Cheng Xiusheng, Lu Huapu, Wang Xiaoming

I. Major Problems in the Public Transport System in Large Cities in China

1. Road Capacity is in serious shortage.

For a long time, road capacity in Chinese cities had been low, the per-capita road area in large cities is less than one-third of that of the developed countries. Only in the past 10 years or so, road construction began to speed up, the per-capita area rose to 6.6 square meters from 2.8 square meters, maintaining an annual growth of about 10%. Although the growth speed was fast, it still lagged far behind the 20% growth rate of urban traffic capacity.

2. Number of vehicles in cities grows too fast.

In recent years, vehicles in Chinese cities grew at an annual rate of more than 15%, and the annual growth rate of private automobiles was as high as 28%. The state policy on developing private automobiles has been implemented. The outline of the 10th Five-Year Plan makes it clear that economical cars of high efficiency, energy saving and low emission are to be developed, and families are encouraged to buy their own cars. The increase in cars will help speed up the process of urbanization, improve the city structure and regional transport structure and promote the development of related industries. As the lessons of developed countries indicate, the fast growth of automobiles would give rise to such problems as environmental pollution, slower driving speed, increase in the number of traffic accidents, the lower level of public transport service (lower driving speed and low punctuality), and difficulties for pedestrians and means of transport other than automobiles.

3. Public transport is weakening.

Since the mid-1980s, the public bus transport (including trolley bus) in big cities has been shrinking in terms of operation efficiency, operation management, service level and economic benefits. In the 14 years from 1985 to 1999, the length of public transport routes in the country increased 4.6 times, the number of public buses increased 2.4 times, reaching the ratio of 0.94 vehicle/1,000 people. The driving speed of public buses, however, dropped from 12-14 kilometers/hour to 5-10 kilometers/hour, the newly increased transport capacity was offset by the drop in transport efficiency. In the early 1990s, of all means of transport for urban residents, the use of public bus dropped from 30% to about 10% in most cities. The shrink of public bus transport accelerated the expansion of bikes and private cars, this, in return, resulted a wider area of traffic congestion in cities and brought the public bus transport into a vicious cycle of development.

II. The Sustainable Development and Public Bus Priority Strategy for China’s Urban Public Transport

1. Resources and environment restrictions on urban transport

Along with the urbanization and the wider use of vehicles, urban transport system will occupy more land, consume large amount of energy and yield a negative impact on the environment and ecological system. On the other hand, China’s current resources (including land resources) reserve and energy structure, environmental capacity and the environmental bearing capacity exert a restrictive effect on the development of urban transport system.

2. Sustainable development of urban transport

Mr. A. Peniglinine, Director of the Transportation, Water Supply and Urban Development Bureau of the World Bank, stressed three mutually supplementary principles when assessing the sustainable development of urban transport: sustainability of economy and finance, sustainability of social development and environmental sustainability. The concept of sustainability is deeply influencing the planning and decision-making process of urban transport. At present, cities in developed countries achieve the sustainable development of urban transport from the following two aspects: comprehensive planning of transportation and land use and making public transport a priority choice for residents.

It is decided by China’s national conditions that Chinese cities must make great efforts to develop public transport system and adhere to the principle of giving priority to public transport. Whether public transport could develop fast decides whether sustainable development of a city could be achieved and whether wider use of automobiles and modernization of public transport could be achieved in the next century. In Chinese cities, land is in short supply, population density is high, therefore, transportation by means of public transport system is the best choice. This explains why the state decided in the mid-1980s to adopt the development principle of giving priority to public transport for urban passenger transportation, and this policy was clearly stipulated in several State Council documents, technology policies and industrial policies.

3. Types of prioritizing the public transport system

The priority of public transport system includes strategic priority and tactical priority. Strategic priority means that in the overall development and planning of cities and in the process of urban transport planning, construction and management of the public transport system is given priority. That is priority in policy, including priority in capital, planning and construction, or in terms of the long-term development strategy of the urban transportation, priority is given to constructing the fast track transport system, public transport system and special road system with big capacity. Tactical priority means to give priority and passing privilege to the public transport system in terms of time and space, to increase its speed, shorten time spent on road and improve the transport efficiency so as to attract passengers to use the public transport system. This is achieved mainly through corresponding management methods, including time priority and special privilege during the rush hours. For example, in Hong Kong, cars are not allowed to make right turns during rush hours and only public buses have the privilege of making right turns (in Hong Kong, people drive on benefit). In terms of space priority, special lanes and special road for exclusive use of public transport system are set up. In Nagoya, Japan, special public bus lanes are set along the road central division line so as to ensure the speed of ground public transport. Furthermore, the city is planning to construct elevated public transport roads in the city area so that the speed of ground public buses could be increased to 20km/h from 10km/h.

III. The Application of Metrobus System in Curitiba in Brazil

The Metrobus system is based on the public transport system in Curitiba, a famous clean city in the world. On the one hand, it has the features of large-capacity track transport system, special road rights, horizontal embarking and disembarking and ticketing outside the bus. On the other hand, it also has the flexible characteristics of the conventional public transport system and borrows the advanced information management technologies. By fully demonstrating the principle of priority for the public transport system, it is a new and highly efficient mode of public transport solution with low cost, short construction period, fast speed and high punctuality. It is also nicknamed "ground subway" due to its large capacity.

1. Brief introduction of the application of the Metrobus system in Curitiba in Brazil

Curitiba, located in southern Brazil, has a population of more than 1.5 million. The car possession rate is very high (300 cars per 1,000 residents). The transport for such a large number of cars requires building of several fast roads in the city. This will naturally cause more serious pollution, traffic congestion and traffic accidents. Therefore, the city hoped to develop a modern, high-grade and low cost transport system with a large capacity. It initially planned to develop a light-track transport system, but it was too costly for this city. Therefore, the land reserved for the light-track transport system was used to construct special bus roads. The layout of the special bus road system was closely in line with the overall development plan of the city. All densely populated residential areas and commercial districts were developed at places near the public transport system, and were also developed along the special bus roads. In order to better tap the high-capacity transport system, designers and planners paid special attention to the public bus stops (crystal tube-shaped plastic bus stops), which were constructed at the same height of the bottom of public bus (800mm to the ground). Passengers could access the stops through stairs or ladders. As in the subway system, passengers could buy tickets first at the platforms, and then could make transits within the transport system without buying extra tickets. In addition, in order to reduce the stop time, the leaning passage from public bus could be extended to the platform when the bus stops, so that passengers could embark or disembark as quickly as they do from subway train. With constant improvement and refinement, Curitiba finally developed its unique Metrobus system. ...

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May 2002