More cameras will be installed on another 1,500 buses while 12 metro lines will be in use before 2010, the Shanghai Urban Transport Management Bureau said on Wednesday as it revealed its future plans.

The bureau will set up 60 traffic hubs, form a total of 110 kilometers of bus-only lanes and set up 700 places to flag down taxies.

Every bus will be installed with one black box and two cameras, which will every corner of a bus. The black boxes will be similar to those on airplanes and record everything on the buses for the bureau to check in case of an accident.

The bureau already installed cameras on about 1,600 buses on 68 routes around Shanghai Stadium to prepare for the Olympic soccer events in the city.

Officials with the bureau said that the bus-camera initiative would improve its ability to respond to emergencies.

It is expected daily passenger flow via all kinds of public transport facilities will reach 16.8 million by the end of 2009. The bureau said it will develop park-and-ride areas for people living in suburban areas and build more traffic hubs in urban-rural fringe areas. This will allow people to drive to a traffic hub and then take a bus or subway downtown, the report said.

The report said the bureau will upgrade 3,700 buses and 10,000 taxies to prevent them from releasing exhaust emissions.

(Shanghai Daily August 7, 2008)