Promoting Developments in Urban Public Transportation by Leaps and Bounds

In order to achieve an effective implementation of, rather than only pay lip services to, strategies for the transit priority, this paper points out that changing-concepts is one of the core issues of implementing strategies of developing the transit priority, in recognition that to take preference of public transportation is to give priority to the general public, to green-transportation, to changes of leaders' concepts, and to social equality. The hierarchy of putting public transportation first demands a better coordination between the internal and external transportation and their modes, an emphasis on innovations in management systems and patterns as well as technology, and a guarantee of giving priority to public transportation in terms of land-resources, right-of-way, traffic control and management, and financial funding. Finally, the paper recommends 5 key measures to implement strategies for the development of the transit priority, namely, encouraging transit modes and facilities with high capacity, providing subsidies to urban public transportation, promoting activities of transit-week and no-private-car-day, enhancing the inspection and evaluation mechanisms, and stressing the preparation and review of comprehensive transportation planning.