Comfortable Living Environment

3 min read

In the early liberation days, the portrait of cities in Xinjiang was dim and dark The spring breeze of reform and opening up decorated the towns and cities in Xinjiang.

The urban infrastructure construction was continuously intensified, making urban living more functionable. People was glad to find that the roads were wider with more cars, the lights were brighter, the water was clearer, and green became more, and they also found that the place where they live was changing every day, and becoming more beautiful.

Where there are roads, there are buses.

In 1953, the first bus line in Urumqi-No.8, began operating in north Xinhua Road. By 1970s, the bus lines of Xinhua Road Yellow River Road, Friendship Road, Beijing Road and other main roads had been formed in Urumqi. The buses at that time were red tin cars, and the ticket sellers would shake bells at each stop.

In 1985, the Urumqi City opened 31 new bus lines with 159 “big channel” buses, which was formed by two sections of 14 meters long, with 4 doors and 33 seats, and could accommodate 140 passengers, but 200 passengers could be filled during rush hours. At each stop, three conductors would shout the name of the station to remind passengers to buy tickets. The year of 1992 was the glory year of “big channel” buses, with total of 302 such kind of buses moving on the main bus lines in Urumqi. These buses were finally “gloriously laid off” in the winter of 2005 after accompanying the people in Urumqi for 20 years.

By the end of 2010, the bus lines in bus lines had reached 135 with 3,900 buses, and had basically realized the goal of”Where there are roads, there are buses. There were more than 2.2 million passengers traveled by bus every day, accounting for more than 30% of the city’s total daily passengers. The grade of buses also raised, there were more than 30 kinds of buses moving on the roads like air-conditi- vehicles and unmanned vehicles. People would feel more comfortable travelling on the buses, for the buses became more beautiful with lighter and more spacious windows, and more beautiful and practical inner accessories.

But soon, many cities in Xinjiang encountered an “urban disease “of traffic jam, which troubled the traffic departments a lot. Changji, Korla, Aksu, Kashgar and other cities are no exception. The cities have adopted a variety of means to ease traffic pressure by extending the bus lines, adding bus stations, constructing subways, and introducing the BRT(Bus-Rapid-Transit), and so on.

Children’s Park station of BRT Line in Urumqi

On August28,2011, the first BRT line began to run in Urumqi. Many private car owners became loyal supporters of BRT when it started operation, traffic jam was problem and associated problems such as wasting oil which brought about people’s impatience was serious; but now, people can directly take the BRT without worrying about traffic jams, or rushing for seats. It is warm in the BRT in winter, and people can drive in their own cars only when traveling in the holidays or, which means oil, money can be saved, and free from worry.

By April 9, 2013, it had travelled a total of 25,832,500 km, transporting 213, 373,100 passengers. 362 BRT drove on four cycles every day, with the average daily passenger capacities of 450,000. BRT transported 17% of total passenger capacity in Urumqi by occupying only 3% of the urban road resources. BRT effectively met the travel needs of the majority of passengers, and effectively solved the thermal problem especially happening in winter, it became a model of urban ground public transport. Thus, BRT in Urumqi won the “2012 China Habitat Environment Award”.

Nowadays, the urban public transport in large and small cities develops very quickly, and had basically met the needs for safe and convenient travel.