Online bus-pooling service to debut in Beijing

A new way of riding a bus — hailing a bus online and waiting until a certain number of people around your location make the same request — will soon be available to the public in Beijing according to Beijing Public Transport, Beijing Youth Daily reported on Tuesday.

People living in densely populated residential areas were the primary focus when the bus-sharing service was designed, and routes from these areas to companies, business districts and transportation centers will be provided.

Based on the routes, a comprehensive network of public bus service will be mapped out with smart bus technology and big data platforms.

Compared to the existing model of bus riding, the bus-sharing service features customization and flexibility.

Passengers could upload their individual needs for bus rides on the internet and wait to be picked up by a public bus when it gathers enough people.

In this way, bus riders will no longer need to waiting at a station or sit through a pre-defined bus journey.

"Public bus-pooling is mainly designed for temporary and irregular traveler. It is something like online car-hailing services, but with greater transport capacity," said Xu Kangming, an expert specializing in transport.

"The more flexible bus services, including bus-hailing, will better meet the travel demands of citizens and effectively ease the traffic tension," he added.

However, increased capacity also makes it harder to gather enough passengers. Algorithms for higher accuracy or other advanced technologies should be put in place in the future to further improve services for citizens' convenience.