The Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport launched its official mobile APP - “Beijing Transport” on August 25. The APP offers users eight travel ways, namely bus, subway, bicycle, car, taxi, train, plane and inter provincial bus, as well as 20 transport services.

It is for the first time that people can check the detailed real time information like the number of remaining bikes about 2,100 public bicycle rental stations in 15 districts of Beijing. Rong Jun, the spokesman of Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport, introduced that the transport department will organize green travel activities at irregular intervals, and ask citizens for suggestions to relieve traffic congestion through the APP in the future. The content on degrees of crowding of rail transport will also go online within the year.

Software of real time information on buses was once complained by the public for its unreliability. The upgraded APP which updates real time online bus information every five seconds has increased the rate of accuracy by ten percent to reach 85 percent.

The APP contains real time information on as many as 613 bus routes, among which 611 are common bus routes and two are airport bus routes – Wangjing line and Sihui line. It is the first time that the latter two are included in the inquiry system. Zhou Zhengyu, the director of Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport, said that all the over 900 bus routes in Beijing would be included in the real time inquiry system by the end of this year.

Compared with former inquiry software, the APP provides additional services of information inquiry about surrounding areas, and information on vehicle operation at nearby stations is also available in it. Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport expressed that the APP would be updated constantly and it is expected that inquiry services on customized bus routes, degrees of crowding of track transport and administrative licensing of transport system will be available within the year.

A total of 2,100 public bicycle rental stations have covered all the districts in Beijing except Mentougou and Yanqing. Users can find how many bicycles and bike parking stands are available at each station through “Beijing Transport” APP.

The APP also has the function of “getting there”. “Some people complained that they couldn’t find the nearest stations to return their bicycles, so we have the navigation function added to the APP to guide them to the nearest stations,” said a person in charge of Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport. He added that information like rental guide would be added in the APP.

The chief of rental section of Transportation Administration Bureau attached to Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport Jiao Tongmin introduced that bike rental and return through mobile phone software is available in some suburban areas and the service is also to be piloted in the six districts in downtown Beijing soon. It means that people don’t need to apply for a card for bike rental and return. Meanwhile, bike rental through mobile phone and by card will coexist to satisfy people’s different needs.

As for real time road condition service, data from Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport and Beijing Transportation Administration Bureau will be integrated for the first time to offer a more accurate road condition information map. “As high as 93 percent of the roads within Beijing’s sixth ring will be included in the real time road condition reporting while the formal coverage rate was 87 percent.”

“Citizens can use the APP to avoid traffic jam all the way after they go out,” said a person in charge of Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport. Routes without traffic congestion risks and the shortest routes are recommended to users by the comprehensive transit service. Information on filling stations, formal parking lots and maintenance enterprises are also available in the APP. Information on charging poles will also be added to the APP in the future.

It is worth mentioning that users can find real time information on parking lots from the parking message bar of the APP. Spokesman of Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport Rong Jun introduced that at present only some parking lots in Xiwai Dajie are pilot ones and detailed real time information on the parking space available and capacity of them can be found in the APP. “After the survey on parking lots is finished, real time information on more parking lots in Beijing will be available in the APP”, Rong added.

Source: english.qianlong.com