With the continuous expansion and improvement of the city, the urban public transport industry is also developing continuously. It is necessary for the general public to make appropriate adjustments and extensions to the bus routes. However, whenever there are major adjustments to the bus routes, some conflicts will occur. For example, in November 07, the No. 5 bus was obstructed by minibuses along the way when it was extended to the Driving Test Center and failed to open. On December 30, 07, the No. 33 bus was also obstructed when it was extended to the Health Vocational and Technical College of the Vocational Education Park according to the proposal of a member of the Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. What are the reasons for this phenomenon? December 30, 07 was the first day of the New Year holiday. The municipal bus company decided to extend the No. 33 bus to the Health Vocational and Technical College of the Municipal Vocational Education Park based on the proposal of Xia Xiaoling, a member of the Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and after research by the municipal government. Unexpectedly, this caused dissatisfaction among the owners of the Yandu Bus No. 101. Early in the morning, the owners called their relatives and friends, who blocked several No. 33 buses at the gate of the Oriental Women's Hospital on Liberation South Road, causing the buses on this route to be interrupted for 2 hours.
According to Ma Kewen, Deputy Director of the Operations Department of the Municipal Bus Company, "At around 7:45, our vehicles were intercepted here by people from No. 101, causing traffic congestion. A total of 10 vehicles on this line were intercepted here."
It is understood that the trigger for the conflict was the extension of the No. 33 bus route by the Municipal Bus Company, but no one expected that such an event of intercepting vehicles and blocking traffic would occur. At the scene, many stranded citizens and students were freezing in the cold wind. Faced with this situation, they were helpless victims, and the pleasure of going out during the holiday disappeared. The instigators of the interception incident completely ignored these issues because they were concerned about their own survival.
One of the No. 101 bus owners said, "Take the Longgang to the Vocational Education Park line as an example. We have 15 No. 101 buses, 10 No. 3 buses, 10 No. 33 buses, and 6 No. 13 buses, which totals 41 buses. Isn't this excessive overlap? We need to eat too, and we have targets to meet. Moreover, your route wasn't approved by the Yandu Transportation Bureau. It was just stamped by the Construction Commission."
Subsequently, we visited the No. 101 fleet of Yandu Bus, and the person in charge explained the difficulties of the No. 101 fleet. Wang Ruibiao, the captain of the No. 101 fleet of Yandu Bus, said, "They come to share the pie now. For example, if there were 10 people eating before, now there are 20 more people added. How can the bus owners not have objections?"
Why does the adjustment and extension of bus routes by the bus company encounter obstruction? Where is the root cause? For this reason, the reporter visited the municipal bus company, and the person in charge introduced that this kind of situation is quite common.
Wang Shoushan, Vice President of the Municipal Bus Company, said, "As far as I know, situations like this occur from time to time across the country and throughout the province. Take Xuzhou in Jiangsu Province, for example. Conflicts arose between Xuzhou Bus Corporation and Tongshan, Changzhou Bus Corporation and Wujin, and Huai'an Bus when adjusting routes, all leading to significant traffic jams, and in severe cases, even causing casualties and losses to both people and property. After the problem emerged, the local government intervened and coordinated, resolving the issues satisfactorily."
According to this responsible person's analysis, the occurrence of such situations is mainly due to the current system division and inadequate management. Since the municipal bus company is under the jurisdiction of the Municipal Construction Bureau, the transportation department has limited reach regarding bus route settings. When conflicts arise between municipal buses, minibuses, and local buses due to interest-related issues during bus route extensions, the transportation department finds it inconvenient to mediate, resulting in frequent problems that remain unresolved for a long time. Regarding this, Xia Xiaoling, a member of the Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and proposer of the No. 33 bus route extension, had something to say.
Xia Xiaoling, Deputy Dean of the Adult Education Department of Yancheng Health Vocational and Technical College, said, "We should calm down and negotiate. If it indeed involves systemic issues, relevant departments should pay attention. I believe this isn't just a conflict between No. 33 and No. 101; there must be many conflicts in the urban area and Yandu District. This is a test of the relevant departments' governance capabilities."
Tonight's commentary: Streamline the bus operation system to ensure convenient travel for citizens. In recent years, with the acceleration of urbanization, the city's territory has rapidly expanded. To meet the economic and social activity needs of urban residents, suburban short-distance passenger transport and urban bus networks have also expanded accordingly. However, during their development, due to spatial overlaps, frictions have occurred frequently, and conflicts have become increasingly sharp, affecting the development of large-scale transportation and the realization of the goal of integrated urban-rural passenger transport. Fortunately, the issue has caught the attention of the government and relevant departments, who are currently studying solutions. Practices from other regions can serve as valuable references. For instance, when suburban areas gradually merge into the urban map and require a complete bus system, the government can locally utilize and transform suburban short-distance transport into urban buses rather than relying solely on urban buses to dominate the market. This way, transportation resource conflicts won't be too prominent, interests of all parties will be balanced, and citizens' travel won't be affected by obstruction incidents.