Learning to use transit services: adapting to unfamiliar transit travel

Transportation - Travel behavior change has become an area of interest in many cities around the world, particularly to encourage people to change from car use to transit use. Previous research...     

Measuring the satisfaction of multimodal travelers for local transit services in different urban contexts

The importance of measuring customer satisfaction for a public transport service is apparent, even beyond more immediate marketing purposes. The present paper shows how satisfaction measures can be exploited to gain insights on the relationship between personal attitudes, transit use and urban context. We consider nine satisfaction measures of urban transit services, as expressed by a representative sample of Italian multimodal travelers (i.e. users of both private cars and public transport). We use correlations and correspondence analyses to show if and how each attribute is related to the levels of use of public transport, and how the relationship is affected by the urban context. Then we apply a recently developed method to combine ordinal variables into one score, by adapting it to work with large samples and with satisfaction measures which have a neutral point in the scale (i.e. “neither satisfied nor dissatisfied”). The resulting overall satisfaction levels and frequency of use were not correlated in our sample. We also found the highest satisfaction levels in smaller towns and the lowest ones in metropolitan cities. Since we focus on multimodal travelers, an interpretation paradigm is proposed according to which transit services must be well evaluated by car drivers in smaller towns in order to be considered a real alternative to cars. On the other hand, transit is more competitive on factual elements in larger cities, so that it can still be used by drivers, even if it is not very well evaluated.     

An actuary method for the estimation and comparison of urban bus transit cost of services

This paper presents a new cost allocation method developed for estimating the fully-allocated costs of the excess peak hour bus transit service provided by two public transit systems. The estimates were produced for the explicit purpose of carrying out a realistic comparison of these costs and the costs of the potential provision of the same service by private operators. The method utilizes the same service data for the analysis. The pragmatic estimation of the fully allocated costs of service by the public and private sectors enables a more accurate estimation of potential cost savings. Sensitivity analysis was also performed using the same costing procedure to determine the range of cost savings that are feasible in a competitive contract arrangement of private sector providers. The new method separates costs of the direct provision of service from other indirect costs and thus facilitates the identification of each cost item and its significance in comparative cost estimates.     

Efficiency of urban public transit: A meta analysis

The aim of this paper is twofold. First, to provide a statistical overview of the literature on public transit efficiency performance. Second, to statistically explain the variation in efficiency findings reported in the literature. To this end, first some key concepts of efficiency analysis will be introduced, while next the different frontier methodologies that are used in the literature will be discussed. The empirical part of this paper consists of a statistical summary of the literature as well as meta-regression analyses for different samples of the literature in order to identify key determinants of technical efficiency (TE) of public transit operators. For a broad sample of observations, we found significant and consistent effects of the type of database, region and output measurement method. For the sample of non-parametric studies we found that the type of frontier assumptions also have an impact on the efficiency ratio. Further results show that there is no statistical difference in TE ratios between parametric and non-parametric studies. Finally, we found a positive univariate relationship between the number of inputs in the estimated specification and the efficiency ratio.     

The dynamics of fare and frequency choice in urban transit

This paper investigates the choice of fare and service frequency by urban mass transit agencies. A more frequent service is costly to provide but is valued by riders due to shorter waiting times at stops, and faster operating speeds on less crowding vehicles. Empirical analyses in the 1980s found that service frequencies were too high in most of the cities studied. For a given budget constraint, social welfare could be improved by reducing service frequencies and using the money saved to lower fares. The cross-sectional nature of these analyses meant that researchers were unable to address the question of when the oversupply occurred. This paper seeks to answer that question by conducting a time-series analysis of the bus operations of the Chicago Transit Authority from 1953 to 2005. The paper finds that it has always been the case that too much service frequency was provided at too high a fare. The imbalance between fares and service frequency became larger in the 1970s when the introduction of operating subsidies coincided with an increase in the unit cost of service provision.     

The auto versus transit controversy: Toward a rational synthesis for urban transportation policy

Considerable portion of academic literature on urban transportation has been supportive of policies which resulted in extensive urban freeway construction, but highly critical of public investments in transit. This paper challenges these views and points out many flaws in their basic arguments. Criticism of rail transit is particularly emotionally biased and it is in direct conflict with real world trends: the number of cities in the United States and other countries which have constructed rail transit as a key element of their viability has steadily increased in the last two decades. For solution of the present serious urban transportation problems, there should be a rational policy which recognizes capabilities of different modes and leads to their optimal coordination in a multimodal system.     

An activity-based approach for scheduling multimodal transit services

This paper proposes a new activity-based transit assignment model for investigating the scheduling (or timetabling) problem of transit services in multi-modal transit networks. The proposed model can be used to generate the short-term and long-term timetables of multimodal transit lines for transit operations and service planning purposes. The interaction between transit timetables and passenger activity-travel scheduling behaviors is captured by the proposed model, as the activity and travel choices of transit passengers are considered explicitly in terms of departure time choice, activity/trip chain choices, activity duration choice, transit line and mode choices. A heuristic solution algorithm which combines the Hooke–Jeeves method and an iterative supply–demand equilibrium approach is developed to solve the proposed model. Two numerical examples are presented to illustrate the differences between the activity-based approach and the traditional trip-based method, together with comparison on the effects of optimal timetables with even and uneven headways. It is shown that the passenger travel scheduling pattern derived from the activity-based approach is significantly different from that obtained by the trip-based method, and that a demand-sensitive (with uneven headway) timetable is more efficient than an even-headway timetable.     

Characteristics of premium transit services that affect mode choice

This research seeks to improve the understanding of the full range of determinants for mode choice behavior and to offer practical solutions to practitioners on representing and distinguishing these characteristics in travel demand forecasting models. The principal findings were that the representation of awareness of transit services is significantly different than the underlying assumption of mode choice and forecasting models that there is perfect awareness and consideration of all modes. Furthermore, inclusion of non-traditional transit attributes and attitudes can improve mode choice models and reduce bias constants. Additional methods and analyses are necessary to bring these results into practice. The work is being conducted in two phases. This paper documents the results of Phase I, which included data collection for one case study city (Salt Lake City), research and analysis of non-traditional transit attributes in mode choice models, awareness of transit services, and recommendations for bringing these analyses into practice. Phase II will include data collection for two additional case study cities (Chicago and Charlotte) with minor modifications based on limitations identified in Phase I, additional analyses where Phase I results indicated a need, and a demonstration of the research in practice for at least one case study city.     

Fare deregulation of transit services: Winners and losers in a competitive market

Currently, the Hong Kong government imposes fare control on buses and taxi while the rail services are immune to such a control. This study examined four scenarios of fare deregulation on transit services by considering three related parties of a transit system – service providers, travelers, and society in general, with their respective objectives represented as – revenue, travel utility, and congestion. Analyzing the resultant impacts on these three parties, we found that a different regulatory environment would favor or hurt a different set of parties. There is no clear win‐win situation for all parties. Deciding a socially acceptable regulatory environment is likely to involve difficult tradeoffs among these parties.     

The impact of urban rail transit on commercial property value: New evidence from Wuhan,China

The interaction between rail transit and the urban property market is a vital foundation for planning transit-based policy such as Value Capture and Transit Oriented Development (TOD). Yet only few studies have reported the impact of transit access on commercial property value. This paper presents empirical evidence from Wuhan, China, to enrich the knowledge in the subject area. Spatial autoregressive models were employed to estimate the commercial value capture, based on 676 observations along Wuhan’s metro rail line through the main business districts. Value appreciation was discovered within the 400 m radius of road network distance from Metro stations. The transit access premiums present as two tiers: 16.7% for the 0–100 m core area and approximately 8.0% within the 100–400 m radius. The result demonstrates the potential benefit of adopting value capture and optimising TOD planning to support sustainable urban rail transit investment. Amid rapid urbanisation in China, the evidence reported here could help better inform cities, across the developing world and beyond, of the benefits of adopting rail transit-based policy.     

Technical efficiency measurement and explanation of French urban transit companies

The performance of a sample of French urban transit companies is evaluated using a broad selection of nonparametric reference technologies for two specifications of the production process. In particular, the variable returns to scale Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models with either strong or weak disposability in both inputs and outputs, and the Free Disposal Hull (FDH) are applied. An extensive comparison of the resulting radial output efficiency measures yields the following major methodological conclusions. First, the location of the efficiency distributions differs substantially depending on the methodology and especially on the output specification considered. The latter differences vanish if the impact of outliers is eliminated. Second, convexity has a stronger influence on the efficient-inefficient dichotomy than allowing for congestion by means of a weakly disposable DEA model. For policy purposes, these efficiency distributions are explained using a Tobit model. The findings corroborate results reported elsewhere: the relevance of ownership, the use of risk-sharing incentives in contracting, the harmful impact of subsidies, etc. Furthermore, the network structure seems to account for some differences in performance. Finally, a novelty in the urban transit context is the indirect monitoring effect of the French earmarked transportation tax.     

Integrating short turning and deadheading in the optimization of transit services

Urban transit demand exhibits peaks in time and space, which can be efficiently served by means of different fleets, increasing frequencies in those groups of stops with larger passenger inflow. In this paper we develop a model that combines short turning and deadheading in an integrated strategy for a single transit line, where the optimization variables are both of a continuous and discrete nature: frequencies within and outside the high demand zone, vehicle capacities, and those stations where the strategy begins and ends. We show that closed solutions can be obtained for frequencies in some cases, which resembles the classical “square root rule”. Unlike the existing literature that compares different strategies with a given normal operation (no strategy - single frequency), we use an optimized base case, in order to assess the potential benefits of the integrated strategy on a fair basis. We found that the integrated strategy can be justified in many cases with mixed load patterns, where unbalances within and between directions are observed. In general, the short turning strategy may yield large benefits in terms of total cost reductions, while low benefits are associated with deadheading, due to the extra cost of running empty vehicles in some sections.     

Multimodal traveling and its impact on urban transit network design

Multimodal trip making, that is trips using a combination of several modes between origin and destination, is expected to be beneficial to society and might offer advantages to the traveler as well. This article looks at some of the implications of multi‐modality in trip making for the design of urban transit systems since these play an important role in multi‐modal transportation systems. In this respect, the article looks at the strategic design characteristics of urban transit networks, that is line density, stop density and service frequencies for the case of multimodal access to urban transit networks and for hierarchical network structures in urban transit systems. The analyses show that multimodal access does not require alternative network structures. For hierarchical network structures it is concluded that these are primarily determined by the hierarchy in demand densities and thus by hierarchy in urban structures.     

Design of public transit network in urban area with elastic demand

This research focuses on an efficient design of transit network in urban areas. The system developed is used to create, analyze and optimize routes and frequencies of transit system in the network level. The analysis is based on elastic demand, so the shift of demand between modes in network due to different service level is of prime consideration. The developed system creates all feasible routes connecting all pairs of terminals in the network. Out of this vast pool of routes, a set of optimal routes is generated for a certain predetermined number that maintains connectivity of significant demand. Based on these generated routes, the system fulfils transportation demand by assigning demand that considers path and route choices for non-transit users and transit users. Together with the assignment of demand, transit frequencies are optimized and the related fleet-size is calculated. Having an optimal setting of solution, the system is continued by reconnecting the routes to find some other better solutions in the periphery of the optimal setting. A set of mathematical programming modules is developed. Real data from Sioux Falls city network is used to evaluate the performance of the model and compare with other heuristic methods.     

The theory of second best in urban mass transit: Management in the public sector as a proforma exercise

This paper focuses on four issues. The first is the case of one-sided investments in mass transit in metropolitan areas of developing countries. It is pointed out that in many cases in which the conditions for optimum investment policies (Pareto's Optimum) are not maintained, excessive investments on mass transit, including large annual operating subsidies, usually lead to substantial sub-optimizations and waste of scarce financial resources. This problem is then reviewed under the light of the “Theory of Second Best” as articulated for all investment options within Welfare Economic Theory. The second issue examined is the matter of recently discovered important diseconomies of scale of large metro transit systems in developing and developed countries, and the need to retain production of transport services within small-scale production units that are well coordinated and controlled. The third issue discussed is the problem of mismanagement of most public sector transit companies and agencies. The notion that most such systems are simply administered, not managed, is being brought up and the requirements for proper management are amplified. Finally, the case of public vs. private ownership of mass transit is being discussed with a distinction between public policies of providing mass transit services and the actual production process of these services. Provision of services represents a public responsibility that belongs to the public sector. However, production of service is a techno-economic process that requires different talents and circumstances. The paper concludes with a strong suggestion for major reorientation of urban mass transit in the metro areas of developing countries towards more efficiency and higher productivity.     

Are urban bus services natural monopolies?

Although Britain's local bus services have been open to free competition for more than three years, most have continued to be operated as monopolies by the original incumbents. Some competition has occurred, but the incumbents have usually driven off entrants. This paper uses findings from case-studies of competition and from deregulation generally to consider whether monopoly operation has inherent advantages over competitive operation. If so, urban bus routes would be natural monopolies. The evidence suggests that they may be, because single-operator services are more convenient for users.     

Productive efficiency and ownership of urban bus services

The established ownership mix of urban bus operations in Australia provides a unique opportunity to investigate the productivity differences between public and private bus service supply. Using duality theory in economics which links economic indices of factor productivity to the cost structure of a firm, we develop empirical measures of total and partial productivity of inputs, and adjust the differences for the effects of ownership status and operating environment. The evidence supports the notion that private supply of public passenger transport in general has performed more efficiently in the past than public supply, although the differences in productivity need not continue in the future.     

Fuel consumption model for bus rapid transit

Transportation planners and policy analysts require, for scenario testing, a detailed fuel consumption model of public transit operating in multimodal corridors. Although much effort has been devoted to the development of detailed methodology for estimating fuel consumption of automobile travel on freeways and arterials, the same is not the case for public transit. This paper presents methodology for the estimation of fuel consumption for bus operation on transitways/busways serving major travel corridors. Bus fuel consumption model is reported for standard and articulated buses. This model was adapted from an existing heavy vehicle fuel use model by incorporating the transitway design and bus operational characteristics.     

Net tax incidence for urban public transit subsidies in New Zealand

This paper examines the impact of policy changes in the funding of New Zealand public transit modes.These changes, introduced in 1983, are evaluated in terms of the net incidence of public transit subsidy assistance, taking into account its source of funding and the income class of those commuters benefiting from the subsidy. The general conclusion is that the net incidence of subsidy assistance remains progressive (i.e., a transfer from high to low income commuters) following the introduction of shared funding on the predominant public transit modes (rail and bus), sourced from income tax (central government) and property tax (regional/local government). However, because of the predominance of medium to high income commuters on rail vis-a-vis bus and the traditional source of funding on these modes in terms of income tax (a progressive tax source) and property tax (a regressive tax source), the degree of progressivity previously associated with public transit subsidies has now substantially reduced.The analysis and opinions expressed in this paper are the responsibility of the author alone and do not purport to represent the views of the Ministry of Transport.