Beijing is a good example that major Chinese cities are expanding
outwards rapidly, leading to increasing commuting distance, so people rely more and more on mechanized vehicle traffic resources such as bus transit, rail transit, and car travel.
However, as it turned out, the car-based travel mode will not work in a populous city like Beijing. The growing automobile use did nothing useful to ease the travel pressure, but rather brought congestions everywhere (Figure1-1), especially during the peak hours. So developing and improving mass transit will be more effective to solve commuting problems in cities like Beijing.
Beijing has invested a huge amount of money in mass transit, covering most of the areas of the city. But two major problems still exist. First one is the transfer inconvenience between different transits and major lines; the other one is what we call the last kilometer inconvenience which means the service gap between major stations and commuters destinations (Figure1-2).
! Background To eliminate these inconveniences, Beijing has put forward several measures in recent years. First in 2009, using electric power cart to fill the gap; then in 2010, providing bicycle rental service at major stations; and now, mini (short-distance) bus lines are put into use (Table1-1).
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1
! Key Problem The electric power cart and bicycle rental service proved of little avail to solving the problems. The mini bus line is based on the mainstream bus transit system, whether it can be widely accepted and successfully serve as linkage between different transits and major lines has yet to be proved.
2 Basic Research Information 2.1 Research Overview On March 28, 2011, 8 new short-distance bus lines were set up in Beijing. The general length of these lines is between 3 and 7 kilometers, they cover more than 50 communities across the city, ending the no bus situation in 12 areas (Table2-1).
2.2 Research Subject We mainly focus on the Route 22 which serves the Shaoyaoju area. We evaluate its operation status by conducting a public opinion survey to see how much this new added bus line is accepted, and finally make a judgment on how much it contributes to solving the mentioned problems.
2.3 Research Area This research chooses the Shaoyaoju area as the subject area with the subway line 5 and line 10 intersection station Shaoyaoju at the core. This area is a large residential community; the transfer and the the last kilometer inconveniences have been long-term problems here (Figure2-1).
2.4 Research Method and Structure We mainly use four research methods: data collection, fieldwork, questionnaire, and depth interview.
3 Current Situation Analysis 3.1 Stop Distribution and Operation Status Evaluation 3.1.1 Stop Distribution and Public Demand ! Stop Distribution On February 25, 2011, Route 22, the shortest bus line in the city, went into service. Its route revolves around Shaoyaoju community, the overall length is 3.7 kilometers and there are totally 8 stops which are West Wanghe Bridge, Wanghe Bridge, East Shaoyaoju, Subway Shaoyaoju Station, South Entry of South Yuhui Rd, University of International Business and Economics (UIBE), National Museum of Modern Chinese Literature (NMMCL), and South Yuhui Rd (Table3-1).
8ouLe 22 Shaoyao[u llgure2-1 8esearch area 3 ! Demand Index The service object of this bus line includes local residents in the community, students and faculties in UIBE, and people from surrounding public buildings. We get the proportions of population composition in this area from the sixth national population census, Beijing (Figure3-1). And for details of each stops demand index, see Table3-2.
60% 26% 3% 3% 8% 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 office employees students self-employed working at home unemployed llgure3-1 1he proporLlons of populaLlon composlLlon 4
! Public Demand Summary The result of our public survey indicates that a strong demand exist in each of the 7 stops in this line. According to the public opinions, this line not only links the major bus lines, but also almost sends the passengers directly home; it largely mitigates the transfer and the last kilometer inconveniences (Figure3-2).
3.1.2 Evaluative Feedback According to the survey, nearly 50% of the respondents use the short-distance bus service (Figure3-3), that means the subway lines and major bus lines cannot extend to their destinations or they need this short line to transfer between major lines, and they prefer this service than taking taxi, bicycle or walking.
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13% 42% 26% 19% 0 20 40 60 strongly need need whatever no need
43% 13% 5% 18% 21% short-distance bus service taxi bicycle walking close to major lines llgure3-2 ubllc demand survey llgure3-3 eople's cholces for Lransfer and "Lhe lasL kllomeLer" 3 The short bus line is great, short time interval, very convenient. After I get off work, I used to take taxi from the subway station to home, now the bus stop is just 30 meters outside my apartment, taking the bus saves me a lot of money.
A feedback example from one of the respondents: We also collect their evaluations on several specific aspects of this bus service which are departure interval, operating schedule, stop distribution, and riding comfort (Table3-3).
To sum up, what we heard most are positive voices. We found that what people care most about a mass transit is reachability which means whether it can reach their homes. The more convenience a transit way brought, the more it will be welcomed.
However, there have been some opposing voices. A few local residents think that the frequently coming buses have worsened the already congested traffic.
3.2 Operation Status 3.2.1 General Situation There are totally two buses running this 7-stop loop line (not including the first and last stop), they departure from Wanghe Bridge and end in Wanghe Bridge after a round trip, the departure interval is 10 minutes. This line runs during the morning peak (6:30-9:30) and evening peak (16:30-19:30).
During its operating time, weve seen large passenger load of this line which verified the result of the public demand survey (Figure3-4). But the main objective of these short-distance bus services is to solve the commuting problem, so they only run during the peak hours in weekdays. Another major work in the field research is that we observe the pedestrian flow from those major nodes near each stop such as commercial center, school, catering area, and office building. We found that when Route 22 is out of 1able3-3 LvaluaLlon on speclflc aspecLs of Lhls bus servlce
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