Getting a Clear Understanding of the Situation, Grasping Opportunity, and Promoting the Sustainable Development of Urban Public Transportation: Speech at the 4~(th) Member Meeting of China Urban Public Transport Association

China’s urbanization is in the key period during the Twelfth Five-Year Plan,which illustrates the need for thoughts and research on future urban transportation development pat-terns and directions.Based on the most representative urban transportation patterns in the United States and European Union,this paper points out that China must emphasize the sig-nificant role of public transportation on urban development in order to avoid the mistake of U.S.in urbanization process.Stressing grasp opportunity to develop public transportation,the paper urges that land use allocation and effective connec-tion with other green transportation (zero transfer distance and cost) should be considered.Finally,the paper presents the key issues in the development of public transportation in three aspects: technology innovation,performance evaluation on pub-lic transportation operators,and urban comprehensive transpor-tation system planning preparation.