Han Ximin

ximhan@126.com

A VARIETY of activities will be held this week to promote green commuting and encourage Shenzhen residents to use public transportation as the city prepares for World No Car Day on Thursday.

In addition to sports meets, trivia contests about public transportation and the collection of suggestions on improving public transportation, bus operators will organize Open Day at schools and enterprises to educate people on road safety and commuting etiquette.

The Shenzhen Municipal Transport Commission will also organize Shared Commuting Day at the square of Shenzhen Book City CBD Store and invite the public to participate in activities such as car parking challenges and free rides.

Shared bikes have also promoted a greener city. Since the first app-based bikes appeared in Shenzhen in October last year, there were 10 companies operating 890,000 app-based bikes in the city as of the end of August. The app-based bikes have become the best option for commuters to expedite the last mile of their commutes.

According to Teng Fei, Mobike’s regional manager for the Shenzhen and Dongguan markets, the users of Mobikes have cycled a collective 5.6 billion kilometers and reduced 1.26 million tons of carbon emissions in the past 500 days since Mobikes first appeared in the market. The app-based bikes have been helpful in reducing congestion, lowering pollution and bringing convenience to urban transport.

Vice director of the Shenzhen Municipal Transport Commission Liu Heru said that the popularity of app-based bikes has made biking a major means of public transport in the past year.

According to the commission, the city’s buses carry about 4.74 million riders a day, while app-based bikes offer 4.53 million rides in the city, equivalent to the ridership of Shenzhen Metro services.

During the launch of the Shenzhen Public Transport Promotion Week yesterday at the bus terminal of Minle Metro Station in Longhua, Vice Mayor Liu Qingsheng handed out trophies to 10 elite employees in public transport companies for 2017.

The elite employees included Xie Xiaoling, a Shenzhen Bus Group driver who has been in the industry for 28 years and driven 1.18 million kilometers without accidents, Cheng Yinfen, an electrician with Shenzhen Bus Group who is regarded as the guard of Shenzhen electric bus services, Kong Guoqiang, operations manager for Shenzhen Eastern Bus Group who has been in the industry for 30 years and Zhao Yanlong, a tire repairman who extends tire life spans by 10,000 kilometers and saves 100,000 yuan (US$15,227) on maintenance fees for his company a year. Zhao also taught himself Japanese and wrote a 40,000-character book to catalogue his knowledge in tire maintenance.

The commission called on drivers to give up driving and use public transport Thursday, World No Car Day.

The commission will also release a mini-app that allows the general public to enter the WeChat public account of the Shenzhen Municipal Public Transport Administration Bureau to check their commuting data by inputting Shenzhentong card numbers.