How to deal the problem of 230 million elderly travelling by bus

As the saying goes, "filial piety is the first priority in every hundred good deeds." In the past Double Ninth Festival, many young people would accompany the elderly in their families to climb the mountain to pray for happiness and enjoy a trip to the countryside. In this process, protecting the elderly's travel safety is the most worth thing for young people. However, the elderly is slow to move in travel.

We used to take the bus, it is different to climb on it when there were too many people. When the car is driving, we would afraid of falling; It's even more dangerous when the brakes come on hard. This is how Yangbo, 73, from Fuzhou, describes his travel troubles. But now the delivery of a new batch of buses is making Yang's face smile.

These are 27 new energy low floor bus (the BMT) launched by Fuzhou Kangchi New Bus Co., Ltd.(Kangchi) in Fuzhou,

The low floor bus, as the name implies, refers to the floor height is much lower than the regular bus. Compared with the multiple steps of a traditional bus, the low-floor bus allows the elderly to "get on the bus with leg up once". In addition, in the carriage, the realization of the large passage and the whole flat floor structure also makes the bus in a real sense with the layout of the metro.

"There aren't so many steps to get on the bus, so I can go up with my wife," Yang said after taking the BMT. How far is the transformation and upgrading of buses? Previously, the rapid popularization of new energy bus opened a low-carbon and environment-friendly travel era for us. At present, on the road of humanized and intelligent transformation, the operation of low-floor bus has made a good start for this.

Policy to help

Passengers frequently up and down, peak personnel congestion, disabled people and elderly inconvenient to get on the bus... Over the past few decades, this has been the "bus impression" of most people.

In order to facilitate passengers to get on and off the bus, and ensure transport safety and improve transport efficiency, since the beginning of the 21st century, to reduce the height of the floor of the bus, the realization of low floor, has become China's advocated bus development direction.

As early as after the successful Olympic bid, bus companies began to research production low floor buses. In early 2018, the Ministry of Transport and seven other departments jointly issued the Opinions on Further Strengthening and Improving Travel Services for the Elderly and disabled (the Opinions). According to the guideline, by 2020, low-floor buses will be given priority to new buses in cities where conditions permit, and all new buses in cities with a population of more than 5 million will be low-floor.

Since the beginning of this year, Shanghai, Beijing, Jinhua, Ningde and other cities have accelerated the pace of the low-floor bus show. Among them, the Shanghai official said, "the newly-purchased buses in the central urban area will basically use low-floor barrier-free vehicles"; Beijing plans to "lower the floor of buses by more than 50%".

After all, at present, there are about 230 million people over the age of 60 in China, and more than 85 million people with disabilities. In addition, pregnant women, infants and children, etc., constitute a huge vulnerable travel group in China. This makes the popularity of low-floor buses more likely not slow.

And in abroad, low floor bus also already became "the favourite of public junction". According to the person in charge of public transportation company introduction, the floor height of European city low floor public transportation decreases from the 585mm-725mm of 1960s to the 340mm-360mm of 1990s, at the same time, the late 1990s, the public transportation of major European cities has been all low floor layout structure.

“Only one step to get on.”

Why low floor buses start early, but develop slowly? This is restricted by high manufacturing cost and high technical threshold of vehicle bridge, but Kangchi recently successfully delivered and put into operation 27 new energy low-floor bus "BMT" in Fuzhou, which can be regarded as an excellent sample of the industry.

Compared with the traditional bus, the low-floor bus is totally different.

At the door

Ordinary public transport according to the passenger door step number, can be divided into a step, two steps, three steps. By contrast, the low-floor bus has eliminated multiple steps at the door, and the front and back doors are all level with the floor of the bus, making it more convenient and safe for the elderly who have difficulty with their feet to "get on the bus at one step".

After passengers get into the back of the bus

Ordinary buses also need passengers to step up one or two steps, there is a rise in the rear of the car "back hill", which causes the space is cramped, the center of gravity is unstable. Passengers are likely to have a safety accident once the bus meet a sudden brake.

The interior of a low-floor bus is more spacious and stable. There are no horizontal steps and seat-free platforms in the bus, and the front aisle and the middle and rear sections of the bus form a flat passage. Therefore, the front aisle and the middle and rear sections of the low-floor bus form a flat passage with a more stable center of gravity. Whether the elderly, pregnant women, or strollers, wheelchairs moving, are treading on level ground.

The realization of function is inseparable from the accumulation of technology. According to the PanGood Power technology person in charge, they provide the solution, is through the advanced axial magnetic field motor integrated reducer, motor controller, four airbag independent suspension and electronic differential, to achieve the shorter axial size, lighter weight effect.

To be specific, the relevant technical personnel said that the BMT uses the air suspension, can let the carriage side, the door can become high and low at will, through the low floor boarding, especially convenient and fast. The width of the rear wheel passage reaches 850mm, and the effective standing area of the carriages reaches 9 square meters, which is 20% higher than the traditional 10-meter bus, and the passenger carrying capacity is the same as the 12-meter bus.

More importantly, the new energy bus has achieved a lightweight breakthrough. It is reported that the "subway bus" than the traditional drive system of the vehicle weight 700-800kg, so that the new energy vehicle's short board - the range significantly improved.

Seeking transformation for public transport enterprises

The operation of low-floor bus is not only a "good news" for the elderly, but also conducive to the transformation of the bus industry.

"Public transportation is a livelihood project, enterprises also need to survive and develop, how to achieve the balance of economic and social benefits? The BMT gives us the solution. Kangchi director such feelings.

Back then, the bus industry insisted on low fares because of its strong social appeal, often deriding itself as a "one-yuan business." This leads to the general operating loss of public transport enterprises, need to rely on government financial subsidies to support.

The BMT provides the essential safety and small cost of large capacity. For bus companies provide high efficiency, energy saving solutions, according to Kangchi, 8 m buses in the city run within an accident probability 43% lower than 10 meters bus, at the same time considering the bus passenger volume has been falling in recent years, Kangchi to gradually replacing part of the original 10 meters by 8.8 meters of the BMT, meet the demand of capacity of under the same condition, the overall running costs are greatly reduced.

As costs go down, revenues go up. Kangchi in the BMT frequency broadcast system based on the car of the harmony of new advertising system, will reveal ark, building sand furnishings and car along residential and commercial super interaction, not only provide fresh promotion information in time for passengers and product experience, enhance the passengers' participation, more merchants provided accurate consumer crowd, the bus car consumers an important entry into a community.

In the national public transportation industry, Kangchi is the industry leader. It takes the lead in batch application of new energy bus, initiative to carry out customized bus and so on, leading the transformation and upgrading of the industry. It will be interesting to see what transformation the BMT will bring to public transportation after the technological bottleneck has been broken.