Recently, the Ministry of Transport, together with other six ministries and departments including the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the National Health Commission, issued the "Notice on Effectively Addressing the Most Pressing Problems of the Elderly in using smart technologies to Facilitate Their Daily Transportation" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice", and comprehensively implemented the requirements of the Notice of the General Office of the State Council on the Implementation Plan for Effectively Addressing the Problems of the Elderly in Using Smart Technology issued by the Genereal Office. In accordance with the principle of strengthening traditional services and facilitating intelligent services, the Ministry of Transport will further specify the policies and measures in the field of transportation to facilitate the travel services for the elderly, so as to ensure the convenience of daily transportation for the elderly in the "intelligent era".
First, improve the "Health Code" inspection service in the field of transportation. The Notice requires that in the low-risk areas, except for special facilities such as bus terminals, passenger terminals, civil transport airports and entry and exit ports, it is not necessary to check the "Health Code". If it is really necessary to check the "Health Code", the services, such as having their health codes registered through friends or relatives or verified by the staff, need to be optimized; where conditions permit, channels without "Health Code" should be set up at passenger stations and expressway service areas.
Second, make it easier for the elderly to take public transport. According to the Notice, while promoting mobile payment, e-ticket and code scanning, local passenger stations should retain the use of cash, paper tickets, vouchers and certificates; it is required to speed up the interconnection and convenient application of public transportation cards at and above prefecture-level cities, to actively promote qualified social security cards to add the function of transportation, and to encourage the areas with favourable conditions to permit the elderly to take urban public transport with their ID cards, senior cards, social security cards and other certificates.
Third, upgrade the taxi service for the elderly. The Notice requires taxis to keep providing ride-hailing services, give full play to the role of service numbers, such as 95128, and provide telephone reservation or Instant call service; it encourages voluntary drivers’ teams (或者voluntary transport sersvice) to provide security service for the elderly with relatively fixed demand for cars, encourages the online ride-hailing platform to optimize the ride-hailing Apps and add the " ride-hailing with one click " function, and set up taxi waiting points and temporary stops in key places to provide convenient ride-hailing service based on information technology.
Fourth, improve the quality of human-run service in passenger stations. As required by the Notice, human-run service windows shall be reserved for passenger stations, expressway service areas and toll stations, etc; in passenger stations with dense passenger flow, if conditions permit, priority ticket windows, special waiting areas or green channels should be set up for the elderly.
The Notice stressed that all localities should attach great importance to it, strengthen organizational leadership, improve safeguards, actively strive for financial support, further clarify the timetable and roadmap, establish work accounts, clarify the division of responsibilities, ensure the implementation of various tasks, and accelerate the establishment of a long-term mechanism to bridge the "digital divide" faced by the elderly in their daily transportation.