A view of Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/IC]

The average commuting time in the central urban area of Ningbo stood at 31 minutes in 2021, the same as the previous year, according to a recent report.

The report was jointly released by the Urban Transport Infrastructure Monitoring and Governance Laboratory of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, China Institute of Urban Planning and Design and Baidu Maps.

The commuting time in Ningbo was the same despite an increase of 124,000 permanent residents over the year, making it one of the least congested new "first-tier" cities in China.

According to the report, 86 percent of office workers in the city's central urban area can travel from their homes to their workplaces within 45 minutes, while only 7 percent spend more than an hour to get to work.

These results are largely due to the city's sustained investments in transportation infrastructure.

In 2021, Ningbo built 13.3 kilometers of bus lanes and 8.8 kilometers of expressways and renovated 77.5 kilometers of urban roads.

The opening of its subway line 5 had brought the total length of subway lines in service in the city to 182 kilometers as of last year. Thanks to this expanded subway network, 16 percent of office workers in the Ningbo's central urban area can access subway stations within 800 meters of their residences and offices.