Chao News Client Reporter Ying Tao Editor Zhang Yu Correspondent Li Qing Xie Xin
Have you ever noticed that the buses around you are getting smaller and smaller?
According to the statistics of Hangzhou Public Transport Group, since the large-scale "new" small and medium-sized vehicles in 2021, a total of 2,629 buses under 10 meters (body length) are in operation in Hangzhou, of which 8 meters and below models account for 71.43%.
Small and medium-sized buses running in the streets and alleys of Hangzhou. Photo by Ying Tao
In fact, the "slimming" of buses has long been no news. Looking at the whole country, first-tier and new first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen are trying to make buses "big and small"——
Beijing is planning to introduce a composite bus system of "conventional small bus + demand response micro bus" in the hutongs with a width of more than 6 meters; in June this year, the first batch of pure electric small buses in Guangzhou were unveiled, with a total length of 6.54 meters, designed for urban villages; and the "baby bus" appeared in Shenzhen, with only 10 seats, just to facilitate the "100 meters" demand of citizens to travel from the subway to the community......
The buses of the head cities have embarked on the new track of "slimming", while the buses of the third- and fourth-tier cities are facing the embarrassing situation of "cutting off supply" -- in March last year, Shangqiu, Henan Province, announced the suspension of the bus lines in the urban area of Qiu City, the operator of the city, due to extraordinary difficulties in operation; in July, a number of bus lines in Baoding, Hebei Province were suspended; and in September, the bus companies of Hengshan County and Shuangfeng County in Hunan Province announced the suspension of public transportation in the whole city......
Undoubtedly, the sharp decline in passenger flow and the high rate of empty vehicles are the main problems faced by various places in the operation of public transportation. So is the "big car for the small car" the initiative to seek change or forced action, is it the pursuit of efficiency or cost control? The passenger capacity of the bus has become smaller, can the travel needs of the citizens still be able to cover the bottom? Today, let's talk about the urban development logic behind the "slimming" of public transportation.
Why do the buses in the head cities choose to "slim down"
The "slimming" of urban buses can probably start from 10 years ago - in 2013, "pocket" buses appeared on the streets of Beijing, and some 12-meter buses began to be replaced by 8.5-meter and 10-meter models. At that time, this was Beijing's "specialty", but considering it in the current dimension, it has become a common practice.
A set of data is very telling: at present, the ratio of large, medium and small buses in Shenzhen has been gradually adjusted from 6:2:2 to 4:4:2, and in the mountain city of Chongqing, where the bus share rate is as high as 51.4%, the number of alley buses with only 7 capacity has increased from 2 in 2020 to 34 in 2023, with an average daily operating mileage of more than 13,600 kilometers and 27,400 passengers......
Why has the "slimming" of public transportation become the common choice of first-tier and new first-tier cities across the country?
In the past two years, the decline in bus passenger traffic is an indisputable fact, and the decrease in bus operating income and the tightening of local finances have indeed exacerbated the pressure on public transport operations in some cities. However, Cai Runlin, deputy chief engineer of the Shanghai branch of the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design, believes that for the first-tier and new first-tier cities, "survival" is not a problem, but it is important to change a "more accurate way of living". ”
The change in bus type is rooted in the change of public travel Xi. Hangzhou is a typical example:
One of the changes lies in the rapid completion of the rail transit network. On November 24, 2012, Hangzhou Metro Line 1 was put into operation, connecting Xianghu Station to Wenze Road Station and Linping Station. The marginal effect of the subway on buses has already been seen in just over a month: the B1 section of the same route (Huanglong Bus Station - Xiasha City) was suspended on February 1, 2013 due to a significant drop in passenger traffic.
Hangzhou BRT B1 shuttle bus. Courtesy of Hangzhou Public Transport Group
Look at the whole area of Hangzhou. In the past ten years, the construction of Hangzhou's subway has advanced rapidly, and the operating mileage has accumulated to 516 kilometers, jumping to the sixth place in the country. According to the latest statistics, the highest passenger flow record in the history of Hangzhou Metro reached 5.032 million, which greatly shared the pressure of urban travel and diverted the inherent passenger flow of buses.
The second change lies in the improvement of urban roads and the increase in car ownership.
From 2019 to 2022, the number of private cars in China increased from about 207 million to 278 million. This is in line with the current situation in Hangzhou -
With the official opening of the Tianmushan Road tunnel section of the Qiantang Expressway, more than 500 kilometers of expressways in Hangzhou have formed a network, bridging the traffic gap and opening up the urban skeleton. At the same time, Hangzhou has a permanent population of more than 12 million people and more than 4 million cars, which is equivalent to one private car for every three people. Online car-hailing, bike-sharing, e-bikes and other modes of travel also account for a significant proportion of Hangzhou's daily travel of about 23 million.
"Diversified travel modes allow citizens to have many alternatives to traditional public transportation. Therefore, the pressure of passenger flow competition in the bus will be highlighted, which forces the bus company to transform. Wu Haiwei, deputy director of the Hangzhou Comprehensive Transportation Research Center, explained.
The bus has become smaller, can the travel demand still be carried around?
Since 2021, Hangzhou has begun to replace models of different sizes in large quantities to better meet the needs of route optimization.
There are those who are puzzled: the car becomes smaller, the passenger capacity will decrease, and the demand for travel will not be more unbearable?
The data "paints a blank picture" of the real situation: the number of trains is more flexible, the speed is faster, the service is more accurate, and the efficiency of alleviating urban congestion is higher. According to the congestion delay index data of 50 large and medium-sized cities in China released by AutoNavi Transportation, Hangzhou has dropped from the first place in the country in the first quarter of 2014 to the 45th place in the third quarter of 2023.
In reality, we can give an example. The 2023 "National Day Mid-Autumn Festival" double festival coincides with the Hangzhou Asian Games, and at this time, Hangzhou, just the scenic spots (including rural tourism), need to solve the travel needs of 13 million tourists. In the face of high traffic, Hangzhou responded with "small buses".
"In order to solve the problem of congestion in Lingyin Scenic Area, the Hangzhou Municipal Government Congestion Office took the lead in implementing the Lingyin Scenic Area taxis and online car-hailing 'regional ban + proximal express shuttle' initiative, and we set up two bus transfer points at No. 608 Dongyue and Xixi Road, specifically using 8-meter and 10-meter buses to pick up tourists who take taxis into Lingyin. Chen Shicheng, head of operations of Hangzhou Public Transport Group, said that this "experiment" was very successful, after calculation, although it is a small car, but the frequency of vehicles is more dense, plus the guarantee of special lanes, 7 minutes from the transfer point to Lingyin, during the eleventh holiday, the shuttle bus single-day passenger capacity of up to 41,000 people, equivalent to a reduction of 15,000 online car-hailing taxis into the scenic spot.
Tourists take the scenic shuttle bus line to visit the scenic spot. Courtesy of Hangzhou Public Transport Group
For more transformations to be equally successful, more needs need to be precisely matched.
First of all, where is the demand? In the ten years since the rapid establishment of the Hangzhou rail transit network, the urban area of Hangzhou has expanded from 3,036 square kilometers to 8,289 square kilometers. Now, Fuyang District and Lin'an District, which are the farthest away from the center of Hangzhou, have also been covered by subways extending in all directions. Wu Haiwei believes that in cities like Hangzhou, where the rail transit network is spread out enough, the public's demand for public transportation is no longer a 20-kilometer long line, but a short- and medium-term line within 10 kilometers.
Cai Runlin also believes: "Hangzhou's urbanization development has entered a relatively stable stage, the urban sector tends to be stable, and the daily travel needs of citizens will be more accurate." ”
Let's look at how the demand is met. After the stabilization of the new plate, the shortcomings of the original bus route layout are naturally highlighted, for example, the new commercial housing is often only one or two kilometers away from the hospital, subway station and other living circles, but it is not equipped with accurate bus lines, resulting in inconvenience for citizens.
Based on this pain point, Hangzhou has successively launched "small blue buses" with functions such as subway connection and city shuttle, community micro buses, cloud buses and other small buses, as well as customized bus lines such as commuter lines and knowledge seeking special lines to solve the problem of low travel convenience for citizens within the unit. For example, the frequency density of buses in the Dingqiao plate increased by 6.7% and the passenger volume increased by 21.68%, while the frequency density and passenger volume increased by 20.43% in the Zhuantang plate. "At present, we have carried out unitized governance in 20 districts of Hangzhou. Chen Shicheng said.
Whether it is to accurately embed bus services according to demand in the cell, or to give full play to the advantages of public transport intensification in urban congestion points, this idea of responding to diversified needs coincides with the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration.
Dingqiao small blue bus launched by Hangzhou. Courtesy of Hangzhou Public Transport Group
In Nanjing, four customized bus routes have been launched, including commuting, business, universities and tourism, to solve the problem of tidal passenger flow at specific times and for specific groups of people......
Cai Runlin analyzed, "Flexible scheduling is the biggest advantage of public transportation, and it is also the key to grasp the passenger flow." As long as the vehicle scheduling is reasonable, the higher the efficiency of bus operation, the better the effect of sharing urban congestion. ”
Bus innovation and change, is there only one way to "slim down"?
The answer is certainly not the only one.
In October this year, the Ministry of Transport and other 9 departments and units jointly issued the "Several Opinions on Promoting the Healthy and Sustainable Development of Urban Public Transport", which covered several key suggestions, in addition to the "application of miniaturized public transport vehicles according to the demand for passenger flow" and "the opening of customized bus routes such as commuting, commuting, and medical treatment" that have been tried in various places, it is also pointed out that it is necessary to "improve the operational efficiency of urban buses and trolleys through the application of big data" and "support the development of the" bus + tourism "service model".
In other words, "big car to small car" is not the only solution. The use of big data to accurately diagnose the travel needs of citizens is also a way to improve the efficiency of public transportation.
New York has one of the oldest public underground rail systems in the world, but its surface transit is still alive and well. The solution is to use big data tools to screen out 28 corridors that are inconvenient for subways but have high-frequency needs, upgrade conventional bus lines to simple and efficient BRT, and greatly improve the city's BRT network with less time and investment.
As a digital city, Hangzhou is already trying. Not long ago, at the 5th Zhejiang International Intelligent Transportation Industry Expo, Hangzhou officially released the Hangzhou traffic governance online platform. The platform builds "scene applications" through "data indicators" and "computing power algorithms". Traffic-related data in any part of Hangzhou's main urban area is displayed in real time, such as the number of travelers, travel modes, destination calorific value, etc.
Wu Haiwei said: "With these data, we can accurately judge the passenger capacity of ground buses, and for routes with high single vehicle passenger capacity, we can continue to optimize operation and scheduling, and better adapt to the travel Xi of major passengers; for lines with low bicycle passenger capacity, we can timely warn inefficient lines and re-optimize and adjust route schemes." ”
"Public transport + cultural tourism IP" is also the direction of transformation.
On August 18 this year, the new owner of the Hangzhou Zoo Panda Pavilion "Chunsheng" and "Xiangguo" officially opened to the public, and Hangzhou Public Transport also launched the "Panda Bus", which is a 12-meter conventional model. According to statistics, after the launch of the "Panda Bus", about 280 passengers took the bus every day.
Such city-customized themed buses are not uncommon in Hangzhou. There are WE1314, 520 double-decker bus and K155 bus alone. Among them, the double-decker bus No. 520 bus will become a holy place for couples in Hangzhou on May 20 every year, and the regular 12-meter model WE1314 bus is also the first choice for contemporary Hangzhou young people to get married.
Hangzhou WE1314 bus. Courtesy of Hangzhou Public Transport Group
Not only in Hangzhou, but also because of its precise use of multiple types of vehicles, highlighting the city's personality - double-decker buses on the main roads, which have retro feelings and can carry passengers intensively;
"Whether it is the use of big data means, or around the city to do IP, what the public transport to do is to seize the stable high-frequency travel demand of the market, and then provide accurate services, which is the breakthrough point for public transport around the country to reverse the current situation of excessive operating pressure, and it is also the future business model for the healthy development of the public transport industry. Cai Runlin said.
In the final analysis, the change of public transportation lies in the change of people and the city.
As economic development enters a new historical stage, the urbanization process of the mainland is facing a shift in growth rate. At the end of 2022, the permanent urban population of mainland China reached 920.71 million, and the number of new urban residents hit a 42-year low. Accompanying this, the differentiation of urban energy levels is further highlighted.
Lu Dadao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, believes that the mainland's urbanization has changed from extensive large-scale development to high-quality development. In this context, some cities need to do "subtraction", not blindly greedy for speed, should be based on the actual situation of local population, employment, transportation, etc., planning urban construction and development.
Public transportation is one of the most important public goods in the urban operation system. "Even in the complex context of declining population, urban differentiation, and diversification of travel needs, its public welfare attributes will not change. Cai Runlin said that it is foreseeable that after "slimming down and strengthening the body", the public transport that will become "small and beautiful" and "small and fine" can bring people more sense of gain and happiness, and the city's agglomeration capacity will also be enhanced.
The key to the development of public transport lies in reversing the inertial thinking of "incremental planning". How to step up "strengthening" while "slimming", how to achieve the best balance between public transport momentum and urban development and residents' needs, and how to form a two-way closed loop of social services and economic news are the propositions to be solved in modern urban development.
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