6,000 Beijing buses stuck in traffic every day  

北京拥堵致公交每天损失6000余趟 平均晚点20分钟

昨日早高峰，5位北京市人大代表和政协委员登上公交300路内环车，向乘客随机发放问卷“普查”公交出行和专用道使用情况。公交集团同时发布数据：由于拥堵，每天有6000多趟车次损失在路上，造成了公交速度慢、乘客等车难的现象。[查看全文]

(ECNS) -- Bus punctuality in Beijing dipped below 18 percent last year, a sign that more bus lanes are needed as a way to speed up public transport, the Beijing Daily reports.

More than 6,000 buses in Beijing get caught up in traffic congestion every day, which has led to the low punctuality rate, according to the Beijing Bus Company.

Yang Weiyan, a driver of the No. 300 bus that encircles the city on the Third Ring Road, said the current load rate of his bus line is only 45 percent, as more and more citizens are choosing the metro to dodge traffic jams.

Although the length of designated bus lanes had reached 365.5 kilometers by the end of 2013, they haven't formed a network, said Liu Meilian, deputy to the city's Municipal People's Congress.

Meanwhile, it is also common to see private cars clogging the bus lanes, she said.

In a survey conducted by Liu and other deputies, 70 percent of the 500 respondents support adding more bus lanes to create congestion relief.