Bus lanes are relatively idle, on-site visits: Shanghai Tailu Baoyang Road is congested during morning and evening rush hours, while the peak hours | society | bus lanes

"Heading south from the outer ring of Hutai Road, the most congested area is at the intersection of Hutai Road and Shangda Road. During peak hours, social vehicles need to wait for three red lights to pass. However, this section of the road takes about 5 minutes to see buses passing by, and the bus lanes are mostly idle."

The tidal congestion during the morning and evening peak hours of the Shanghai Taiyuan Road has been a concern of the National People's Congress in recent years. Wang Peihua, a representative of the Municipal People's Congress and deputy director of the Baoshan District Ecological Environment Bureau, believes that the low utilization rate of bus lanes in the area is one of the reasons for congestion. For this purpose, he conducted a survey and analysis on the usage of bus lanes on roads in the Baoshan area. "We have found that the utilization rate of suburban bus lanes during morning and evening rush hours is relatively low, and further optimization of their settings is needed."

Is the suggestion put forward by the representative feasible?

Reporter's visit: During peak hours, bus lanes are relatively empty

To understand the usage of bus lanes, Wang Peihua conducted a survey on the roads in the Baoshan area. Baoshan District has designated a dedicated bus lane for the Shanghai Taiyuan Road, Yixian Road, and Baoyang Road Bao'an Highway, with a total length of 31.95 kilometers. In addition, some bus lanes have been set up on Gonghe New Road, Tongji Road, and Wenshui Road. The section of Baoyang Road that Wang Peihua and several members of the 93 Society are observing together is Baoyang Road.

Baoyang Road, as an important east-west transportation artery in Baoshan District, not only connects important urban radial roads such as Tongji Road, Wenchuan Road, and Hutai Road, but also serves as a passenger passage connecting important radial tracks such as Line 1, Line 3, and Line 7. "We have observed that various types of transportation are well-developed along Baoyang Road, bearing significant pressure during morning and evening rush hours. However, during peak hours, this section of the road has relatively empty bus lanes," said Wang Peihua.

Late peak hours at the intersection of Baoyang Road and Tongji Road

On August 21st, the reporter conducted on-site visits and found that Baoyang Road has six lanes in both directions, with dedicated bus lanes set up on the outer sides of both directions. Around 17:00, during the evening rush hour, the reporter roughly calculated that from 17:00 to 17:20, there were a total of 8 buses passing through the dedicated bus lane located at the southwest intersection of Baoyang Road and Tongji Road, including Baoshan 15, Baoshan 29, and Baoshan 159. During this period, there were over a hundred social vehicles passing in the same direction.

Walking from west to east along Baoyang Road, the reporter found that the bus lane here is not continuous. When Baoyang Road enters Tongji Road from west to east about 500 meters away, the yellow dashed line on the ground disappears and becomes a white line, indicating that there is a "breakpoint" in the bus lane. When the bus arrives here, it will mix with social vehicles. This "breakpoint", coupled with the lack of electronic monitoring installed on some sections of the road, makes the marked bus lanes virtually non-existent, as many social vehicles use bus lanes for lane changes at the middle of the journey; Due to the long waiting time at traffic lights at intersections, many non motorized vehicles also use bus lanes for overtaking, and the separation between buses and social vehicles is not clear.

The bus lane at the intersection of Baoyang Road and Tongji Road

There are many parks in this area with dense traffic flow, and the traffic conditions at the intersection of Baoyang Road and Tongji Road are relatively complex. The restricted road sections for nearby trucks are two off ramps, Shuishui Road and Baoyang Road, from the south to the north of Tongji Elevated Road. Freight vehicles with a capacity of more than 8 tons are prohibited from off ramps throughout the day. From 17:00 to 18:00 on the same day, the traffic police stopped two trucks that were illegally on the road, and the trucks were parked on the bus lane. Due to the proximity of the intersection to the Baoyang Road subway station exit, there is a temporary taxi loading point next to the bus lane. From time to time, taxis, ride hailing services, and private cars may use the bus lane to pass through or stop. At this time, passing buses must use other lanes for passage. In addition, when turning right from east to south on Baoyang Road and entering the ground lane of Tongji Road, if you do not use the dedicated bus lane, you need to continuously change four lanes.

Representative suggestion: Establish carpooling lanes to alleviate congestion

The purpose of constructing bus lanes is to ensure the priority right of way for buses and improve the efficiency of public transportation. However, considering the actual situation, some bus lanes have not achieved the desired efficiency in use. In Wang Peihua's view, urban roads are a limited public resource, and the road conditions in the suburbs and city center are different. The setting of bus lanes should be reasonably planned based on actual traffic conditions. "For example, the setting of dedicated bus lanes in the Baoshan area should not only meet the conditions of three or more lanes, but also meet an indicator of bus flow or the proportion of bus passengers' travel."

To improve road efficiency, countries such as the United States and Canada have implemented HOV lanes, which can be used by vehicles such as buses, cars or trucks with more than 2 people. Some cities in our country have also explored, such as the first HOV lane in Fujian, which will be launched in 2021. It allows buses, school buses, and passenger cars with more than two passengers to pass through from 7am to 9pm and from 17pm to 19pm daily. Hangzhou has introduced a standard for setting up bus lanes, requiring that the one-way bus flow during peak hours on roads should reach 100 or more vehicles, or that the proportion of bus passenger flow should reach more than 60% of the motor vehicle passenger flow on the road section. Wang Peihua suggested that HOV lanes could be piloted to alleviate traffic congestion. At the same time, during peak hours in the morning and evening, some vehicles such as yellow card buses are allowed to use bus lanes to increase the utilization rate of bus lanes.

Bus stops near the intersection of Baoyang Road and Tongji Road

At present, the applicable time for bus lanes is from 7:00 am to 10:00 am during peak hours and from 16:00 pm to 19:00 during peak hours. Representative research has found that in the Baoshan area, the peak hours for commuting are from 7:00 am to 9:00 pm and from 16:30 to 18:30 on weekdays. "This period is also a period of prohibition for freight vehicles in the urban area of Baoshan. After this period, a large number of freight vehicles will come out. If we follow the original period, the social lane will be more congested." Therefore, Wang Peihua suggests shortening the use time of bus lanes during peak hours in the morning and evening, synchronizing the use time of bus lanes with the time limit for trucks, and reducing social lane congestion. ". Widen roads with conditions, add relevant lanes in areas with particularly severe congestion, and cancel unnecessary bus lanes.

Undertaking department: Research on the differentiated opening time of bus lanes

As of now, this city has built a total of 536.6 kilometers of bus lanes, basically achieving full coverage of the city's backbone road network, including bus lanes and various forms of shared lanes that also have bus exclusive functions, medium capacity, and trams.

The traffic police department admitted that there are currently problems such as low efficiency and discontinuity in some sections of bus lanes. During the 14th Five Year Plan period, the focus of our city's bus lane work has gradually shifted from construction to refined management, improving the network, optimizing nodes, and enhancing quality and efficiency. We will continue to cooperate with the Municipal Transportation Commission to continuously optimize the setting of bus lanes, select backbone passenger flow channels, and establish a high-quality bus operation network. While continuously building a bus city, we will better balance road resources.

The Municipal Transportation Commission agrees with the proposal put forward by the representative to establish a carpooling lane. It is reported that in 2019, our city piloted the implementation of the first national carpooling lane - the Huyi Highway carpooling lane. After the dedicated lane was put into use, the speed increase effect was significant, and the advantages were evident. The speed in the carpooling lane was more than 25% higher than that of the ordinary lane. In 2020, on the basis of the pilot of carpooling, the construction of three carpooling lanes, namely Chenhai Road, Tingfeng Road, and Shengxin Road, was gradually implemented, allowing small buses carrying two or more people to enter the carpooling lane, further improving the efficiency of the use of dedicated lanes.

In terms of management measures, this city stipulates that the operating hours of regular bus lanes are from 7:00 to 10:00 and from 16:00 to 19:00 from Monday to Friday, and are open to citizens on weekends and holidays; There are two types of medium capacity: 24-hour dedicated and 5-24-hour dedicated. Can we shorten the usage time of bus lanes during rush hours on weekdays? The traffic police department believes that the travel characteristics of residents in suburban and urban areas are indeed different, and there are certain differences. However, a unified standard is more easily known to drivers, is more conducive to law enforcement management, and provides more comprehensive protection for the efficiency of cross district bus routes. The Municipal Transportation Commission also stated that it will study the differentiated operating time of bus lanes. Based on the different travel characteristics of residents in suburban and urban areas, and tailored to local conditions, it will work with the Traffic Police Brigade of the Municipal Public Security Bureau to study the feasibility of differentiated operating time of bus lanes.

As for the types of vehicles allowed to pass on bus lanes, the Shanghai Road Traffic Management Regulations stipulate that during the dedicated time period, school buses, passenger carrying vehicles with a confirmed passenger capacity of 20 or more, special vehicles carrying out emergency tasks, vehicles carrying out obstacle clearance and rescue operations, and vehicles allowed to borrow bus lanes according to traffic signal instructions are allowed to borrow and pass.

"Through various channels such as daily work investigation, public letters, visits, and calls, we will promptly identify various common congestion nodes in the city and actively promote the transformation of congestion nodes." The traffic police department stated that it is expected to implement 135 locations in 2023. In response to the specific location proposed by representative Wang Peihua, the west entrance of Baoyang Road and Tongji Road has effectively alleviated traffic congestion at intersections by borrowing opposite exit lanes this year.

"The next step will be to improve the network of bus lanes and break through breakpoints." The Municipal Transportation Commission stated that it will continue to conduct systematic analysis and evaluation of the facility layout and operation of Shanghai's bus lane network, optimizing the overall network.