The planning of urban bus routes and frequencies: A survey

Abstract

Urban bus services still play an important role in the movement of people in Britain, although since the 1950's bus patronage has been declining and costs of operation have been increasing. Most of the urban bus networks in Britain (and to a very large extent the Western World) have developed or evolved over the years and it is sometimes said that, despite the changing conditions of bus transport, few of these bus networks in Britain have undergone major re-organisation. A survey was carried out to ascertain this view and to establish the approaches used by British urban bus operators. Five approaches to the planning of urban bus routes and frequencies have been identified: (1) manual; (2) Market Analysis Project; (3) systems analysis; (4) systems analysis with interactive graphics; and (5) mathematical. Previous research in, and application of, the different approaches are described and examined. Between 1970 and 1980, 82.4% of those British urban operators who responded to the survey carried out some kind of major bus study. The survey results run counter to the view that there has been little recent change in urban bus networks in Britain, but the alleged conservatism of the bus industry appears when the approaches used for re-planning bus services are examined - 71.4% of the operators used a manual approach and only a meagre 28.6% made use of simple assignment techniques to predict the potential passenger impacts of the alternative networks appraised.