenzhen and Zhongshan in China's developed Pearl River Delta. Our research reveals that the TIA process enables local planning authorities to better cope with the traffic externalities stemming from various development projects, and to secure resources in advance for green transport modes. However, the effectiveness of this policy tool still falls short in how governments prioritize green transportation and in implementation details. It can be augmented with clearly defined performance measures for green transport modes and active roles played by relevant stakeholders.