Measures planned to improve ridership
Writer: Han Ximin | Editor: Holly Wang | From: | Updated: 2019-08-21
The first colorized bus lane of the city has been settled on the passage connecting Longhua and Futian districts. File photo from Transport Bureau of Shenzhen Municipality
Shenzhen will designate at least 66 kilometers of bus lanes in 2020 for the further optimization of the public bus network and improving passenger experience through a package of measures.
The measures include increasing connectivity with the Metro service by setting up more routes that connect with Metro stations that will be put into use next year.
More buses will be put on routes with heavy traffic to shorten pickup intervals. The number of buses running on different but repetitive routes will be reduced. Highly efficient bus services will replace those that are less efficient, and routes will be replaced to reduce costs, according to a work plan released by Shenzhen’s public transport administration.
To meet the demand during rush hours, Shenzhen bus companies will shorten bus departure intervals and improve dispatching frequencies. An intelligent algorithm will be introduced to precisely calculate the number of riders during rush hours on each bus route, so that the operators will be able to deploy sufficient buses to meet ridership. So far, the dispatch rate of buses during rush hours has reached 95 percent.
To ensure safety, the buses in Shenzhen have been equipped with a collision alarm system, a driver supervision system and a detection system for flammable and explosive products.
The administration is considering building seamless roadside transfer stations through the coordination of related government agencies and offering bigger discounts to encourage transfers.
The administration will introduce an assessment mechanism that calculates revenue based on every kilometer that a bus travels. Through the mechanism, the administration hopes to reduce costs, and increase the revenue and efficiency of bus operators.
An app-based bus service will be further promoted and more community buses will be introduced to serve neighborhoods.