Shuttle buses between Taipa’s tourist spots

The Transport Bureau holds the last outdoor session in Taipa to introduce the plan to enhance the local public transportation.

The Transport Bureau (DSAT) is planning to introduce shuttle buses which will run from one tourist spot to another within Taipa, director Wong Wan said.
The bureau gave the fourth and the last introductory session regarding the “Ideas for Macau’s Overall Land Transport Policy (2010 - 2020)” at the Flower City Garden in Taipa yesterday.
The plan has been on public consultation since December 31 and it will run until January 31.
According to Wong, more than 270 written opinions have been collected by far and special explanatory sessions were also given to professional groups and residents’ associations, which the government believed had already achieved the “desired results”.
He said that residents were mostly concerned about some immediate problems such as public buses’ service quality or regarding driving lessons.
In addition, the DSAT director told reporters the bus stop announcement system will be launched in the first quarter of this year as expected, and testing is currently being carried out.
He has said earlier this month that bus number 3 (runs between the Border Gate and the Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal), 11 (between Barra and Taipa) and 25 (between the Border Gate and Hac Sa Beach) have been selected to be installed the announcement system for trial.
He also said that the bureau has set up information screens at the bus stops in Kou Si Tak (Avenida de Horta e Costa) and Rua do Campo, which will make use of the Global Positioning System to forecast the arrival time of the bus.
However, since the data is transmitted using satellite, time difference may play a part to affect the accuracy of the time prediction. Wong said the DSAT is making adjustments in the system to set off the time difference.
On the other hand, during the introductory session, residents posed their questions and suggestions to the DSAT director and other related government officials.
Mr Iun said he expected that the plan would be able to improve Macau’s overall transport network, but he was worried about the future situation in Taipa, with more establishments going to open on the Cotai Strip, more construction of public housing (that means an increase in population) and also the recent proposal to build the fourth bridge to connect Macau and Taipa.
The DSAT director said the bridge, which will link Areia Preta and Pac On if the project is confirmed, aims to divert part of the vehicles arriving on the delta bridge directly to Taipa.
At the same time, Wong said the bureau also hoped to put more efforts into improving local public transportation so that tourists and residents can enter Taipa easily and quickly.
Hence, the government is thinking of introducing short-haul shuttle buses to transport people within the popular “tourist areas” in Taipa.
Wong said the bureau is also considering setting up interchange stations in crowded areas for private car drivers to access public buses after parking their cars there.
In response to Mr Lam asking for more specific details concerning traffic violations, the director said that the plan proposes an illegal parking system to capture images of vehicles which stop at a bus stop for over 10 seconds.
Wong admitted that at present many drivers park their cars at bus stops which cause “big pressure” to bus drivers, but said that it is “infeasible” to arrange traffic police officers at each of the bus stops in Macau.
He said that the bureau hopes to make use of technologies by installing electronic detection systems at certain bus stops to improve the situation.
Another resident, Mr Sam, said that if in the future cars will be partly restricted to enter San Ma Lou, he would like to see a new car park in the Inner Harbour area especially near Ponte 16.
He said that the existing car park next to the hotel casino is of “limited use”, and if there was a second car park, he would not mind parking his car there and then walking from there to San Ma Lou.
Yet, Wong said that it is getting “harder and harder” to find space to build public car parks, particularly in the old neighbourhood areas.
“In the past few years the government has built a handful of car parks, but each of them can only house around 100 cars. The increase in these parking spaces couldn’t catch up the increase in the number of vehicles on roads,” Wong added.
According to the director, in 2009 alone there were some 11,000 new cars running in Macau. If the growth is not being controlled, he said the number could reach 320,000 in 2020.