Intermediate Public Transport Research Articles

A comparative MADM approach for prioritizing factors influencing service quality of Intermediate Public Transport as access mode to metro stations in Delhi, India

A comparative MADM approach for prioritizing factors influencing service quality of Intermediate Public Transport as access mode to metro stations in Delhi, India

Framework for assessing sustainability of urban transport projects—Case of India

<p>The majority of the population in million-plus cities of India, especially the lower- and middle-income groups, are largely dependent on public transport (PT), intermediate public transport (IPT), and non-motorized transport (NMT) for their mobility. There is a need to assess such urban transport projects with regard to their contribution to various developmental goals, such as the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in the context of the Paris Agreement of 2015 and the Agenda 2030 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), independently as well as in their interactions with each other. Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India published a checklist for project appraisal of urban transport projects in 2015. This viewpoint proposes to expand the existing checklist for assessing public transport projects, i.e., BRTS and city bus services, IPT sector, i.e., auto-rickshaw, E-rickshaw, cycle-rickshaw, and shared mobility like Uber and Ola, and NMT infrastructure, i.e., walkways and cycle infrastructure to include parameters related to climate change mitigation, relevant SDGs targets, and participatory governance.</p>

Including SDGs in low-carbon transport scenarios: A case of Udaipur

<p>Transportation is fundamental to shaping urban form and quality of life. The transport sector contributes to a quarter of global GHG emissions. It is integral to countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to mitigate global warming or control warming beyond 2 ℃ or 1.5 ℃ above the pre-industrial level. Climate change mitigation in the transport sector demands a tailored approach for cities of the global south—recently urbanizing with increased dependence on motorization—incorporating social aspects of sustainability. The study examines the delivery of climate change mitigation and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in Udaipur’s passenger transport sector through six SDGs. Over and above the business-as-usual scenario, the two scenarios presented are the technology scenario, which recalibrates Udaipur’s available low-carbon mobility plan, and the SDG scenario, which addresses social transformations by applying assumptions derived from the primary survey in the city. The socially sensitive SDG scenario prioritizes the mobility demands of those with low or no mobility. It also enhances mobility by retaining the share of non-motorized transport (NMT), intermediate public transport (IPT), and public transport (PT) and regulating excessive use of private motorized vehicles. However, the SDG scenario causes a 26% increase in the vehicle kilometer traveled (VKT), a 24% increase in CO<sub>2</sub> emissions, and a 29% decrease in other GHG emissions over the Technology Scenario.</p>

Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) and Importance Performance Analysis (IPA) Methods for Intermediate Public Transport System in Imphal, Manipur

Intermediate Public Transport (IPT) system plays an important role in the overall efficient and effective operation of a transportation system in a city area. Efficient operation of the IPT is a key factor for the improvement of living conditions of the public. The exploration of service quality of IPT is necessary to provide a better service and improving the economic condition of the state. In this paper, Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) and Importance Performance Analysis (IPA) methods has been discussed to determine the level of satisfaction of IPT (Auto/Shared Auto/E-rickshaw) commuters in the capital city of Manipur state. A questionnaire survey was conducted regarding the customer level of satisfaction in various wards in the Imphal Municipality area. From the study it was observed that CSI is half of the total IPT commuters which indicate unsatisfactory for the present condition. The study using the IPT method also shows that four attributes are in the top priority, three attributes are to be maintained, eight attributes have low priority, and six attributes have excess priority.

Infrastructure Planning for TOD Zone of Chikkabanawara of Sub-urban Station, Bengaluru

Abstract: One of Karnataka, India's cities with the fastest population growth is Bengaluru. Inadequate walking and cycling infrastructure made people choose personal vehicles over sustainable transport options more often while the city focused on infrastructure to reduce traffic. By 2035, the Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP) Bengaluru (2020) seeks to expand public transportation's mode share from 42% to 70%. In order to reach this goal, it is crucial to guarantee that more people have easy access to public transport options in addition to increasing the mass transit infrastructure, as increased access to PT tends to encourage more people to utilise it rather than their own motorised vehicles. To this end, the city of Bengaluru has developed a Transit Oriented Development (TOD) policy. Walkability, Cyclability, Quality of Public Transport Infrastructure, Safety Infrastructure at Junctions, Quality of Intermediate Public Transport, and Public Amenities that Support the Uptake of Sustainable Mobility Modes are the parameters taken up as part of. The study region of Chikkabanawara is situated on the outskirts of the city of Bangalore and has the distinctive feature of greenfield development with prominence of educational institutions, commercial businesses, residential areas, and high-rise flats in the 500-meter buffer zone.

Identifying the parameters influencing the adoption of electric intermediate public transport: a case area of Gwalior city

The emission from transportation sectors is identified to contribute to air pollution and the same has brought electric mobility as an emerging solution to the problem. Electric mobility has yet to become a mainstream option for India’s vast population in terms of transportation, making it critical to understand people’s attitudes and preferences in choosing Electric Vehicles (EVs) over the convention once. Therefore, to understand the perceptions and factors which influence the adoption, a study is conducted in the area of Gwalior City. Some of the most influencing factors were selected from the literature study. And then a questionnaire was designed, where Intermediate Public Transport (IPT) operators were asked to choose on a scale of 1 to 5 (where 1 is highly important 5 beings I don’t know situations). Top influential factors like Purchase cost, Operation, and maintenance cost (O&M cost) were getting in this article, Vehicle capacity and battery swapping facility were found as the main influencing factors for Electric Vehicle adoption. A discrete choice model is used to generate utility equations. This was done for two operators of Intermediate Public Transport in Gwalior which are 4-Seater and 8-Seater respectively. Binomial regression analysis gave the utility values of selected factors, which the operators consider before adopting the Electric Vehicle. The results of the research will be helpful in understanding operators/drivers of Intermediate Public Transport, especially in the Intermediate Public Transport market. Results will help planners and policymakers to make sound decisions.

Assessment of Intermediate Public Transport as A Feeder System to Metro: A Case of Thane City

Abstract: Metro System is been built to provide the service to its people and scale up the facility provided, this would also require the response of people and shift from their mode of transportation. With heavy transportation and day-to-day increase in the traffic on road there is a need to use the Public Transportation. The Detailed Project Report (DPR) for Thane Metro was made in the year 2017, but there is no feeder plan yet, this gives an opportunity to study this respective field. This dissertation aims at getting to know the responses of the commuters of the metro and also of the operators in the catchment area thus providing an efficient last mile connectivity with the Intermediate Public Transport modes available thereof, the catchment area has been selected in accordance with the Metro Policy, 2019. Road Inventory survey of the area gives a detail information about the physical condition present and help to decide the feeder route. In conclusion, this dissertation will provide a convenient way so as to improve the ridership of metro

Assessing the Factors Impacting Transport Usage of Mobility App Users in the National Capital Territory of Delhi, India

Smartphone-based mobility apps have created a smartphone-enabled ecosystem of mobility services in developed countries and are slowly picking up pace in the Global South. Against this backdrop, this study used Latent Class Cluster Analysis to empirically investigate the impacts of mobility apps on transport usage patterns in Delhi by classifying users into three latent clusters based on socioeconomic characteristics, smartphone app usage, attitudes, and transport usage. Cluster 1 consisted of users with low app usage, and higher usage of public transport and intermediate public transport; Cluster 2 consisted of multimodal users with high app usage; and Cluster 3 consisted of users with moderate app usage and heavy reliance on private vehicles. Furthermore, the detailed characteristics of each latent class and factors affecting the individual’s probability of being classified into these clusters are discussed. It was found that younger users with higher education, more smartphone experience, medium-to-high household income and lower vehicle ownership had a very high probability of being classified as a multimodal traveler. Furthermore, the attitudes and preferences of users belonging to these clusters towards their choice of transport are discussed, along with a brief policy discussion for encouraging new app-based mobility services such as MaaS.

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.

Heterogeneity based Mode Choice Behaviour for Introduction of Sustainable Intermediate Public Transport (IPT) Modes

Intermediate public transport (IPT) supplements the public transport system by providing first and last-mile connectivity to commuters. A feeder service based on sustainable intermediate public transportation can be made attractive by improving its mobility, accessibility, convenience, and comfort for its users. Sustainable IPT modes have a lower impact on the environment and can cater to the current and future needs of transportation. In this study, commuters' choice responses were collected using a stated preference survey instrument, and the database was analyzed using a Random Parameter Logit (RPL) model. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with respondents who were approached at random. A different combination of values from the levels of attributes was used to create choice scenarios for each IPT mode. Different types of IPT modes were identified in the study act as feeder services, which was used to find their utility functions using a random parameter logit model. The random parameter logit model with heterogeneity was used to evaluate the impacts of different socioeconomic and trip features on mean estimations. The utility function was used to find willingness to pay (WTP) for different attributes of an IPT mode to assess the relative value of these attributes. It was observed that WTP values also varied between different levels, which were based on their "monthly income level", "trip purpose", and "fare". "High income level" commuters have a higher WTP for travel time, frequency, and comfort improvements. On the other hand, the "work trip" and "high travel fare" levels of commuters have higher WTP for travel time, frequency, and safety improvements. According to the findings of the study, sustainable IPT modes with high quality of service are recommended because of commuters' willingness to pay for improved safety and comfort. The results so obtained can also be used for a better understanding of the travel behaviour analysis of various IPT modes. Doi: 10.28991/CEJ-2022-08-03-09 Full Text: PDF

Willingness to Pay for Improvement in Service Quality of Intermediate Public Transport (IPT) Modes

The Rapid increase in urban population has put extraordinary pressure on transport infrastructure. Public transport frameworks in small and medium-sized cities in developing countries include of IPT modes. However, these midsized cities in developing countries face congestion problems and have severe environmental pollution. The paper focuses on the assessment of willingness to pay for improvement in service quality of IPT mode of transportation in urban India. A Stated Choice (SC) survey instrument was designed and data was collected from IPT users to collect respondent’s socio-economic characteristics and their attributes for the stated hypothetical scenarios. Respondents were approached randomly and face-to-face interviews were carried out. The present study aimed at finding the willingness to pay for different attributes of an IPT mode to assess the relative importance of these attributes. The multinomial logit model was developed using the econometric software NLOGIT 4.0. The results obtained from the analysis suggest that the commuters in the city perceive safety as the most important attribute of an IPT mode followed by comfort and waiting time. The findings of the study shall be useful for policy makers and operators in urban planning and improvement of the transportation systems of mid-sized cities of developing countries and any new mode incorporating high comfort and safety shall be preferred. Doi: 10.28991/cej-2021-03091696 Full Text: PDF

COVID-19 and the public transport conundrum in India

As a response to COVID-19, India locked down for a continuous 68 days starting on Mar 25, 2020, during which inter-city/state and intra-city public transport was totally suspended for the first fifty days Subsequently, the trains started on the 51st day, and informally buses began carrying inter-state and intra-state migrants fleeing cities not just in fear of COVID-19, but of unemployment and thus income loss, and subsequently made homeless by their employers or their landlords during the stringently enforced lockdown On the 55th day of the lockdown the plying of intra-city bus-based public transport was permitted, and on the 69th day intermediate public transport (IPT), namely auto-rickshaws, ubiquitously found on Indian city and suburban roads Public city bus services also began working in all cities The call on starting suburban trains and metro lines within cities would be taken in due course Economic activities opened up from June 1, 2020, but without public transport, daily commuting has become difficult, causing a potential income loss for the segment of the population dependent on public transport

Efficiency Based Evaluation of Public Transport and Paratransit Systems with a View to Integrating Transportation

Rapid urbanization, increasing population, and a booming economy have stimulated growth in Indian cites, resulting in higher levels of dependence on private vehicles. This has raised serious issues over the sustainability of transport infrastructure in cities. Public transportation (PT) systems can help achieve sustainable transportation. But they face competition from intermediate public transport (IPT) or Paratransit. The existing PT and IPT systems, therefore, need to re-plan their operations to complement each other and deliver a wider network of services. To achieve this, an evaluation of both PT and IPT systems at microscopic levels is needed to facilitate their possible integration in a coordinated multimodal transportation system. The present paper attempts to evaluate the public and paratransit systems in the city of Surat in the Indian state of Gujarat using a data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique in DEAP software at the individual and system level. The operations, route design, and cost efficiency of both systems are evaluated to understand how well the existing set-up caters to demand. The arithmetic mean of operations, route design, and cost efficiencies of 26 routes of PT system were worked out to be 0.89, 0.94, and 0.69, while that of the 13 routes of the IPT system were 0.92, 0.97, and 0.88 respectively. The system investigation shows that analytically, only 8% of IPT routes were inefficient in all the three aspects, compared with 42% of PT routes. The performance of each route was analyzed, appropriate suggestions made, and the potential of these systems for designing an integrated transport system highlighted.

Comparative Assessment of Service Quality of IPT Modes in Urban India

This paper carries out a comparative assessment of service quality of intermediate public transport (IPT) modes namely auto-rickshaws and e-rickshaws through users' perception. A questionnaire-based survey was carried out to collect users' data about the importance and satisfaction on a six-point Likert scale. A total number of 856 filled questionnaires were taken and analyzed using Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA). The analysis showed that the attributes of security, convenience for elderly and differently-abled people, and safety of female users, especially during night hours were assigned high importance but low satisfaction with both IPT modes. Further, it was also found that on-board illumination inside the vehicle at night for auto-rickshaw and safety concern for e-rickshaw was also rated with high importance but with low satisfaction. In order to increase the patronage of these IPT modes and improve their service quality, the above attributes were needed to be addressed on a priority basis. The attributes having a high satisfaction need to be maintained at least at the existing levels. The findings of the study shall be useful for policy makers and operators in planning and improvement of the transportation systems of mid-sized cities of developing countries.

Awareness, Consideration and Usage Frequency of On-demand Transport Services in the Indian Context

App-based transport services (ABTS) are transforming both individual travel behaviour and transport systems in cities around the world. In this context, this study investigates three inter-related choice dimensions pertaining to ABTS, namely: (1) awareness, (2) consideration for work commute and (3) the overall usage frequency, in an Indian city. The role of demographic characteristics, workplace and work commute patterns, contextual influences, usage of other modes for commute and the quality of service of existing transit and IPT (Intermediate Public Transport) modes in these three choice dimensions are investigated. The results show that awareness is not endogenous with either consideration or usage frequency. However, consideration for work is endogenous with the frequency of use of ABTS. The impact of endogeneity is seen in the form of heterogeneity in responsiveness to independent variables. There are significant differences in the sensitivities to exogenous influences between those who consider ABTS for work trips and those who do not. Factors that influence the consideration of ABTS for work such as trip chaining and commuting at early hours have contrasting effects on the usage frequencies of the two user segments. Workers considering ABTS for work are more sensitive to the comfort of personal vehicle use and easy access to shared modes while the other segment is more sensitive to issues of traffic congestion and loss of productivity during travel. Some variables are also found to have contrasting effects on awareness and usage frequency.

Joint Model of Application-Based Ride Hailing Adoption, Intensity of Use, and Intermediate Public Transport Consideration among Workers in Chennai City

The introduction of mobile application-based ride hailing services represents a convergence between technologies, supply of vehicles, and demand in near real time. There is growing interest in quantifying the demand for such services from regulatory, operational, and system evaluation perspectives. Several studies model the decision to adopt ride hailing and the extent of the use of ride hailing, either separately or by bundling them into a single choice dimension, disregarding potential endogeneity between these decisions. Unlike developed countries, the literature is sparser for ride hailing in developing countries, where the demand may differ considerably because of differences in vehicle ownership, and availability and patronage of many transit and intermediate public transport (IPT) modes (the shared modes carrying 40% shares in some cases). This study aims to bridge these gaps in the literature by investigating three interrelated choice dimensions among workers in Chennai city: consideration of IPT modes, the adoption of ride hailing services and the subsequent usage intensity of ride hailing services. The main factors influencing these decisions are identified by estimating a trivariate probit model. The results indicate that sociodemographic and locational characteristics and the availability of IPT modes influence ride hailing adoption, whereas work-related constraints and perception of other modes affect its frequency. Work and non-work characteristics affect both the dimensions of ride hailing. Further, endogeneity is observed between ride hailing and IPT adoption after controlling for these variables, whereas evidence of endogeneity is absent among other dimensions. Mainly, the model separates the effect of the exogenous influences on the usage frequency level from their effect on the adoption of ride hailing services.

Passing behaviour on two-lane suburban arterials: an observation under mixed traffic with a significant fraction of battery-run e-rickshaws

In recent times, battery-operated e-rickshaws have gained popularity as a mode of Intermediate Public Transport (also known as paratransit mode) in the majority of the developing countries. They are growing very fast and have started replacing existing motorised paratransit vehicles. Static and dynamic characteristics of such vehicles are, however, quite different than those of motorised ones, and as a result of it, they interfere with operations of traffic while sharing the same road space to a great extent. The focus of this research was, therefore, to understand their impact on traffic when it is mixed in character. Based on a field study on two suburban arterials, the paper has shown that the rising growth of e-rickshaws increases the frequency of vehicle platooning and eventually results in a significant speed drop in the traffic stream. Analysis of overtaking data obtained from about 50 test runs on each study section reveals that a section of drivers tend to undertake unsafe overtaking attempts and number of such offenders’ crops up when the proportion of such modes increases further. In view of the practical implications of increasing the physical size of the existing infrastructure, the present paper explicates the need for suggesting appropriate traffic management schemes under the circumstances of mixed traffic dynamics.

Problems Affecting the Accessibility of Physically-Challenged Individuals to Intermediate Public Transport Services in Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract The greatest challenge of physically-challenged individuals is mobility, thereby making access to public transportation essential to independent living for these individuals. The study was conducted in Oyo State. Multistage sampling method comprising purposive and simple random sampling was used to select a sample size of 226 students from three special education centres in the state. Findings revealed that factors such as operators’ impatience/discrimination, waiting time and lack of assistance were major problems that affects accessibility to IPTs. Furthermore, results showed that difficulties experienced by the physically-challenged individuals differ significantly by the nature of disability as evidenced by a chi-square value of 37.218, p<0.05. It was therefore recommended that government should listen more to these transport disadvantaged people living with disabilities and integrate their concerns/suggestions in the design, implementation and monitoring of transport infrastructure and services as well as providing sustainable transport means to their transport challenges.

A study of Mumbai and Hyderabad’s intermodal transportation hubs and their potential in the future railway-led urban development in India

With the rapid urbanization and growing transportation demand in India, innovative solutions and methods are being evolved and borrowed from other countries. Over the last decade numerous Mass Rapid Transit Systems have come up in various cities like Metro Rails, Monorails and Bus Rapid Transit Systems. These systems meant for transport of large number of passengers at quick intervals spanning lengthy distances have simplified the life of the citizens. The interconnection of these public transport modes with intermediate public transport (IPT) is now an important issue not only from the user point of view for seamless travel across the city, but also from the authorities’ perspective to be able to offer higher quality of services. The railway-led urban development in India corresponds to the spatial planning around it and has direct impacts on population density, land use change and economy. This paper is an attempt to understand the intermodal transport hubs in Mumbai and Hyderabad and their potential in future railway-led urban development in India. This is achieved through the investigation of stations along the comparatively new Metro lines and reviewing the prevalent policies and the stakeholders that can influence the development around the station nodes.

Comparison of life cycle environmental performance of public road transport modes in metropolitan regions

A comparative life cycle energy and environmental inventory has been developed for public road transport modes in metropolitan regions in India. The environmental performance of public bus transport (PBT) and intermediate public transport (IPT) modes, viz. taxi and auto-rickshaw, in Mumbai Metropolitan Region has been assessed and compared at off-peak, average and peak levels of vehicle occupancy. Moreover, the environmental performance of vehicles adhering to Bharat Stage (BS) emission norms has been assessed. The inventory captures both vehicle operation (tail-pipe emissions) and non-operation components (e.g. vehicle manufacturing, vehicle maintenance and fuel production). GaBi 6.5 has been used to assess the environmental impact in terms of global warming, acidification, eutrophication, photochemical ozone creation, abiotic depletion potential and primary energy demand. The functional unit of the study was defined as passenger kilometre travelled in 15 years, the service lifetime of the vehicle. The results show that tail-pipe emissions dominate the life cycle environmental impact of PBT (75% of 17.2 g CO2-eq/PKT), taxi (78% of 85 g CO2-eq/PKT) and auto-rickshaw (78% of 78 g CO2-eq/PKT). However, in case of vehicles adhering to BS-VI stringent emission norms, vehicle non-operation components dominate the life cycle environmental impact of public road transport modes. Therefore, vehicle non-operation components should be considered while addressing the environmental performance of public road transport modes. For all three occupancy levels, PBT is environment-friendly compared to IPT modes. However, the break-even point assessment highlights that the bus services should be operated with at least 11 passengers to make its global warming potential equivalent to IPT modes. In case of shared services of the taxi and auto-rickshaw, this equivalency increases to 23 and 29 passengers, respectively. Eventually, this study provides the benchmark that can lead regional transport planners to more informed and prioritized mitigation measures for improving the environmental footprint of public transportation in metropolitan regions in India.