Public Transport Improvements Research Articles

Research on the improvement of conventional public transportation in the context of population aging

With the aggravation of the trend of population aging, the conventional bus planning and service in Lhasa city need to be adjusted continuously to meet the needs of the elderly, so that they can enjoy convenient transportation services to better integrate into the city life, so the conventional bus improvement in the context of aging is a relevant study. According to the research characteristics of this paper, Lhasa Chengguan District is selected as the research area, and the current situation of regular bus development in the region is briefly analyzed, and based on the Gaode Map API to obtain the station and road network data, the spatial barrier model is used to assess the accessibility of regular buses, and then ArcGIS is used to visualize the data. Finally, the conventional bus improvement strategy adapted to the aging society is proposed from the three aspects of bus stops and road network, bus facilities for aging, and bus service quality, so as to provide the elderly with more convenient, comfortable, and barrier-free bus services, thus realizing the sustainable development of Lhasa City.

Social Determinants of Health and Continuity of Medications for Opioid Use Disorder Among Patients Receiving Treatment in Rural Primary Care Settings.

Factors associated with treatment retention on medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) in rural settings are poorly understood. This study examines associations between social determinants of health (SDoH) and MOUD retention among patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) in rural primary care settings. We analyzed patient electronic health records from 6 rural clinics. Participants (N = 575) were adult patients with OUD and had any prescription for MOUD from October 2019 to April 2020. MOUD retention was measured by MOUD days and continuity defined as continuous 180 MOUD days with no more than a 7-day gap. Mixed-effect regressions assessed associations between the outcomes and SDoH (Medicaid insurance, social deprivation index [SDI], driving time from home to the clinic), telehealth use, and other covariates. Mean patient MOUD days were 127 days (SD = 50.7 days). Living in more disadvantaged areas (based on SDI) (adjusted relative risk [aRR]: 0.98; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.98-0.99) and having more than an hour (compared with an hour or less) driving time from home to clinic (aRR: 0.95; 95% CI, 0.93-0.97) were associated with fewer MOUD days. Using telehealth was associated with more MOUD days (aRR: 1.23; 95% CI, 1.21-1.26). In this cohort, 21.7% of the participants were retained on MOUD for at least 180 days. SDoH and use of telehealth were not associated with having continuity of MOUD. Addressing SDoH (eg, SDI) and providing telehealth (eg, improvements in public transportation, internet access) may improve MOUD days in rural settings.

The Current Development and Optimization of Smart Public Transportation in Taiyuan City

"With the development of technology and the smartification of cities, the urbanization process is accelerating rapidly. The population and the number of motor vehicles in cities are increasing rapidly, leading to evident issues such as traffic congestion and air pollution. Smart public transportation, as an integral component of smart cities, can reduce passengers' travel costs, improve travel efficiency to some extent, and provide big data support for the development of smart transportation and even smart cities. It is a cost-effective, convenient, and environmentally friendly mode of transportation.This article first analyzes the current situation of smart public transportation in Taiyuan city. It points out issues such as uneven allocation of public transportation resources, prolonged travel times for passengers using public transportation, and overcrowding during peak hours. Drawing on the development experiences of smart public transportation in cities both domestically and internationally, the article proposes optimization suggestions for the current state of smart public transportation in Taiyuan. These include refined management of public transportation, skip-stop operations, smart resource allocation, and improvement of infrastructure construction. The aim is to provide theoretical guidance for the optimization and improvement of smart public transportation in Taiyuan, enabling more efficient development of 'smart public transportation' in the city.".

Estimation of local pollutant and carbon dioxide emissions of road and rail transportation in the Philippines

The 2016 baseline road and rail transportation pollutant emissions in the Philippines using a bottom-up approach are estimated at 9.212 million tons and 377 tons, respectively, while CO2 emissions are estimated at 97.6 million tons and 62,248 tons, respectively. Road transportation activity is estimated to be 231.53 billion vehicle-kilometers, where 58% is from motorcycles. Top pollutants are CO and VOC from motorcycles, tricycles and cars. Motorcycles contribute the largest share of CO2 emissions. NOₓ and CO are major pollutants from rail transportation. Based on these results and the assessment of selected transport projects, the government may develop policies on major emitters of criteria pollutants and carbon dioxide, aside from improvement of public transportation. Furthermore, the study is limited in using average vehicle emission factors which need updating.

Evaluasi pelaksanaan road map penataan angkutan umum di Denpasar, Badung, Gianyar dan Tabanan (studi kasus angkutan umum trans sarbagita)

This study aimed to evaluate three aspects of Trans Sarbagita Public Transport Improvement Program consisting of the implementation of the Road Map, analysis of the factors that became the main obstacle and evaluation of the effectiveness of the programs which had been underway. The study used qualitative method with a descriptive pattern through interviews, observation and documentation of institutional factors, stages of the operation of the route, provision of means of transport / bus, provision of operation supporting facilities, financing the purchase of services, passenger fares and service quality. The results showed that the provisions of institutional facilities and institutional forms had not been fulfilled; the number of route network was not in accordance with the plan, the lack of the number of buses, bus stops and traffic signs, limited service fees and low passenger fares and service quality. Therefore a cooperation agreement should be made and the establishment of institutions engaged in service for the management, rearranging the lane routes, increasing the number of buses, bus stops and signs as needed, preparing and evaluating the suitability of bus fares and improving service quality.

Assessment of the Improvement of Public Transport in Hillside Cities Considering the Impact of Topography on Walking Choices

This study examines the benefits of considering topography in the implementation of public transport systems and improving mobility in a hillside district in Yokohama, Japan. It studies the relationship between the improvement and the actual use of the service. A multinomial logit model that incorporates topography is developed to describe mode choice. Based on this model, utility-based accessibilities, which include topographical impact, are calculated, and the improvement resulting from the new service is analysed. The correlation between the improvement and the user’s log is also examined to verify their relationship and the impact of topographical factors, which are compared with and without the new service. The mode choice model revealed that topography had a negative impact on walking and bus egress trips, with a 1-m increase in topography corresponded to a 9.54-m walk. The utility-based accessibility approach accurately illustrated the impact of topography. The improvement of accessibility positively correlated with service use, which is further enhanced when considering the topography. These results demonstrate the impact of implementing the new service, highlight the importance of considering topography in hillside cities, and underscore the significance of the utility-based accessibility approach as a relevant methodology.

Changing Trends in Personal Vehicle Use

Even 50 years ago a personal car was an item of luxury and status, but in the future the situation began to change. At this time, the car is a necessary and quite affordable means of transportation for many people. Statistical observation in the last decade has shown that the number of cars in Russia has doubled - this has given rise to a lot of problems of a different nature, had a negative impact on the environment. However, with regard to personal vehicles, in recent years there has been a trend towards the refusal of an increasing number of people to purchase and use a personal car. This article examines the reasons that encourage people to abandon the use of personal vehicles, and also analyzes data on the problems associated with cars in an urban environment. The ways of solving these problems in favor of the development and improvement of public transport and alternative ways of using transport in the urban environment are given.

Assessing commuters’ perceptions towards improvement of intermediate public transport as access modes to metro stations

The study considers the perception of Metro commuters to investigate the priority areas of interventions for improving the service quality of Intermediate Public Transport (IPT) as an access mode to the Metro stations in Delhi. Tablet-based face-to-face surveys were conducted to collect responses from 1121 commuters towards perceived importance and satisfaction ratings of 18 service quality attributes under study on a 6-point Likert scale. Collected responses were analysed using Revised Importance Performance Analysis. Implicit importance values of all the attributes were calculated to derive the factor structures and management schemes using the Fuzzy C-means clustering technique. The priority attributes were identified by comparing the factor structures and management schemes. Finally, the study proposed a priority order of resource allocation to improve attributes influencing IPT as access modes to the Metro stations. The study findings identified that ‘Transportation Subsidy’, ‘Accessibility in Bad Weather’ and ‘Universal Design Considerations’ were top priority attributes that demanded resource allocation for improvement. ‘Access Time’, ‘In-vehicle Travel Time’, ‘Luggage Space’, ‘Hygiene’, ‘Security’, ‘Riding Comfort’, ‘Frequency’ and ‘Travel Fare’ were operating at optimum service levels, hence, occupied a second-level priority in terms of resource allocation to ensure the levels were maintained. Two low-priority attributes, ‘Information at IPT stop’ and ‘On-board Information’ occupied a third-level priority in terms of resource allocation for improvement. Attributes under ‘Possible Overkill’, namely, ‘Safety’, ‘Convenience’, ‘Waiting Time’, ‘Egress Time’ and ‘Seat Availability’, suggested transferring resources towards improving other priority service attributes. The study findings can assist transport planners and policymakers in formulating policies for improving the performance of IPT as access modes to Metro stations in Delhi and extending the approach to other contexts to supplement the mass transit systems suitably and increase their ridership.

Demand Responsive Route Design: GIS Application to Link Downtowns with Expansion Areas

The movement of residential locations to suburban areas to obtain cheaper land results in increasing mobility and infrastructure problems. One of the important infrastructures is transportation, which determines the level of accessibility of people and commodities from one place to another. Therefore, Transportation Demand Management (TDM) measures are important in providing an optimal transit route to increase accessibility of public transportations. In the past, several researchers have developed various TDM programs, including public transport improvement as a strategy to encourage a more transit-oriented society. This study attempts to create a methodology of identifying bus links between urban centers and newly developed urban expansion areas using Geographical Information Systems by considering reduction of route overlapping. A TAZ-based analysis is undertaken to identify the demand responsive bus routes, which maximize population coverage, minimize travel time, and reduce duplicating routes.

Exploring the Substitution Effect of Ride-Sourcing in Commuting and Transport Stations Trips: Learning from Evidence in Bandung City, Indonesia

Ample evidence shows that ride-sourcing can substitute the existing transport system (i.e., public transport or private transport). However, the effect of the type of trip (i.e., commuting or transport station trips) on this substitution is still not fully understood. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the substitution effect of ride-sourcing based on the type of trip, i.e., commuting trips as well as trips to transport stations (e.g., the airport, terminal, rail station), conducted by private vehicles and public transport services. The effects of socio-demographics, spatial characteristics, and attitude were integrated into the discriminant model to explore this further. For this purpose, this study collected data from a questionnaire distributed to ride-sourcing users in Bandung in 2020. Discriminant and multivariate analyses are used to investigate the substitution effect of ride-hailing. It is found that the substitution of private transportation occurs for high-income online transport users and longer trips. Moreover, people who previously used public transportation are associated with users who experience increased productivity. Ride-sourcing vehicles, such as online taxis, provide more space for activities. In addition, a lack of access to other transportation tends to be associated with public transport users rather than private vehicle owners. Public transport users can experience increased productivity because the travel time is significantly reduced when ride-sourcing is used. The improvement of public transport, specifically for people who are carrying more belongings and have more intense and widespread activity participation, is then suggested by this study.

Understanding public transport use intention post Covid-19 outbreak using modified theory of planned behavior: Case study from developing country perspective

Use of public transportation by regular commuters can help to reduce congestion and pollution in cities. Improving public transportation facilties may not be sufficient to improve its use and understanding the factors that determine use intention may help to improve public transport use specially for young adults who travel for work regularly. The current work aims to systematically assess public transport use intention for regular commuters below the age of 45 years, who may continue using or switch to public transport when facilities improve in Indian context post Covid-19 outbreak using a modified Theory of Planned Behavior framework. The work considers public transport improvement from two aspects, first, improvement in availability, which ensures less crowding, so that peoples’ perceived safety improves from social distancing perspective and second, reduced travel times. It could be observed from this study that out of the demographic variables annual family income and education significantly affected use intentions but not family size and gender. It was observed in Indian context that social norms significantly affected public transport use intentions, but not an individual’s attitude indicating that individuals are more concerned about social mandates over their personal preferences. Also, a person who has traveled in public transport mode in recent past was observed to have greater intent to continue using public transport than those who did not. Interestingly, people with higher income and education levels showed greater intent of public transport use. The observations from this study may be used for designing focused interventions to improve public transport use intentions in developing countries like India.

Features of Development of Route Networks of Public Urban Passenger Transport in Russian Monotowns: the Case of the City of Nizhnekamsk

Currently, improvement of public transport of general use is among priority areas for development of urban transport systems. Convenient public transport routes, combined with modern rolling stock and a developed transport infrastructure, allow solving most transport problems and ensure high mobility of residents and guests of a city. The objective of the research, main results of which are described in the paper, was to build an efficient urban public transport network in monotowns of Russia to ensure sustainability of functioning of public passenger transport intended for general use. The article presents an option for solving the problem of functioning of public transport in single-industry towns. Very often, in such cities (with enterprises pronouncedly influencing urban planning), there are two mutually exclusive transport networks, namely, municipal one and contracted one (contracted by an enterprise and intended for shift rotation). As a result, contracted routes are not optimal, municipal carriers suffer losses, transport companies do not meet the schedule, switch to a less capacious type of vehicles, and consequently people are dissatisfied with the work of public transport in the city. To solve these problems, it is proposed to combine the municipal and contracted networks into a single transport network of the city.

Investigating the Potential of Data Science Methods for Sustainable Public Transport

The planning and implementation of public transport involves many data sources. These data sources in turn generate a high volume of data, in a wide variety of formats and data rates. This phenomenon is reinforced by the ongoing digitization of public transport; new data sources have continuously emerged in public transport in recent years and decades. This results in a great potential for the application and utilization of data science methods in public transport. Using big data methods and sources can, or in some cases already does, contribute to a better understanding and the further optimization of public transport networks, public transport service and public transport in general. This paper classifies data sources in the field of public transport and examines systematically for which use cases the data are used or can be used. These steps contribute by structuring ongoing discussions about the application of data science in the public transport domain and illustrate the potential of the application of data science for public transport. We present several use cases in which we applied data science methods, such as machine learning and visualization to public transport data. Several of these projects use data from automated passenger information systems, a data source that has not been widely studied to date. We report our findings for these use cases and discuss the lessons learned, to inform future research on these use cases and discuss their potential. This paper concludes with a summary of the typical problems that occur when dealing with big public transport data and a discussion of solutions for these problems. This discussion identifies future work and topics worth investigating for public transport companies as well as for researchers. Working on these topics will, in our opinion, support the improvement of public transport towards the efficiency and attractiveness that is needed for public transport to play its essential role in future sustainable mobility. The application of these methods in public transport requires the collaboration of domain experts with researchers and data scientists, calling for a mutual understanding. This paper also contributes to this understanding by providing an overview of the methods that are already used, potential new use cases, data sources, challenges and possible solutions.

Real-world and bottom-up methodology for emission inventory development and scenario design in medium-sized cities

Efficient management of air quality requires a comprehensive emission inventory to support decision-making on air quality improvement. This article presents a comprehensive framework for detailed emission inventory development in cities with low-quality basic data, which examines the emission of primary criteria pollutants (CO, NOx, SO2, PM2.5, PM10, and VOC) from mobile sources, residential, commercial, and public services, fuel stations, transport terminals, energy conversion sections, and industries. This research was applied to Tabriz in Northwest Iran, one of the polluted medium-sized cities with a population of 1.77 million. Results show the city daily emission per capita is 569.8 g of CO, 68.6 g of NOx, 38.6 g of VOC, 17.6 g of SOx, and 3.7 g of PM. Vehicular emissions accounted for 98% of CO, 91% of VOCs, 61% of NOx, and 56% of PM; meaning alternative policy strategies in vehicles would reduce emissions rapidly. Fifteen applicable and effective scenarios in transport and one concerning stationary sources were proposed and reduction potential of them was evaluated. Effectiveness of the public transport improvement and replacement of old passenger cars were founded the key scenarios. These two alternatives decrease 14 and 2 tons of SO2 and 6797 and 2394 tons of NOx annually with the cost of $99.5 MM and $366.5 MM, respectively. The findings of this study provides the choice of travel method by each citizen is a function of cost, speed, comfort and safety of travel; therefore, all the requirements of any scenarios must be fully considered in the implementation step.

Dynamic scenario to mitigate carbon emissions of transportation system: A system thinking approach

The growth of vehicle use in Indonesia continues to increase, which is in line with the population growth. The increase in the number of vehicles, mostly using fossil fuels, has an impact on increasing pollution. Transportation is the biggest contributor to pollution. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the livability of the transportation system by reducing air pollution through the quality improvement of public transport. The research method used is a system thinking approach. The result of this study is the creation of a causal loop diagram that can be used as an input in mitigating carbon emissions.

The application of neural networks for the life-cycle analysis of road and rail rolling stock during the operational phase

The aim of this article is to assess the possibility of using neural networks to analyse the life cycle of rolling stock in the operational phase by selecting the number of rolling stock sets and rail using the example of public transport in the Szczecin agglomeration. The research was conducted in September 2019 and June 2020. It included the number of tram and bus rolling stock sets on individual public transport lines based on data from the Central Public Transport Management System in the Szczecin agglomeration. The research, which was based on comparative analyses of individual types of rolling stock and their technical and economic data, took into account the life-cycle assessment criteria associated with the operation of vehicles in relation to the number of rolling stock sets. The use of neural networks on the example of the city of Szczecin for the purpose of life-cycle analysis, can make a significant contribution to creating a decision model for the improvement of public transport in cities with various types of public transport vehicles.

Evaluation of Transport and Location Policies to Realize the Carbon-Free Urban Society

The Japanese Government has declared that it will become carbon-free by 2050. Urban planning to realize a carbon-free society is proposed in the context of urban transport policy, which are policies to agglomerate urban facilities and link among them by public transport. However, transport and location policies to regulate land use are afraid to generate an economic loss. It is important to evaluate not only the effects of reducing GHG emissions but also economic influence. In this paper, we built the Computable General Equilibrium and Urban Economic (CGEUE) model, which modeled the transport and location behavior of each economic agent for a detailed area explicitly. We evaluated some transport and location policies such as (1) conversion from fossil fuel vehicles to electric vehicles, (2) improvement of public transport, (3) environmental tax and (4) making city compact by using the CGEUE model. As a result, it can be concluded that the combination policy of improving the public transport policy and environmental tax is the most effective under the conditions of these simulation results.

Emissions Control Scenarios for Transport in Greater Cairo.

Air pollution is a major cause of premature death in Greater Cairo, but studies on emission control are limited. We used local and international data to predict the impact of transport emission control measures on sector parameters including congestion. The International Vehicle Emission model accordingly estimated quantities of criteria, toxic and global warming emissions produced by on-road vehicles. Emissions were estimated for 2019 base case (2019-BC) and projected for 2030 under the ‘do nothing’ scenario (2030-DNS) and five scenarios: fuel subsidy removal (2030-FSR), road expansions (2030-RE), public transport improvements (2030-PTI), inspection and maintenance (I/M) programs (2030-I/MP), and fuel enhancements (2030-FE). The 2030-FSR would reduce emissions by 11.2% versus 2030-DNS. The 2030-RE resulted in an average increase of 37% in emissions compared with 2030-DNS since it induces more traffic. The 2030-PTI provides alternatives to car travel; hence, cars result in an average drop of 32.8% for all emission types compared with 2030-DNS. The 2030-I/MP exhibited reductions in PM10 and toxic pollutants, of 35–54.8% compared with 2030-DNS. The 2030-FE reduced SOx, benzene and N2O emissions by 91.8%, 81% and 39.1%, respectively, compared with 2030-DNS. The 2030-I/MP is most effective in reducing health damaging pollutants while 2030-PTI positively impacts commuters’ lifestyle.

Relative Mobility Analysis of a Public Transport Network in Comparison with Car Travel

This work is motivated by the high rate of private car use by commuters in Australian cities. Considering the various benefits of public transport (PT), it is imperative to analyze the shortcomings of the PT networks in comparison to car travel. For this purpose, this work focuses on analyzing the travel time difference between PT and car journeys. This paper presents a methodology to analyze the relative mobility of a PT network in comparison to car travel. The key component of this methodology is the use of two complementary relative mobility metrics that are developed to determine the portions of PT journeys that are inefficient (time-wise) in comparison to car trips. The first metric is the point-to-point relative mobility used to perform spatial distribution analysis, and the second is the PT line relative mobility that evaluates the performance of the PT routes. A demonstration of the methodology is presented by using a case study from Melbourne (Australia). The results of the case study show some inefficient segments of the PT services in several areas, and within the Port Melbourne area in particular. Therefore, this information can be used to assist decision makers to prioritize PT improvements to encourage mode shifts to PT.

Potential distributional impacts of road pricing: A case study

Using data on number of car commuting trips, routes and speeds, we estimate the initial generalised cost changes, traffic reductions and likely distributional impacts of a £2 congestion charge on inbound car commuting traffic in the city of Cardiff, UK. We find that the initial potential reductions in the number of commuting trips by car finishing in Cardiff are likely to be 3.7% and 11.1%, for elasticities of number of trips with respect to generalised costs of −1 and −3, respectively. We also find that higher percentage reductions of up to 14.6% to 43.7% could be achieved by also charging trips with origin and destination in Cardiff. Not charging commuting trips by car that start and finish in Cardiff, which represent over half of the car commuting traffic with destination in Cardiff, will result in the share of charge revenues contributed by car commuters coming to Cardiff from other local authorities being roughly twice as high as the share of car commuting traffic they generate in Cardiff. We also find that the charge would be regressive but the number and percentage of commuting trips by car from different local authorities are quite different, and so the number and percentage of households from these local authorities that would be negatively affected, would also be different. The regressive impacts from the charge, however, have the potential of being reverted as long as the public transport improvements planned by Cardiff Council are in place before the congestion charge is implemented. Ideally, these should be combined with a reallocation of road space to public transport, pedestrians, and cyclists. Although this is a case study, there are valuable lessons for other cities considering the introduction of a congestion charge.