Traffic tally: 3.3 million people occupy Zhuhai daily

Although the city of Zhuhai has a population of 1.6 million, twice that number of people were on its roads daily in the last 10 months of 2017. The holiday months of January and February are not included.

The Transportation Operation & Management Platform, which was put into use last year, shows that as of December there were 3.29 million daily commutes (on average 7.7 million trips) in the city. Of them, 82.4 percent of the workers and visitors stayed for at least two hours.

Most passenger flow was concentrated in the Xiangzhou Central Urban Area, especially on South Mingzhu Road in Qianshan, the Transportation Bureau reported on Jan 31. Peak flows generally occurred on Jiuzhou Avenue and Meihua, Changsheng, Mingzhu, and Yingbin roads. Transit traffic was heaviest on Nanwan Avenue from Xiangzhou Central Urban Area to Hengqin, Huxin Road between Doumen and Jinwan districts, and east-west Zhuhai Avenue.

Qianshan elevated MRT station

Most of the population and activities were centralized in Jida, Gongbei, Qianshan, and New and Old Xiangzhou. Pedestrian traffic in these areas on workdays last December accounted for 43.4 percent of the total, while that in Hengqin New Area came to only 3.7 percent. That month, about 7.76 million people were recorded to go in and out of doors during workdays and 7.65 million on weekends.

Late-night Yingbin U-turn in Gongbei

The report states that the top three most-heavily used workday roads are on Mingzhu South (Renmin West to Gangchang), 554,000; Yingbin South (Lanpu to Changsheng), 488,000; and Mingzhu North (Shangchong to Renmin), 408,000.   

Vehicle numbers increased at 7 am on weekdays and remained steady after 8 pm, with a slight peak at 5 pm and mild decline at 7 pm. The workday average flow in and out of Xiangzhou is tallied at 321,000 people; back and forth between Jinwan and Doumen, 109,000; and to-from the main urban area and High-Tech Zone, 105,000.

Rush hour on Zhuhai Avenue [Photos courtesy Zhuhai Daily]