Think Tank

The opening of customized public transportation cannot rely solely on citizens' "canvassing"

2025-12-30   

"I launched a customized bus line, and welcome the partners who need to sign up!" A media reporter found that Ms. Du, who works for an Internet company in Haidian District, Beijing, has frequently published recruitment information on the social platform for several days, "canvassing" for the customized bus demand submitted by herself, just to make up for the number of passengers needed for opening. The citizens' campaign to open bus routes has exposed the current reality of the promotion of customized public transportation: service supply still heavily relies on the "demand aggregation" mechanism, with high barriers to public participation and high organizational costs. Customized public transportation is a public transportation service tailored to the travel patterns of specific groups of people. It has the advantages of fewer stops, direct routes, and on-time departure, effectively filling the gap of traditional public transportation with "many detours and long travel times", especially suitable for commuting pain points in industrial parks and areas with dense technology enterprises. In cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Hangzhou, public transportation groups have partnered with enterprises and parks to launch commuter lines to solve the "last mile" travel problem. This "on-demand departure and precise service" model has improved travel efficiency, alleviated traffic congestion, helped reduce carbon emissions, and has significant social benefits. However, whether a customized bus route can be opened depends on whether enough passengers can be gathered within the specified time. Obviously, this is due to the consideration of controlling operating costs by the bus company. Customized public transportation is a public service that requires a balance between public welfare and efficiency. If the ticket price is too high, it will lose its inclusiveness; If the ticket price is too low, it will be difficult to sustain. However, customized public transportation requires passengers to spontaneously "vote" to aggregate demand, which is inevitably a bit outdated and not friendly enough to groups with scattered residences or weak information dissemination capabilities. The phenomenon of customized public transportation "canvassing" is not only people's desire for convenient travel, but also a call for more efficient and warm public services. Obviously, public transportation cannot rely solely on "self rescue by citizens", but also requires the government and enterprises to take the initiative and provide advanced services. In this regard, it may be worth exploring a diversified investment mechanism of "government guidance, enterprise operation, unit sharing, and individual reasonable sharing". For example, by providing government subsidies for key regional routes and partial subsidies for employees' commuting by enterprises, operating costs can be reduced, while bus companies rely on big data to optimize route design and scheduling, improving operational efficiency. Furthermore, the promotion of customized public transportation is also a microcosm of modern urban governance. Public services should not be 'waiting for the masses to handle', but should 'proactively provide on-site services'. In the field of transportation, it is also necessary to establish a mechanism from discovering demand to responding quickly. By analyzing commuting heat maps through big data, proactively identifying areas with potential demand and laying out routes in advance; Or set up "travel service specialists" in key parks to assist enterprises in collecting employees' commuting needs and reducing the threshold for citizen participation. We look forward to more collaboration between the "hands of the government" and the "forces of the market" to make customized public transportation truly a standard for modern urban commuting, and to safeguard people's happy travel. (New Society)

Edit:Luoyu Responsible editor:Wang Erdong

Source:GMW.cn

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