Carpools gain popularity for Spring Festival trips
Updated: 2016-01-22 08:39
By PENG YINING(China Daily)
|
|||||||||
Safety precautions need to be taken as cold front sweeps the country, official says
A man uses taxi-hailing app on his smartphone on a road in Guangzhou city, South China's Guangdong province, April 9, 2015. [Photo/IC] |
Carpooling services are becoming popular in China for people going home during the annual Spring Festival travel rush.
More than 7,000 results were found for "Spring Festival" and "carpool" on 58.com, China's equivalent of Craigslist, where people are offering or looking for spare seats to get home instead of taking overcrowded public transportation.
Jiang Dan, a 30-year-old furniture designer in Beijing, offered two seats in his sport utility vehicle for a trip to his hometown Xi'an, Shaanxi province. On a classified advertising website, he was charging 300 yuan ($46) for each seat, while the cheapest ticket for a five-hour train trip from Beijing to Xi'an was more than 500 yuan.
"It is not about making money. Six hundred yuan is just enough to cover the gas," he said. "I am going home anyway, and it is less boring driving 10 hours with passengers."
He said safety is the major concern. Last year, he required passengers to show their identity cards before he carpooled home and kept in touch with his family in Xi'an during the trip.
The Ministry of Transport expects about 2.91 billion trips to be made during the upcoming peak travel period around the Lunar New Year, which falls on Feb 8.
That is up 3.6 percent year-on-year and is a record for the period.
More than 85 percent of trips are made via road, with 11 percent via the train system, according to the ministry. The average traveling distance is 410 kilometers, with about 75 percent of trips shorter than 500 km.
In November, ride-hailing app Didi launched a long-distance carpooling service that enables users to book seats 30 days in advance.
According to a report released on Wednesday by Didi, the company's carpooling service reduces the number of car trips every day in Chinese cities by more than 1 million.
"We encourage not-for-profit carpooling services during the holiday travel rush," said Wang Shuiping, a senior official at the Ministry of Transport. "Safe driving should always be a priority. Drivers and passengers should both make their rights and responsibilities clear and avoid conflict."
Wang said more safety precautions need to be taken during this year's travel rush as extreme cold weather is sweeping most areas of the country. The ministry has called a meeting on Tuesday to deal with the cold wave.
"To protect people on their way home, we have launched several initiatives, such as having extra equipment and people to remove the ice and snow on highways," he said.
- Hot sale for Spring Festival goods
- Culture: Do's and don'ts during Spring Festival
- North China gets Spring Festival gala for the elderly
- Villagers make traditional food for coming Spring Festival in E China
- Carpool apps provide practical solutions for daily-life problems
- Carpooling picks up again in capital
- A glimpse of Spring Rush: little migrant birds on the way home
- Policy puts focus on genuine artistic students
- Police unravel market where babies are bought, sold as commodities
- More older pregnant women expected
- Netizen backlash 'ugly' Spring Festival Gala mascot
- China builds Mongolian language corpus
- 2 Chinese nationals killed, 1 injured in suspected bomb attack in Laos
- New York, Washington clean up after fatal blizzard
- 'Plane wreckage' found in Thailand fuels talk of missing Malaysian jet
- Washington shuts down govt, NY rebounds after blizzard
- 7 policemen, 3 civilians killed in Egypt's Giza blast
- Former US Marine held in Iran arrives home after swap
- Drone makers see soaring growth but dark clouds circle industry
- China's Zhang reaches Australian Open quarterfinals
- Spring Festival in the eyes of Chinese painters
- Cold snap brings joy and beauty to south China
- The making of China Daily's Tibetan-style English font
- First trains of Spring Festival travel depart around China
- Dough figurines of Monkey King welcome the New Year
- Ning Zetao, Liu Hong named China's athletes of the year
Most Viewed
Editor's Picks
8 highlights about V-day Parade |
Glimpses of Tibet: Plateaus, people and faith |
Chinese entrepreneurs remain optimistic despite economic downfall |
50th anniversary of Tibet autonomous region |
Tianjin explosions: Deaths, destruction and bravery |
Cinemas enjoy strong first half |
Today's Top News
National Art Museum showing 400 puppets in new exhibition
Finest Chinese porcelains expected to fetch over $28 million
Monkey portraits by Chinese ink painting masters
Beijing's movie fans in for new experience
Obama to deliver final State of the Union speech
Shooting rampage at US social services agency leaves 14 dead
Chinese bargain hunters are changing the retail game
Chinese president arrives in Turkey for G20 summit
US Weekly
Geared to go |
The place to be |