Focus

Cars slow express bus to a crawl

By Li Jiabao (CHINA DAILY)
Updated: 2010-07-06 13:37

Two private cars use the exclusive route designed for the express bus in the capital. [Wang Jing / China Daily]

The express bus known as the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) should take only two minutes to go from stop to stop, traveling at least 25 kilometers per hour. In the crowded capital, the BRT is an enormous boon to commuters. Or at least it would be if private automobiles didn't use lanes that are supposed to be reserved exclusively for the express bus.

"If the route is free, it takes about 40 minutes for BRT Line 1 to cover the 16 km route. However, when the express bus is sandwiched by private automobiles in rush hour, a trip of three stops will take more than an hour, even though the regular interval between stops is only two minutes," a safety worker surnamed Bing with the Second Branch of Beijing Bus Company said.

The Municipal Transportation Bureau has tried to ban vehicles with even and odd-numbered license plates on alternate days and tried a "staggered rush hour plan" since April in order to alleviate the capital's increasing traffic jams. However, the surging number of automobile owners in Beijing (about four million) has weakened results of these policies and made things worse for the BRT.

BRT Line 1, mainland's first rapid transit bus, started at the end of 2005 at a cost of 657 million yuan. It connects Qianmen and Tiananmen with the far southern suburbs of Beijing.

On exclusive routes separated with guardrails, BRT Line 1 is designed to carry 10,000 to 15,000 people per hour.

Beijing now has five BRT lines, but all of them are jammed during rush hours.

"The main trouble comes from the private automobiles who illegally use the BRT Line 1 route. It often happens in the southern part of the route near the Chinese Academy of Space Technology," a Line 1 driver surnamed Dong told METRO.

Almost every weekday of the rush hour from 7:40 am to 8:30 am and from 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm, private automobile drivers rushing to work or hurrying back home use the supposedly exclusive route as a shortcut, according to Bing.

"The entrances to the BRT route have become dangerous traffic areas with accidents," Li Xinsheng, director of BRT Line 3, told the Beijing News.

"More than 90 percent of them are caused by automobile drivers' making left turns onto or driving against traffic on the BRT routes. It happens almost every day."

BRT Line 3 is a 23-km express route from Beijing's southern Daxing district to the city center.

Most parts of the BRT route are separated from the rest of the road by guardrails, but other vehicles can slip on at entrances where the BRT routes intersect with other roads and pedestrian crossings.

Signs at the entrances, which read "exclusive route for BRT," supposedly prohibit other drivers from using it. Some parts of the BRT route are not separated by guardrails, but are marked off by yellow lines and clear words meant to remind drivers of the exclusivity of the route.

BRT routes are theoretically only open to BRT vehicles and police or rescue vehicles in emergencies and disasters, according to traffic regulations.

But in reality many drivers ignore the signs.

"Private automobiles using the exclusive route greatly reduce the speed of BRT vehicles, especially when they line up to wait for traffic lights," a BRT Line 1 driver surnamed

Ding said. "Sometimes, it takes more than 84 minutes to cover the route."

When private automobiles break down on guardrailed BRT routes, BRT vehicles have no option but to wait for the repair team to arrive and fix or tow the broken car, because there is usually not enough space to edge past.

Not only private cars, Jaywalkers also reduce the speed of BRT vehicles. At intersections, BRT drivers have to wait for the jaywalkers to finish crossing, which can take as much as one to two minutes, given Beijing's sometimes chaotic roads.

Jaywalking in the capital does not bring a fine or potential legal punishment as it does in many Western cities, although it does endanger the jaywalker's life.

Xu Kangming, a transportation expert involved in the design of the BRT Line 1, told the Beijing Times that the BRT is powerless amid the chaos on its routes during rush hour.

"Usually, those who drive their cars on the BRT route can easily avoid being caught. Even if they are, the fine is only 200 yuan, which is surely too low," Xu said.

BRT employees have suggested using cameras to capture the license plate number of cars using the BRT routes and stationing traffic police at every intersection and BRT entrance.

But these solutions involve considerable infrastructure or labor costs.

Extra traffic wardens were in place to stop such drivers this May, but the drivers returned once the wardens were gone.