道格·约翰逊

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，有些城市的公交车和地铁上空无一人，而有些城市的公交车和地铁则人满为患。例如，洛杉矶地铁系统的工作日乘车人数从一天约120万人下降到约40万人。与此同时，底特律的17路公交车，还有纽约市的许多公交线路，乘车人数都很多，造成了安全隐患。

为了应对这一问题及疫情期间的其他问题，一些城市——包括美国的洛杉矶市、美国内布拉斯加州的林肯市、阿联酋的阿布扎比市、德国柏林市和西班牙的马约卡岛帕尔马城——采用了名为“微交通”的按需服务公交项目。这些项目采取了与优步或来福车等网约车类似的运作方式，不过这些技术公司为公交运营商开发数字路线和即时用车服务平台。据微交通公司Spare Labs的首席数据科学家杰罗姆·马约介绍，城市可以在公交体系中使用这些平台，填补一些公交系统未能覆盖的空白领域，并给乘客提供价格远低于纯粹私人运营的交通出行方案。

“就把它想象为优步和城市公交的结合之物吧。” 马约说。

自疫情暴发以来，城市采用微交通的形式来提供一些关键服务，例如送老人去药店或送护士去医院。支持微交通的人士认为这些应用程序使用的技术还可以用在抗击新冠疫情的其他方面。例如，这些应用程序可以用来追踪病毒传播的路径，假如有乘客后来检测结果阳性，该应用可以提醒与之同车的其他乘客，这种手段被称为“接触者追踪”。

对于这样的提议，专家们反应不一。例如，有些专家认为接触者追踪技术带来隐私问题，而且通过这些平台来执行其他部署还会出现各种技术上的挑战。有些专家则认为随着城市街道开始回归常态，微交通可以派上用途。

与美国共享出行公司“威盛交通”合作的城市可以使用自己的接驳车、面包车或者公共汽车来提供服务，也可以由威盛公司来为他们提供车辆。而与Spare Labs合作的城市通常会将公共面包车或公交车辆转用于此项服务。交通运营商可自行定价。在洛杉矶由威盛公司提供的服务目前是免费的;在内布拉斯加州的林肯市，公交费用通常是1.75美元，而微交通的费用则是5美元。与此同时，犹他州交通局将其微交通的价格定为2.5美元，与其公交费用相同。乘客可以自行选择路线，例如可以直接从家到工作地点，也可以在运营商选择的地点上下车。

微交通公司还说，城市可以此来给那些本已资源不足的社区人群提供可负担得起的交通服务。Transit是以蒙特利尔市为总部、在全球200多个城市和地区运营的一款出行路线规划应用软件，该软件提供的数据表明，上述人群大多只能依靠公交出行，包括受疫情打击格外严重的老年人群体。

另外一些可以用来降低疾病传播速度的工具能够，或者说已经，在这些平台上研发。城市可以设置每趟车的最高载客人数，告知司机不接载规定人数以上的乘客，从而在功能上强制实现乘车时的社交距离。例如，洛杉矶的载客数限定为1人，而林肯市的则是2人。

微交通公司还在其应用程序上尝试研发一些预筛选的功能。按照构想，乘客在每次叫车时，应用程序会询问他们一些涉及潜在症状和自我隔离程度的问题。

在新冠肺炎疫情暴发之后，一些微交通公司考虑研发的功能中，最引发争议的一项就是接触者追踪。概括地讲，这个功能就是利用几乎无处不在的智能手机。使用者在病发后通过其手机上的一个应用软件来报告病情，该软件随即通知患者曾经密切接触的所有人这一风险。但是，批评者担忧这样一来会给政府提供过多的公民隐私信息。

全球有许多国家已经开始研发接触者追踪软件。中国作为最早的一批應用者自2月以来一直在使用该技术。3月份，新加坡政府发布了一款使用手机蓝牙发射器的接触者追踪软件，并将源代码向公众公开。4月份，澳大利亚发布本国的一款应用软件，使用的便是上述代码。同样在4月份，苹果和谷歌公司宣布了自己的蓝牙项目方案，方案中，两人或多人一旦近距离接触时间长到足以感染病毒，手机就会进行记录。这种近距离接触的信息会储存在使用者的手机里，用以提醒那些可能身处感染风险中的人。

为了使接触者追踪软件有效地发挥作用，运营商或者卫生机构需要知道感染者的身份，以及他们曾经在何时去过何处，从而构建一个可能的感染链条并令公众知晓。比如，中国的接触者追踪系统允许国家掌握运行该软件的手机的具体位置。中国公民还会通过手机获得电子条码，或称二维码，以确定他们是否可以在公共场所活动。这一手段降低了疫病传播的速度，因为它允许官员直接提醒民众他们的感染机率，以及是否需要自我隔离。

随着保持社交距离的需求结束，更多的人开始在城市中走动，而微交通仍然具有其存在价值。因为它的弹性十足，可以在未来替换一些固定线路的公交路线。而且，微交通一个最大的优势就在于它通常是覆盖人们来去公交站或地铁站的那段距离，令使用传统公共交通更为便利。它还可以用于公交路线稀少且站间距离较远的乡村地区。