New regulations covering the use of the city's bus system have been opened for public comment on the website of Shanghai Municipal Transport and Port Authority.

The new regulations, which were published on October 15 and will be open to comment until October 30, confirm that in some situations passengers have the right to refuse to pay their bus fares. These include when the public transport card reader fails to work, and when the bus climate control systems are not in operation if it is between June 1 and September 30 or December 1 and March 1, or if the temperature is higher than 28 C or lower than 12 C.

The new regulations add that children under 1.2 meters in height can not take a bus unaccompanied by an adult.

The regulations also confirm that people older than 70 years can take buses for free by using their senior citizen passes, except for during the weekday peak hours of 7 am to 9 am and 5 pm to 7 pm.

Moreover, the regulations add disabled policemen to the list of those entitled to free bus travel, which already includes disabled soldiers, the blind and honorary retired officials.

No one was available for comment at the Shanghai Municipal Transport and Port Authority Sunday.

The new regulations will officially come into operation on November 1.