Adviser suggests cars could use bus lane

An express bus lane between Zhongshan Road E1 and Shenkun Road could be open to other vehicles after the bus service ends at night, a political adviser suggested at a meeting on city management. 

Shao Nan said the lane for the No. 71 bus is on Yan’an Road, one of the most important roads in Puxi. The bus service starts at 4:30am and ends at 11:30pm every day and Shao thinks the lane can be open to the public during the five hours when buses don’t run. 

"Every night when the bus stops its service, the Yan'an Elevated Road is receiving repair and maintenance, which leads to traffic congestion on the ground," said Shao.

Ma Chi, another CPPCC member, said Shanghai has more than 4 million private cars and the city was spending huge funds on improving traffic conditions every year. However, such improvements couldn’t keep pace with the increase of the number of cars. 

He said residents should be encouraged to use bicycles instead of cars with more space on the roads allocated for them.

CPPCC member Yang Xiong told the meeting that although traffic regulations in the past three years had achieved great results, he still felt that some regulations were excessive.

He said many drivers told him during a survey that some very minor traffic violation were caught by the "electronic police" and resulted in heavy punishments.

"In recent years, the taxi industry in Shanghai has employed lots of migrant drivers who are not very familiar with local streets at the beginning. I found nearly 95 of the drivers got punished just because they were unfamiliar with the roads," said Yang. 

He said drivers new to Shanghai should be given training. 

On the problem of elderly people not knowing how to use mobile apps to call a taxi, he said car-hailing points could be set in communities.