Shanxi Province Rural Development Research Passenger Vehicles

Shanxi Province is located in the west-central of China, and situated in the Loess Plateau. It is the energy and heavy chemical industry base of China, but it is also one of the few which are major agricultural provinces with backward economy. By the end of 2006, the total mileage of highways in the province was 112929.743 km; passenger lines in rural areas reached 2,627; passenger service operators reached 1,383 (of which 143 were companies); employees were about 20,000; buses in rural areas reached 6,367. Since 2004, the new built township bus terminals have been 258, the installation of rural passenger waiting rooms have been 3018, and bus stop signs 14,668. 100% of the townships in the province and 89.6% of administrative villages are linked by bus and it covered about 18 million rural populations.This paper is based on the rural passenger transport of Shanxi, analyzed current situation of highways, passenger transport, and buses in rural areas. At the same time, combining with rural bus market situation, this paper educed the develop trend of rural passenger vehicles in Shanxi province. Relying on soft science research project of Shanxi Provincial Communication Department named"Study on public passenger transport service system in rural areas of Shanxi ", the author did some investigation on rural passenger transport, and then analyzed the survey data using data analysis software. Combining this with suggestions from rural residents, the weakness of the buses in rural areas of Shanxi Province was found. That is the 6 meters length minibuses, which have few seats, used too common in rural areas of Shanxi province.Finally, this paper gives some suggestions on the development of passenger vehicles in rural areas. That is, passenger vehicles in rural areas of Shanxi should adopt medium-sized trucks about 7-8 meters long. The passenger vehicles should adopt front engine structure, only when the route is suitable, medium-sized bus of back engine structure can be used in rural areas in Shanxi Province.