ISSUES OF DESIGNING AND RESTRUCTURING THE ROUTE NETWORKS OF PUBLIC PASSENGER URBAN GROUND TRANSPORT

Abstract

The urban passenger public transport as an important element of social infrastructure of megalopolises directly influences the quality of life of city residents, development of town-planning, social and economic potential. Efficiency of urban transport directly depends on the right choice and well-sought designing of its routes.The objective of the research was to develop based on the overview of existing methods for designing route networks of urban public passenger transport an updated technique allowing to restructure existing routes. The analysis of route network design methods permitted to reveal their advantages and disadvantages. An improved methodology for designing route networks is proposed, aimed at solving the problems of restructuring existing route networks and at practical implementation of the results considering existing constraints. The technique to design route networks of city districts and of small towns is based on the model of road and street network, shown as a detailed graph with subsequent consideration of the arrays of connections of all the vertices of the graph with several points of gravity. QGIS geoinformatics software used to build the graph allows to analyze, visualize, and facilitate the operations with the detailed graph of the transport network of a city district.Identifying of rational itineraries between points of departure and of gravity is executed by purposed selection of options by criterion of minimum travel time spending. Shaping out of routes is based on principles of integration of the most possible number of points (vertices of the graph) into the route.The application of an improved technique will allow to consider the changing demand of the population for transport services, make adjustments to the existing route network, thereby satisfying the population’s need for transportation and increasing the efficiency of urban transport networks and motor transport enterprises.