Transportation mode choice and city-suburban public transportation service

A model is presented to describe the dynamics of transportation mode choice in which the interaction between transportation users and a public transportation authority results in self-organization. The model illustrates that a sufficient number of connections between a central city and its suburbs are required for self-organization to occur whereby public transportation use and service will grow.     

Evaluation of a public transportation level of service concept

The level of service of a bus line is evaluated by its operational characteristics, particularly by the ratio between average bus travel time on a given route and the average passenger car travel time on the shortest distance between the origin and the destination of the bus in question. It is shown that the level-of-service measure may be predicted by such independent variables as route length, average distance between bus stations, number of signalized and unsignalized intersections, and the ratio between such intersections. It is hypothesized that use of other independent variables such as boarding and alighting passengers, or volume to capacity ratio on the route concerned, could improve the predictive power of the suggested models. Further research is recommended on the effect of these latter variables and other operational variables which might influence bus level of service, and also on the comparison between direct bus lines and lines which use transfer points.     

Mobility evaluation for urban public transportation

Summary

This paper has reported on a study of relative opportunity—not absolute opportunity. Minimum absolute standards for mobility or accessibility are difficult to justify. Some additional study into the development and application of absolute mobility standards may be warranted.

The application of the mobility evaluation model has primarily focused upon a corridor line‐haul system. Conclusions suggest that such a system will not markedly improve existing transit mobility levels in either the peak hour or the off‐peak. The experimental work has verified this conclusion, and more importantly, it has detailed quantitatively the exact levels and spatial distribution of mobility improvements. However, this study does not include a comprehensive analysis of all methods of mobility enhancement, nor does it undertake a comparison of alternative means of mobility improvement. Certainly other methods to improve access to opportunities should be explored before policy considerations are finalized. These methods include other transit solutions, land use alternatives, socio‐economic policies, and other‐mode transportation alternatives. The accessibility technique and mobility indices approach appears to have general applicability in the analysis of optimal strategies for system evaluation.

Of interest is an examination of alternative feeder transit systems to the corridor line. Additional research with the model might point out the maximum mobility effects expected through improved collector service in the suburbs, with corridor line‐haul to the CBD.

The indices are also readily available for a comparison of mobility patterns for different urban areas. Application of the program to transit and socio‐economic data for a set of cities would yield an indication of the relative mobility levels provided. Such data might be considered as an evaluation criterion for future transit funding by federal officials.

In addition, the model is currently being considered by UMTA as a tool to aid in the evaluation of the equitable distribution of transit system benefits as defined in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.²⁵ The mobility output would serve as an indicator of the levels‐of‐service provided to certain disadvantaged urban groups. For this application the computer model is being altered to achieve compatability with the Transportation Planning System (UTPS) computer model package developed by UMTA.     

Online public deliberation for a regional transportation improvement decision

This paper investigates the potential for deliberation as a means for public participation in shaping public policy. The paper begins with a summary of deliberative democracy and other concepts that recently have motivated an interest for online deliberation. Next, the paper describes a case study in which 133 public participants deliberated over a regional transportation improvement decision. The deliberation occurred entirely over the internet and lasted for 31 days. The participants wrote hundreds of posts (comments) and made thousands of post-ratings (statements of agreement or disagreement). The posts and three questionnaires are analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively to assess the nature of the deliberation and the participants’ perception of their experience. A negative binomial regression is used to examine which participant characteristics are associated with writing more posts.     

Active transportation and physical activity: opportunities for collaboration on transportation and public health research

Physically inactive lifestyles are a major public health challenge, and research in the transportation field on influences on the choice to walk and bike may provide guidance toward solutions. In the interests of promoting effective collaboration among the transportation, planning, and health fields, the current paper was written to fulfill three purposes. The first purpose was to summarize the transportation and planning studies on the relation between community design and non-motorized (“active”) transport and to interpret these studies from a health perspective. The second purpose was to summarize studies from the health literature that examine the relation between physical environmental variables and leisure-time physical activity that have relevance for transportation research. The third purpose was to promote more collaboration among transportation, planning, and health investigators by identifying opportunities for transdisciplinary research.     

李晓松谈北京公交

"现住,北京市每天瞬时的人口数量可以达到1700多万,这其中包括1300多万的常住人口和400万左右的流动人口."李晓松在接受本刊记者采访时说,"有这么多的人,就必然会发生相应多的出行.就北京这样的大型城市来讲,道路运输面临的压力确实很大,市交通委在这方面下了很大的力气,也投入了相当多的精力,同时,也取得了不小的成绩."     

Poverty,policy, and public transportation

By all appearances, the circumstances surrounding employment and income distribution in the United States have remained notably the same over the past 30–40 years. At the same time, policies for improving the conditions of low-income persons have remained relatively unchanged. Relevant published accounts continue to cite poorly integrated residential and employment location patterns and poor public transportation service as critical obstacles to improving the economic and social conditions of low-income persons. The relationship between poverty and public transportation was researched extensively during the late 1960s and the early 1970s; however, little recognition has been given to these efforts by more recent research efforts. To learn from the past we should review public transportation policies from 1960 to 2000 to highlight federal policies that affected urban areas during this time period, especially in relation to low-income transportation mobility.     

Transit service quality analysis using cluster analysis and decision trees: a step forward to personalized marketing in public transportation

A transit service quality study based on cluster analysis was performed to extract detailed customer profiles sharing similar appraisals concerning the service. This approach made it possible to detect specific requirements and needs regarding the quality of service and to personalize the marketing strategy. Data from various customer satisfaction surveys conducted by the Transport Consortium of Granada (Spain) were analyzed to distinguish these groups; a decision tree methodology was used to identify the most important service quality attributes influencing passengers’ overall evaluations. Cluster analysis identified four groups of passengers. Comparisons using decision trees among the overall sample of all users and the different groups of passengers identified by cluster analysis led to the discovery of differences in the key attributes encompassed by perceived quality.     

城市公共交通发展的动力机制研究

城市公共交通发展动力涵盖政府的主导作用、公交运营企业的主动力、公众的支持力以及营销传播的助动力等"四方力量",四方力量的协同推动城市公共交通系统快速发展。首先对城市公共交通发展的动力机制进行分析,研究快速发展面临的困境以及进行公共交通系统动力协调的必要性;然后提出强化政府主导作用的"4P"发展策略、激发公交运营企业主动力的品牌服务策略、拓展公众支持力的乘客关系管理策略、发挥营销传播助动力的促销策略等公共交通协同发展策略;由此增强公共交通竞争力,提高公交出行方式分担率,推动城市可持续发展。     

关于莱芜市城乡公交一体化发展模式及措施

分析了莱芜市城乡一体化的发展情况,结合莱芜市城乡社会经济的特点,形成了市区公交、市镇公交、镇村公交三个相互联系、相互贯通的城乡公交一体化网络,提出了莱芜市城乡公交一体化发展模式及措施。     

Evaluating the public investment mix in US freight transportation infrastructure

This research empirically evaluates the public sector investment in the US freight transportation infrastructure. In particular, the infrastructures to support the two most comparable modes of freight transportation – highway and intermodal rail – are examined as alternatives for public fund allocation. Indicators for public sector transportation infrastructure investment mix are established based on financial analysis of both private and social costs and benefits, as well as the propensity of freight shippers to utilize such infrastructures. The research results in recommendations for the aggregate allocation of public funds in the US based on these indicators. We find that approximately a quarter of truck freight could be handled at a 25% lower cost if rail infrastructure to support it existed. Because an additional 80% reduction in social costs could be achieved through this modal conversion, the public sector is a critical participant in creating a more efficient transportation infrastructure.     

What are we going to do about public transportation?

Traffic congestion in the world's metropolitan areas is going from bad to worse. Urban/suburban transportation has become like the weather; people talk a lot about it but shrug it away as something they can't do much about. This is a world-wide phenomenon, as motor vehicle use grows, and as urban sprawl continues.     

A hybrid model of fuzzy and AHP for handling public assessments on transportation projects

Having an effective public participation in transportation planning and project development processes has been a major concern for developed countries. In the United States, for instance, all state Departments of Transportation are subject to the Transportation Equity Act (TEA-21) that formally requires public involvement in transportation planning. Since transportation planning involves public resources and values, judgments by the public should play a key role in determining final decisions. Therefore, all these agencies are required not only to disseminate information to the public, but also to solicit and consider public opinion in forming transportation policy. This work presents a decision support model, with public involvement and public oversight, to help policy makers select appropriate transportation projects for implementation. Since focus groups will face multiple objectives and inexact information in the process, a hybrid model of fuzzy logic and analytical hierarchy process (AHP) is proposed. A set of ‘if–then’ rules based on Weber’s psycho-physical law of 1834 is presented to reason from fuzzy numbers to capture essential subjective preferences, pairwise, among the alternatives. The AHP is then incorporated to estimate preference allotments among alternatives. An example application of the suggested method is provided seeking public approval of an appropriate public bus transportation system choosing between one run by municipal authorities and one run by private agencies to show how this procedure works.

Factors affecting public transportation,car, and motorcycle usage

This study established a hypothesis model based on the seemingly unrelated regression equations (SURE) model to investigate the relationship between public transportation, car, and motorcycle use in various townships in Taiwan and to analyse important factors that affect the usage of these modes. The SURE model was adopted because of the lack of a significant correlation between the dependent variables. The pairwise covariance analysis for any two of the three transportation modes revealed that the transportation modes could substitute for one another. Factors related to modal and demographic characteristics had different impacts on the usage of the three modes. The calculation of elasticity using different population densities and public transportation usage showed that when the ‘number of city bus routes’ was increased by 50% in areas with high population density and high public transportation usage, car usage decreased by 1.4%, which corresponds to 300,000 vehicles, and total CO₂ emissions reduced by 0.0204%. When the ‘total length of city bus routes’ was increased by 50%, the number of motorcycles used decreased by 83 million, and total CO₂ emissions reduced by 1.119%, which corresponds to 1.4 million tonnes of CO₂ emission. These findings suggest that these different factors had varying impacts on car and motorcycle usage in different areas. We therefore recommended that future transportation policies consider the varying transportation usage trends in different areas.     

Spatial variations in attitudes toward expanded public transit service

Although recent budgetary considerations by the Federal govenment do not portend well for urban public transit, some transit systems are considering expansion into less densely-settled areas further from the Central Business District. Of some concern to planners has been their belief that suburban and rural dwellers may be much less inclined than urban dwellers to support expansion of transit service. This paper presents an analysis of a random-digit dialing/mail-out, mail-back survey conducted in Washtenaw County, Michigan which was designed specifically to examine differences in attitudes between urban and rural residents. Six mutually-exclusive spatial strata were established based upon population density. This paper tests for expected spatial differences in socioeconomic and demographic variables and then examines spatial variations in attitudes toward public transportation. The major conclusion is that the expected spatial variations in attitudes about transit service provision between the spatial strata do not arise. Most of the significant differences found are with respect to questions which relate to where transit is provided. Residents in rural (urban) areas support more strongly the provision of services to rural (urban) areas. Many residents, however, will support transit service that may not benefit them directly.