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。……