Free rides foster free-for-all
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Free public transport: three little words, one giant mess.
Hoping to cut traffic for the Asian Games, Guangzhou launched free bus and subway rides on November 1.
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Fun in Guangzhou on November 1 |
Free mass transit became available to nearly 15 million people in the Guangdong Province capital, jamming the Guangzhou Metro network's eight lines and 144 stations with millions lining up for hundreds of meters.
Buses averaged 7 million passengers daily during the free days, up 16.6 percent, according to the Guangzhou Transportation Committee.
The free ride was supposed to last 49 days. Within eight, it had to be abandoned. Here's how it all broke down:
Day 1: Monday, November 1
"Oh my! This can't be happening…" Li Ying, an office worker, says to herself heading down toward the Gangding line 3 subway station.
It's 7:45 am. From up high, she sees unprecedented armies of besuited people charging toward her sleepy morning subway ride like an invasion of giant ants.
The moment she joins the surge and enters the subway station, she regrets it.
It's worse inside. People are shoving and elbowing their way to the trains. She will later find out her round breakfast roll is flat as a pancake.
It takes at least 30 minutes before she makes the platform. Unfortunately, she fails to get in.
Trains come and go, come and go. She sees little opportunity, space or hope for a 163cm tall, 45 kilo (five-foot four-inch, 99 pound) woman.
A professional crowd shover comes over.
"Squeeze up! Get on!" the pusher yells, stuffing people frontways and backwards into the carriages.
"It felt strange," she says. "I had a man behind me, pushing me because he was being shoved by the shover."
November temperatures in Guangzhou can hit 25 C. Coated commuters inside the station start to melt.
"I really hate being squeezed like a tomato between sweaty strangers, they make me touchy and salty," Li says.
Inside the train, her face gets squished against the door as she stands on one leg. She feels she wants to cry.
Li is just one of tens of millions who commute by subway to their jobs on the first day of free subway service.
According to the Guangzhou Metro Corporation, the first day has 7.8 million passengers. They expected 5.5 million.
Lines 1, 3 and 5 are delayed five to 10 minutes due to the overload that afternoon.
As many as 3,000 security guards, volunteers and staff members are assigned to smooth the flow.
They soon figure out the most effective way.
Standing outside the exit of Gangding station, a staff member yells: "Don't get in! It's crowded! Go take the bus!"
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