Han Ximin, Liu Hongtao
SHENZHEN is striving to build a City of Public Transport to compare with international cities in five to 10 years.
According to a framework agreement signed by the Shenzhen Municipal Government and the Ministry of Transport on Thursday, a City of Public Transport features a comprehensive network supported by Metro lines, regular bus routes and non-motorized transport such as bicycles.
Shenzhen is the first city in China to pilot the program and at the signing ceremony. City Party chief Wang Rong required the transport commission to draft a detailed implementation plan to devise policies for public transport priorities.
The ministry will push forward the construction of major public transport infrastructure and an intelligent transport and public service system, and provide financial support to encourage the use of new-energy buses.
Under the network, buses and Metro trains will transport 70 percent of commuters, and the average time spent on public transport serving business centers will be controlled to within 30 minutes. Commuters can transfer to other public vehicles within 5 minutes and find a bus stop within 500 meters. Total carbon emissions will be reduced by 15-20 percent.
To achieve the goal of a City of Public Transport, Shenzhen needs to build a comprehensive transport framework connecting Metro lines and express buses, and the construction of facilities for inter-city rail links, railway stations and border facilities will be accelerated, Huang Min, chief of the transport commission, said Thursday.
More bus transfer stations would be built and roads which were subject to heavy congestion would be extended or renovated, Huang said.
Tokyo, Paris, London, Singapore, Seoul, Stockholm, Copenhagen and Hong Kong are renowned for comprehensive public transport. Public transport saves land, reduces infrastructure investment, serves more people and reduces carbon dioxide emissions.
Taking Hong Kong as an example, 11 town centers were formed with the extension of the Metro network servicing 70 percent of the population with 45 percent of people living within 500 meters of a Metro station.
It was a big task and an uphill battle for Shenzhen to catch up with these cities in five to 10 years, although Shenzhen had some advantages, the Shenzhen transport commission said.
A reasonable city layout with satellite towns and residential clusters was suitable for the transport strategy with half the population around 6.5 million using public transport each day.
The city s roads would be heavily congested in 3-5 years if the public transport strategy was not implemented in time and even if the number of private cars was kept at the growth rate of 10 percent a year.
