On October 30, 2012, at the National Urban Public Transport Working Conference, 14 cities were rated as the first batch of test sites for “Bus City” construction in China, among which were Changsha, Chongqing, Jinan, Wuhan, Kunming and Dalian. This means that the public transportation industry of Changsha City will enter a fast track of development.
As a “Bus City”, it will be constructed to support a comprehensive passenger transport hub, intelligent transportation system, and a public service information system, as well as to encourage, update, and put to use new energy buses and develop supporting service facilities. The goal is, after 5 years of hard work, for urban busline speed to see significant improvement, and for townspeople to be able get to any bus stop by walking less than 500m and transfer from one bus to another in no more than 5 minutes. Buses will then carry 50% of all road users.
Great impetus has been given to the bus priority development strategy, and Changsha has established a preliminarily foundation for a harmonious high-quality and efficient bus service system. Constantly optimizing the transit network, Changsha has connected 200 kilometers of roads previously without buslines in the past 5 years.
The total project time of ‘”Bus City” construction in Changsha will last from 2011 to 2020, and the policy “Bus First” will be vigorously implemented through focusing on such aspects as hub station construction, energy conservation and emission reduction, as well as intelligent information construction.
Huang Juan