Commuters at rush hour wait for the next train in Sihui subway in Beijing, May 22. [Photo/IC]

Beijing will reduce its average commute by public transportation within the Fifth Ring Road from 97 minutes in 2014 (the nation's longest that year) to 60 minutes in 2020 by building a modernized comprehensive transportation system, Beijing Times reported, quoting a senior official on Tuesday.

This means Beijing commuters will spend one hour traveling within the Fifth Ring Road during daily peak hours, thanks to the multi-layer and diversified public transportation system expected in Beijing as of 2020, said Zhou Zhengyu, head of the Beijing Committee of Transportation.

Zhou said the traffic performance index will be kept within six, which indicates mild traffic congestion.

The traffic performance index, initiated in Beijing, rates traffic conditions on a scale of zero to ten, where zero to two indicates smooth traffic; two to four, basically smooth traffic; four to six, mild traffic congestion; six to eight, moderate congestion and eight to 10, heavy congestion.

Downtown Beijing's traffic congestion index had an average of 5.5 on a daily basis in 2014, while the index at times temporarily reached as high as eight during rushing hours, which totaled four hours.

Beijing will continue to control the number of private cars and take measures to increase the proportion of green travel including public transport, bicycles and walking, to 75 percent of all travel and reduce that of car travel, which includes private cars and taxis, to 25 percent downtown.

At present, the portion of private car travel among all travel means in the downtown area is 30 percent and that of taxis is 7 percent.