Villagers in Guchengzi Town, Panshan County, Panjin City, Liaoning Province travel by bus. Photographed by Pan Yulong, a reporter from Xinhua News Agency

A customized bus stops outside Futong Station of Beijing Metro and waits for passengers to get on. Photographed by Zhu Jiale

Taxi booking online is familiar to everyone. Have you ever taken an online bus?

At present, many places have launched online bus service. It has become a new travel fashion to use mobile phones to ask for a bus.

Open the mobile phone applet, select the boarding and alighting place and the number of passengers. After the system receives the order, a bus will pick you up. Different from traditional public transport, online buses have no fixed routes and stops, and will automatically match "carpool" orders according to user needs.

What is the experience of taking an online bus? What is the development prospect of online bus? In this regard, the reporter interviewed.

How about the ride experience? Convenience and cheapness are outstanding advantages

"I got a bus by taxi" "The price of the bus and the service of online car hailing are too suitable for me to carpool every day." "The bus that can be booked online is really good. It costs 3 yuan at a time and is available on call."... In the Guangdong Macao Deep Cooperation Zone in Hengqin, Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province, after the dynamic bus was launched on March 18, many citizens experienced "tasting new things", And share their feelings on social media.

It is understood that this is a new mode of public transport travel launched by the Urban Planning and Construction Bureau of Hengqin Guangdong Macao Deep Cooperation Zone. The "network appointment" mode is used to operate buses, and Zhuhai Public Transport is responsible for the platform construction and overall operation jointly with Wisdom Huixing (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. According to the travel demand, passengers can select the bus stops (including virtual stops) within the operating range as the boarding and alighting points on the "Hengqin Dynamic Public Transport" WeChat applet. The system will automatically generate lines, and automatically match "carpooling" according to the order demand called by passengers along the way. After receiving the order, the vehicles will start as required and travel according to the system navigation planning route.

For passengers, after the order is placed successfully, they need to wait at the boarding place in advance. The small program will display the bus license plate number. When getting on the bus, they will report the last four digits of the mobile phone number to the driver for verification, and get off at the station. The original ticket system fare of dynamic bus is 5 yuan, and the 60% discount fare during the operation is 3 yuan, so the discount for multiple passengers is more powerful. The current operation time is from 7:00 to 21:00.

Meng Wei, chairman and general manager of Wisdom Huixing (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd., told the reporter that this is the first nationwide dynamic network bus service, serving 87.1 square kilometers of users' travel on the island. It has the characteristics of "no fixed station, no fixed line, and departure on demand", which can make efficient use of public transport resources, and is economical and energy-saving.

In Hefei, Anhui Province, the online bus was launched on March 4. At present, there are 213 stops in total. In addition to 59 physical bus stops, there are 154 virtual stops at the entrance of supermarkets, schools and communities, covering an irregular circular area with a diameter of 4 kilometers in Hefei Government District. The operation time is from 7:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. and from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. In terms of ticket price, the price of carpooling is 3 yuan/person time, and the exclusive price is 10 yuan/train number.

"With the online bus, my biggest feeling is that it is convenient and fast." Ms. Zhang, a Hefei citizen, said that at present, Hefei online bus covers most of the districts in the government area. She takes it every day to work, usually a 13 seat minibus. The seats are spacious and comfortable, the carriage is clean and tidy, and the ride experience is good. There is a USB interface on the bus, Easy to charge. Ms. Zhang said: "After placing an order online, you only need to wait for 3-5 minutes to get on the bus directly from the entrance of the community without walking to the nearby bus station. And a single carpool only costs 3 yuan, which is also very cost-effective."

Wang Qiang, an engineer in the Operation Management Department of Hefei Public Transport Group, introduced that the online bus service provides travel services from time to time, from point to point, from door to door, and strives to bring more convenient, efficient and high-quality intelligent travel experience to citizens.

It has been launched in many places across the country, and different models are adopted according to needs

According to the reporter's search, the online bus can be divided into three forms:

First, it is closer to the "customized bus" service of traditional buses. Customized bus has the nature of "fixed stops and scheduled shifts", but its routes can be customized by bus companies according to their needs, and can also be initiated by enterprises, community streets and even individuals. As long as a certain number of people reach, the bus can start. Passengers need to make an online reservation in advance to accurately determine the departure time. After boarding, they can show the reservation QR code for verification.

In Beijing, the public transportation is customized for user commuting, school commuting and other scenarios, and multiple routes are set, such as Tiananmen to the city green center, Beiyuan to Financial Street, Wangjing to Yizhuang core area, etc. After passengers make advance reservations, one seat for one person, fast and direct.

The second is the micro bus special line service operated in tourist attractions, hospitals, university towns and other regions. This kind of bus serves a fixed area and has the nature of "routing", but the demand response system is adopted for stations and shifts, and passengers need to select the date and shift to make an appointment first. This kind of bus special line adds virtual stops on the basis of traditional bus stops, and drivers can flexibly enter and exit according to the actual needs of passengers. Due to the fixed service areas, the bus lines in some places stop at popular scenic spots, hospitals, community entrances, office buildings and other places where private cars are difficult or even impossible to stop, which greatly facilitates the travel of people.

For example, in Xinjiang, after preliminary research, Urumqi public transport opened three routes from the urban area to the Miaoergou Waterfall, Tianshan Grand Canyon, and West Baiyanggou Scenic Area from April 20. The special line departs at a fixed time in the morning from the urban area to the scenic area, and returns to the urban area from the scenic area in the afternoon. Citizens can make an appointment to travel.

The third kind is more similar to carpooling in online car hailing, which breaks the limit of traditional bus "fixed station, fixed route and fixed shift", and is flexible bus service without fixed stations and routes. The flexible public transport service meets the travel needs of passengers through big data analysis and matching, and realizes point-to-point pickup and drop off, on call, real-time dynamic planning of driving routes, which is affordable and convenient.

In Jiaxinzi Village, Guchengzi Town, Panshan County, Panjin City, Liaoning Province, there are also online buses. After opening on March 25, buses can be on call like online car hailing. Two people can take a car hailing at 5 yuan each time. People between 60 and 69 years old are half price, and people over 70 years old are free. Villagers can check the real-time location of public transport vehicles through the "Panjin Travel" APP to ensure the most convenient and fast arrival at the destination.

Liu Yi, director of the Service Economy and Internet Development Research Office of the Institute of Finance and Economics Strategy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said in an interview with our newspaper that the online bus service makes up for the lack of single traditional bus routes, stations and time settings. All three forms are beneficial explorations for the in-depth integration and innovative development of the public transport industry and digital technology, transforming the public transport service from "serving dishes" to "ordering dishes". As an upgrade and extension of traditional public transport services, online bus hailing has the characteristics of stable, reliable and affordable public transport services, as well as customized, intelligent and accurate online bus hailing.

The development trend is good and will be popularized in more scenes in the future

In Hengqin, 21 dynamic buses are currently in operation, with daily service exceeding 1200 person times. Online buses meet the personalized needs of passengers, especially attracting many young passengers to travel by bus.

Liu Yi said that from the demand side, the online bus booking has effectively saved the time cost and travel cost of passengers. From the supply side, the network bus has adapted to the current characteristics of passenger flow decentralization, helped the bus companies to put in transport capacity in a targeted way, and promoted the bus companies to lock in passenger flow, reduce costs and increase efficiency while reducing idle running consumption. It can be expected that the online bus will become more and more popular in the future.

Meng Wei is also optimistic about the future development of online public transport. For public transport service providers, the operating cost of online public transport is reduced and personnel efficiency is improved; Higher ticket price and higher income; In the later stage, it can also assist public transportation to extend diversified network bus services according to user travel big data, travel scenarios, etc. He believes that through the development in recent years, the online bus will match the personalized travel needs of users in some specific areas, help the government to attract investment, and transform the public transport travel from the original basic traditional public transport services to the service product form of "traditional public transport+online bus". Through the dynamic public transport platform, a travel service network with good connection with public transport, smart planning and convenient use will be built to meet the travel modes in various scenarios and provide better support for people's livelihood services. At the same time, the analysis and application of various data can continue to provide valuable travel suggestions and help public transport and government departments to formulate more scientific urban transport planning.

In October 2023, the Several Opinions on Promoting the Healthy and Sustainable Development of Urban Public Transport jointly issued by the Ministry of Transport and other nine departments clearly pointed out that "improving the operation efficiency of urban bus and trolley bus through big data applications", "supporting urban bus and trolley bus enterprises to make full use of transport capacity resources and open customized bus routes such as commuting, commuting and medical treatment", etc.

As an emerging thing, there are still some imperfections in the online bus service, such as insufficient publicity and popularization of the online bus service, and the site logo is not obvious; The use of predetermined channels such as small programs and other operation interfaces is complex, which causes certain obstacles to the use of the elderly; The coverage is limited, and the transportation capacity needs to be improved. Some passengers put forward suggestions for improvement after experiencing. For example, a passenger said that his local network buses only operate during the morning and evening peak hours on weekdays, and he expected the network buses to operate all day and benefit more residents. Some passengers also expressed their hope that the system would be more intelligent and that the operation force of the next day could be better allocated according to the reservation order of the previous night.

Experts pointed out that the operation unit also needs to continuously improve its operation service capability and promote the online bus service by increasing publicity and marketing efforts, gradually improving the site layout and capacity configuration, iterative algorithms, increasing aging services, integrating booking channels and map guidance, etc.

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