On August 14, an open discussion under the topic "Capital city - road repair works, renovation and some measures on reducing traffic flow" was held at Ulaanbaatar City Citizen's Hall. 

The discussion started off with the report on “Progress on Ulaanbaatar city road construction and restorations works” by the Head of Ulaanbaatar City Road Agency D.Od, after which the General Manager of Ulaanbaatar City Ch.Bat introduced the “Provision proposals on reducing Ulaanbaatar city traffic load”. Also, it was decided to involve 60 Ulaanbaatar citizens to participate regularly in future discussions.

The Head of the Ulaanbaatar City Road Agency D.Od reported that in 2012, with the funding of Ulaanbaatar City Budget, Development Bank and State Road Fund, around 70 billion MNT is being allocated into the Ulaanbaatar city road construction and restoration works. As of 2008, a total of 108 thousand cars were registered in Ulaanbaatar city, whereas this number has increased up to 210 thousand this year. Also, this year’s plentiful rainfalls have interrupted road construction and restoration works and have caused much damage to the roads. However, the General Manager of Ulaanbaatar City Ch.Bat had advanced several proposals on reducing traffic load of the city.

There are 155 thousand civil servants in Mongolia. The majority of them work in public administrations of Ulaanbaatar city, out of which 15 thousand at minimum commute intheir private vehicles. Thus, if these workers are to reject their private vehicles and start using public transport, it would reduce traffic load by a certain percentage.

Currently, there are only 3 paid parking lots in Ulaanbaatar city (in front of Ulaanbaatar City Governing Office, Central Sports Palace and the State Academic Drama Theatre). Thus, we are planning to increase the number of paid parking lots in 24 more locations. For instance, B.Enebish Street, Shastin’s Central Hospital, the National Trauma and Orthopedic Research Center, and the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry. By doing so, around 4,500 parking lots will be available. Around 10 billion MNT will be required for this project. 

In order for children’s safety amongst the city’s traffic, we need to introduce transportation with school buses. For instance, when most of the children in the outer bounds of the city commute to their schools by walking, the children living close to the city center are delivered by personal vehicles, which are affecting the increase of traffic load. Thus, there is an imminent need for school buses.

To legitimately run public transportation service. We need to involve seniors and retired citizens in traffic regulations, by having them coordinate traffic safety. This will generate 150 job positions, where its employment will require over 400 million MNT annually.

Since 2010, a decision was released for public transport to run only through the 1st lane on the route of Western Four Intersection to Eastern Four Intersection. However this decision has been carried out half-way. This decision will be carried out this year as well, where the route will be extended from the Escadrille Monument to the 25th Pharmacy. This extended route will be implemented starting August 25, 2012. Private owned vehicles will be reduced if over 700 public transport vehicles will run without delay. 

To make changes in the working hours of large trade centers. The concurrence in working hours of trade centers with other work places is increasing traffic load. For instance, to set the working hours of “Narantuul” International Trade Center to be 07:00 am-04.00 pm. Also, to restrict vehicles with plate numbers ending with 1 and 6 from going on the route Narny Highway - Ikh Toiruu Roundabout between the hours of 07.00 am and 08.00 pm on Mondays and restrict vehicles with plate numbers ending with 2 and 7 from going on the same route and hours on Tuesdays and so on. This will reduce the traffic load by 20%. However, firefighter trucks, ambulances and public transportation will be excluded from this regulation. This will be implemented during the traffic load high season between August 25 and October 25, 2012.