道格·約翰遜

During the ongoing COVID-19 crisis， some city buses and trains have run empty， while others have been packed. In Los Angeles， for instance， ridership on the LA Metro has dropped from about 1.2 million to around 400，000 a weekday. Meanwhile， Detroits number 17 bus route and various lines in New York City have run at a potentially dangerous capacity.

To address this and other issues during the pandemic， some cities—including LA， Lincoln， Nebraska， Abu Dhabi， United Arab Emirates， Berlin， and Palma de Mallorca， Spain—are turning to on-demand programs called microtransit. They operate like Uber or Lyft， but the technology companies create the digital routing and ride-hailing platforms for transit agencies. According to Jerome Mayaud， lead data scientist with microtransit company Spare Labs， cities can use the platforms with public transit to fill specific niches and to offer rides that can be more affordable than solely private operations.

“Imagine Uber and a city bus had a baby，” Mayaud says.

Since the start of the pandemic， cities have turned to microtransit to offer essential rides， like moving seniors to pharmacies or nurses to hospitals. Proponents of microtransit say the technology behind these apps could be used to combat COVID-19 in other ways. For instance， the apps could help track the spread of infection and alert riders if they shared a ride with someone who later tested positive， a tactic called contact tracing.

Experts are mixed on the proposals. Some say contact tracing， for instance， poses privacy issues， and that there will be technical challenges in implementing other strategies through the platforms. Others say microtransit could play a useful role as city streets begin to return to normal.

Cities partnered with Via Transportation may use their own shuttles， vans， or public buses for the service， or have Via source the vehicles for them， while those partnered with Spare usually repurpose public vans and buses for the service. Transit agencies determine their own fare—rides in LA using Via are currently free， while in Lincoln， Nebraska， where a bus ride is normally $1.75， microtransit service is $5. Meanwhile， the Utah Transit Authority set its microtransit rides at $2.50， the same as a bus ride. Rides can either go directly from， say， a persons house to their job， or to and from locations chosen by the transit agency.

Microtransit companies also say cities can use it to provide affordable rides for people in communities that are already under-resourced. These demographics—including seniors， a population the disease hits particularly hard—have largely been stuck making trips on public transit， according to data from Transit app， a journey-planning application based in Montreal that operates in more than 200 cities and regions worldwide.

Other tools to reduce the spread of the disease can be， or are， developed within the platforms themselves. Cities can set a rider maximum per trip—informing drivers not to pick up any more than that set number—functionally enforcing social distancing on the rides. LA set the rider limit at one， while Lincoln set theirs at two， for instance.

Microtransit companies are also looking to develop pre-screening functionalities in their apps. Hypothetically， any time a person hails a ride the app could ask them questions about potential symptoms and how much they have self-isolated.

One of the more controversial functions some microtransit companies are considering in the wake of COVID-19 is contact tracing. Broadly， the method makes use of the near-ubiquity of smartphones. Users who fall ill report it through an app on their phone， which in turn notifies anyone they had been in close contact with of the risk. But critics worry about giving governments that amount of information about their citizens.

Many countries around the world are working on contact tracing applications. China， an early adopter1， has used contact tracing since February. In March， Singapores government released one that uses Bluetooth transmitters in peoples phones， and made the source code openly available. Australia launched its own app in April， using the code. Also in April， Apple and Google announced their own proposed Bluetooth approach， in which phones would log whenever two or more people are close enough together for a long enough period of time to contract the disease. This proximity information is stored on users phones， and used to notify people who have potentially been exposed.

For contact tracing to work well， the companies or health agencies need to know who is infected and where they have been—and when—to establish and communicate a possible chain of infection. For instance， Chinas contact tracing system lets the state know the locations of the phones running the app. Chinese citizens are also issued digital barcodes on their phones， or QR codes， that dictate if they are allowed to be in public. The approach slowed the spread of the disease because it allows officials to alert people directly about their chances of infection， or to self-quarantine.

Microtransit could still be valuable as social distancing ends and more people begin to move around cities. Because it is quite flexible， it could replace some fixed-route transit routes in the future. Further， one of microtransits biggest strengths， normally， is getting people to and from bus and train stations， making it easier for people to use traditional public transit. It could also be used in rural areas with infrequent public transit service and large distances between stops.? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?在新冠肺炎疫情期間，有些城市的公交車和地鐵上空無一人，而有些城市的公交車和地鐵則人滿為患。例如，洛杉磯地鐵系統(tǒng)的工作日乘車人數(shù)從一天約120萬人下降到約40萬人。與此同時(shí)，底特律的17路公交車，還有紐約市的許多公交線路，乘車人數(shù)都很多，造成了安全隱患。

為了應(yīng)對(duì)這一問題及疫情期間的其他問題，一些城市——包括美國(guó)的洛杉磯市、美國(guó)內(nèi)布拉斯加州的林肯市、阿聯(lián)酋的阿布扎比市、德國(guó)柏林市和西班牙的馬約卡島帕爾馬城——采用了名為“微交通”的按需服務(wù)公交項(xiàng)目。這些項(xiàng)目采取了與優(yōu)步或來福車等網(wǎng)約車類似的運(yùn)作方式，不過這些技術(shù)公司為公交運(yùn)營(yíng)商開發(fā)數(shù)字路線和即時(shí)用車服務(wù)平臺(tái)。據(jù)微交通公司Spare Labs的首席數(shù)據(jù)科學(xué)家杰羅姆·馬約介紹，城市可以在公交體系中使用這些平臺(tái)，填補(bǔ)一些公交系統(tǒng)未能覆蓋的空白領(lǐng)域，并給乘客提供價(jià)格遠(yuǎn)低于純粹私人運(yùn)營(yíng)的交通出行方案。

“就把它想象為優(yōu)步和城市公交的結(jié)合之物吧?！?馬約說。

自疫情暴發(fā)以來，城市采用微交通的形式來提供一些關(guān)鍵服務(wù)，例如送老人去藥店或送護(hù)士去醫(yī)院。支持微交通的人士認(rèn)為這些應(yīng)用程序使用的技術(shù)還可以用在抗擊新冠疫情的其他方面。例如，這些應(yīng)用程序可以用來追蹤病毒傳播的路徑，假如有乘客后來檢測(cè)結(jié)果陽(yáng)性，該應(yīng)用可以提醒與之同車的其他乘客，這種手段被稱為“接觸者追蹤”。

對(duì)于這樣的提議，專家們反應(yīng)不一。例如，有些專家認(rèn)為接觸者追蹤技術(shù)帶來隱私問題，而且通過這些平臺(tái)來執(zhí)行其他部署還會(huì)出現(xiàn)各種技術(shù)上的挑戰(zhàn)。有些專家則認(rèn)為隨著城市街道開始回歸常態(tài)，微交通可以派上用途。

與美國(guó)共享出行公司“威盛交通”合作的城市可以使用自己的接駁車、面包車或者公共汽車來提供服務(wù)，也可以由威盛公司來為他們提供車輛。而與Spare Labs合作的城市通常會(huì)將公共面包車或公交車輛轉(zhuǎn)用于此項(xiàng)服務(wù)。交通運(yùn)營(yíng)商可自行定價(jià)。在洛杉磯由威盛公司提供的服務(wù)目前是免費(fèi)的;在內(nèi)布拉斯加州的林肯市，公交費(fèi)用通常是1.75美元，而微交通的費(fèi)用則是5美元。與此同時(shí)，猶他州交通局將其微交通的價(jià)格定為2.5美元，與其公交費(fèi)用相同。乘客可以自行選擇路線，例如可以直接從家到工作地點(diǎn)，也可以在運(yùn)營(yíng)商選擇的地點(diǎn)上下車。

微交通公司還說，城市可以此來給那些本已資源不足的社區(qū)人群提供可負(fù)擔(dān)得起的交通服務(wù)。Transit是以蒙特利爾市為總部、在全球200多個(gè)城市和地區(qū)運(yùn)營(yíng)的一款出行路線規(guī)劃應(yīng)用軟件，該軟件提供的數(shù)據(jù)表明，上述人群大多只能依靠公交出行，包括受疫情打擊格外嚴(yán)重的老年人群體。

另外一些可以用來降低疾病傳播速度的工具能夠，或者說已經(jīng)，在這些平臺(tái)上研發(fā)。城市可以設(shè)置每趟車的最高載客人數(shù)，告知司機(jī)不接載規(guī)定人數(shù)以上的乘客，從而在功能上強(qiáng)制實(shí)現(xiàn)乘車時(shí)的社交距離。例如，洛杉磯的載客數(shù)限定為1人，而林肯市的則是2人。

微交通公司還在其應(yīng)用程序上嘗試研發(fā)一些預(yù)篩選的功能。按照構(gòu)想，乘客在每次叫車時(shí)，應(yīng)用程序會(huì)詢問他們一些涉及潛在癥狀和自我隔離程度的問題。

在新冠肺炎疫情暴發(fā)之后，一些微交通公司考慮研發(fā)的功能中，最引發(fā)爭(zhēng)議的一項(xiàng)就是接觸者追蹤。概括地講，這個(gè)功能就是利用幾乎無處不在的智能手機(jī)。使用者在病發(fā)后通過其手機(jī)上的一個(gè)應(yīng)用軟件來報(bào)告病情，該軟件隨即通知患者曾經(jīng)密切接觸的所有人這一風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。但是，批評(píng)者擔(dān)憂這樣一來會(huì)給政府提供過多的公民隱私信息。

全球有許多國(guó)家已經(jīng)開始研發(fā)接觸者追蹤軟件。中國(guó)作為最早的一批應(yīng)用者自2月以來一直在使用該技術(shù)。3月份，新加坡政府發(fā)布了一款使用手機(jī)藍(lán)牙發(fā)射器的接觸者追蹤軟件，并將源代碼向公眾公開。4月份，澳大利亞發(fā)布本國(guó)的一款應(yīng)用軟件，使用的便是上述代碼。同樣在4月份，蘋果和谷歌公司宣布了自己的藍(lán)牙項(xiàng)目方案，方案中，兩人或多人一旦近距離接觸時(shí)間長(zhǎng)到足以感染病毒，手機(jī)就會(huì)進(jìn)行記錄。這種近距離接觸的信息會(huì)儲(chǔ)存在使用者的手機(jī)里，用以提醒那些可能身處感染風(fēng)險(xiǎn)中的人。

為了使接觸者追蹤軟件有效地發(fā)揮作用，運(yùn)營(yíng)商或者衛(wèi)生機(jī)構(gòu)需要知道感染者的身份，以及他們?cè)?jīng)在何時(shí)去過何處，從而構(gòu)建一個(gè)可能的感染鏈條并令公眾知曉。比如，中國(guó)的接觸者追蹤系統(tǒng)允許國(guó)家掌握運(yùn)行該軟件的手機(jī)的具體位置。中國(guó)公民還會(huì)通過手機(jī)獲得電子條碼，或稱二維碼，以確定他們是否可以在公共場(chǎng)所活動(dòng)。這一手段降低了疫病傳播的速度，因?yàn)樗试S官員直接提醒民眾他們的感染機(jī)率，以及是否需要自我隔離。

隨著保持社交距離的需求結(jié)束，更多的人開始在城市中走動(dòng)，而微交通仍然具有其存在價(jià)值。因?yàn)樗膹椥允?，可以在未來替換一些固定線路的公交路線。而且，微交通一個(gè)最大的優(yōu)勢(shì)就在于它通常是覆蓋人們來去公交站或地鐵站的那段距離，令使用傳統(tǒng)公共交通更為便利。它還可以用于公交路線稀少且站間距離較遠(yuǎn)的鄉(xiāng)村地區(qū)。