New official transport app provides real-time information

Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport introduced a new public transport app, on Aug 5, to cover inquiries concerning buses, the metro, bicycles, individual cars, trains, planes and inter-province buses.

It can also covers everything from locations and traffic conditions to planning to traffic violations, to make every travel experience better overall, according to Beijing Times.

This app provides information on real-time locations of buses with upgrades every 5 seconds for greater accuracy on 611 regular bus lines and 2 shuttle bus lines. Zhou Zhengyu, the director of the Municipal Commission, said that they will be able to handle real-time queries on all 900 lines by the end of the year.

Compared with previous similar-use app, this one adds a new service function that allows people to get more information on buses nearby.

A female citizen surnamed Shen explained, “Sometimes two or three buses may be heading toward the same station but their individual stops can be as much as 10 meters from one another, but if you know which one is closest, you can line up at the particular stop in advance to avoid missing it.”

Concerning real-time traffic conditions, relevant department official data collection will make conditions more accurate. “Compared with the previous 87-percent coverage rate, this new 93-percent within the sixth ring are real-time monitoring area,” the chief of Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport said. “So citizens can escape traffic jam in the whole course with this app.”

He added that the app also allows for better transfer arrangements to avoid congestion and how to take the shortest route, or it can give you the location of the nearest gas station, parking lot or vehicle repair shop and in the near future, will add information on charging posts or pylons for e-cars.

Another feature worth noting is the real-time parking lot service which, according to the a spokesman named Rong Jun, is only in trial use now for parking lots in the Xizhimen area, to post updates on parking lot vacancies or capacity in real time.

In addition to traffic information, people will be able to both inquire about train ticket availability, inter-province bus tickets as well as flight information for Beijing‘s Capital International Airport and purchase tickets. All one needs to do is type in the flight number to learn all about departure gates and flight status.