Plans for 2012

The use of shuttle bus has a long history in CUHK. Both students and staff rely heavily upon it for daily commuting between classrooms, hostels, offices and the MTR railway station. The fundamental question is whether we can reduce the frequency of bus service. This is a complicated problem as it involves not only the design of bus routes, location of bus stops, design of bus terminal, frequency of bus service, but also trips generated from different stakeholders who need to have inter-zonal travel for various purposes. The fundamental question can be interpreted as whether we can reduce the number of trips generated.

A trip starts with an origin and ends at a destination. If the trip is confined to a single zone, no bus service is needed. Conversely, if a lot of trips generated are inter-zonal, tremendous pressure on bus service becomes inevitable. To reduce the number of trips generated, a simple solution is to plan activities according to zones and reduce inter-zonal activities.

In our Campus Master Plan, it is recommended that

  • Bus routes should be simplified to adopt a ‘bus and walk’ strategy.
  • Express service should be provided to Area 39.
  • Bus stop locations should be aligned with new pedestrian routes to reduce number of bus stops particularly in downhill direction.

In the bus route planning process, different options have been considered by the Task Force Subgroup. In gerenal, the Subgroup recommends that:

  • Bus routes should be numbered with fixed routes and stops
  • A point-to-point bus operation is more suitable for CUHK
  • Bus stops can be rationalized to reduce redundancy without sacrificing passengers’ need
  • The bus terminal at University MTR needs to be re-designed if several bus routes are planned