Local Public Transport Services Research Articles

Predicting costs of local public bus transport services through machine learning methods

The present study developed several machine learning-based cost models to predict an efficient total economic cost per vehicle revenue-mile of urban public bus transport. The models were trained on a built-in dataset from 269 transit agencies providing urban services in the United States from 2015 to 2019. A feature selection strategy was implemented, finding that, for each proposed model, a subset of features determined a large impact on unit cost. These “core” features included commercial speed, average salary expenses per employee, vehicle productivity, and fleet ownership cost per vehicle. Machine learning techniques outperformed the linear regression method in terms of predictive power and robustness (understood as the dispersion of predictive power measures over the training sets). Based on SHAP values, the sensitivity analyses showed that the proposed models could be used to predict the impact of changes in some critical features on corresponding unit costs. The results may be useful for: (i) introducing regulatory constraints to the allocation of national public resources to local public bus transport services, aimed at minimizing the resources needed to provide a given level of service; (ii) defining the maximum economic compensation required by firms involved in competitive tendering for the allotment of service concessions, or firms with monopoly rights (by political choice and/or local public ownership); and (iii) improving service contract management and design by identifying key cost drivers of transit services.

Smarter but more unequal transport? How socioeconomic and digital inequalities hinder adoption of mobility apps in the Global South

All over the world, cities are becoming “smarter.” The improved use of data generated by the transport system (e.g. smart cards data), combined with GPS trackers and citizens’ mobile data enabled the development of a new generation of smarter mobile apps (e.g., Waze) and several local real-time public transport services and trip planners. These technologies have the potential to reduce transport inequalities via two mechanisms. First, governments can develop more efficient and evidence-based public transport plans. Second, citizens have access to better, real-time information about public transport for trip planning and, thus, can make better—i.e., more efficient or cheaper—decisions regarding their everyday mobility. To assess whether citizens’ appropriation of smart mobility—as with their appropriation of any other digital service—depends strongly on having a certain set of socioeconomic and digital attributes, we analyzed both a mobility survey and a digital inequalities survey based on representative samples of adult Uruguayans living in the capital Montevideo. We find that while the use of mobility apps increased in the second half of the 2010s, the adoption of these tools was stratified by traditional digital inequalities, such as type of internet access and digital literacy, and by variables that predict inequalities in both digital and transport fields, such as age, gender and education. As a result, mobility continues to be stratified in favor of those who are more knowledgeable (i.e., tech-savvy) and have greater access to digital technology. Thus, “smart mobility” has failed to ameliorate—and may even exacerbate—transport inequality. Policy implications of these findings are discussed.

A quantified planning method of local public transport services for expanding residents’ activity opportunities

The purpose of public transport is to expand activity opportunities of residents. Many public transport planning methods focus on the needs of residents. However, residents can adapt to the environment and form limited needs in areas with low public transport service levels, such as rural areas. Therefore, it is important to focus on activity opportunities (various states of people (being) and actions (being able)) rather than needs. The authors constructed a method for local public transport planning that focuses on activity opportunities; however, the variables and solutions of the model were abstract and thus did not reach the stage of practical application. Therefore, this study aimed to put into practical use a supporting method for local public transport planning. This method consists of a “measurement model for activity opportunity,” in which a given bus service and the ability to use it are variables, and an “evaluation model for planning alternatives” that incorporates a social relationship function and disparity principle. Through a case analysis in a rural area to which this method was applied, its usefulness was verified, and it was confirmed that it can contribute to public transport planning to increase activity opportunities.

Observing Germany’s nationwide public transport fare policy experiment “9-Euro-Ticket” – Empirical findings from a panel study

In spring 2022, the German federal government announced responses to the 2022 cost-of-living crisis. These included among others, a nationwide local public transport ticket for 9 Euro per month. Available only in June, July, and August 2022, it allowed for unlimited travel on all local and regional public transport services in Germany. In transport policy research, this is an almost unprecedented behavioral experiment that allows studying travel behavior and the effectiveness of such instruments. We observed this natural experiment with a three-wave survey and a smartphone-based semi-passive travel diary based on waypoint tracking. We recruited 2,316 participants, out of which 907 agreed to participate in the tracking; the latter are primarily located in the Munich metropolitan region, and most got the 9-Euro-Ticket. 1,454 respondents have completed the three-wave survey and 684 respondents completed the survey and provided travel behavior data with the smartphone app. We find that public transport use increased particularly for 9-Euro-Ticket customers who had no travel pass before. Regular public transport use increased from 29 % before to 38 % during and to 32 % after the 9-Euro-Ticket for our nationwide panel, where around 20 % of 9-Euro-Ticket substituted at least some private transport trips with public transport during the 9-Euro-Ticket. The tracking results show that local public transport travel distances decreased by 37% after the 9-Euro-Ticket for solely 9-Euro-Ticket owners and by 30 % for travel pass holders. Further, discontinuing the 9-Euro-Ticket led to around one-third fewer active public transport users than those with the 9-Euro-Ticket but no travel pass before. The 9-Euro-Ticket caused the expected modal shift, but despite its low price, not all private transport trips were substituted, implying that such a policy instrument alone arguably does not suffice to achieve a successful mobility transition.

Exploring accessibility and service quality perceptions on local public transportation in Thailand

This study aimed to analyze the relationship between perceived accessibility of service quality and intention to use public transportation systems. The sample population comprised 400 public transport users, aged 20–60 years. The study was divided into two parts. The first parttested the quality indicator of public transportation services by modifying the SERVQUAL method. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was then conducted and subsequently analyzed for the correlation between perceived accessibility of service quality and intention to use the public transportation system using the structural equation model (SEM). The results showed that the service quality measurement model consisted of 10 components, comprising 40 indicators. The values met the criteria and were suitable for use as indicators of local public transport service quality in Nakhon Ratchasima Province, Thailand. It was found that attitude was the factor that most affected the intention in using public transport, followed by perceived behavioral control and accessibility. Perceived service quality was considered an important variable for perceived accessibility. The study results indicate that service quality has an effect on perceived accessibility in public transportation systems, especially in terms of responsiveness, convenience, and safety. Enhancing the quality of service in these specific areas will heighten user awareness of easily using public transportation services. Furthermore, it is a pivotal factor in promoting better accessibility to public transport services in rural areas.The last part measured the heterogeneity in perceived accessibility and intention between the groups and found significant differences. The obtained results may be beneficial to the government and agencies involved in formulating policies to promote the use of public transportation and its accessibility. Additionally, the service quality indicators should be considered in improving the service quality of public transportation suitable for the area.

Crowdsourcing, digital co-production and collaborative governance for modernizing local public transport services: The exemplar of General Santos City, Philippines

Informal transport continues to play a significant role in the urban transport systems of developing countries. Modernizing informal transport requires a co-ordinated approach to ensure inclusive and sustainable transition. Massive reforms to the Philippines' public transport system were rolled out in 2017 through its Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP) aimed at modernizing the country's jeepney industry. Consequently, there is a need to explore collaborative governance mechanisms to sustain the momentum of modernization reforms. A framework integrating crowdsourcing and digital co-production toward collaborative governance is explored through participatory action research based on the deployment of the SafeTravelPH public transport crowdsourcing platform in General Santos City, Philippines. The SafeTravelPH app was developed at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The platform actively engages the government, transport industry providers, and passengers in sharing transformative information to improve public transport by collecting and analyzing real-time data on vehicle trajectory, boarding and alighting locations, occupancy and other public transport operational parameters. The study demonstrates the potential of digital technologies and collaborative governance approaches in modernizing local public transport services. The experiences of General Santos City can provide an exemplar for other cities in the Philippines and other developing countries.

The Local Public Transport Service in the Municipality of Suceava

In order to optimize the public administration process, the local authorities, which operate in a decentralized regime, provide public services to the population that satisfies the needs of the beneficiaries of the administrative-territorial unit they represent. In this context, in this paper we propose to analyze the local public transport service in the Municipality of Suceava, which is part of the sphere of community services of public utility and which is a decentralized public service subordinated to the Town Hall of the Municipality of Suceava. We want to analyze how this service is provided to the population of Suceava Municipality and whether decentralization has influenced the development of the local public transport service and the effects that decentralization has in terms of increasing the quality of life for the local community.

Patronage effects of changes to local public transport services in smaller cities

• Analyses of the effects of improving public transport services on patronage. • Cases from eight Norwegian self-contained cities with 12,000–118,000 inhabitants. • Reorganised bus services into fewer, straighter, faster routes with higher frequency. • This resulted in patronage growth of 3.3–17.6% per year in the evaluation periods. • Clear goals and enhanced knowledge were key for successful interventions. • The results show that increased patronage can be achieved in smaller cities. The paper contributes to the scarce empirical knowledge concerning the effects of improving public transport services on patronage. It analyses cases in eight Norwegian cities, varying in size from 12,000 to 118,000 inhabitants, where bus services were reorganised into fewer, straighter, faster and simpler lines with higher frequencies. Walking distances to stops increased in some areas and services were reduced on less used routes. The interventions were followed by patronage growth of 3.3–17.6% per year over the evaluation period, contrasting the pre-change situation of lower growth or decline. Stronger focus on increasing public transport competitiveness versus cars, enhanced knowledge among planners and organisational changes leaving more power to the professionals stood out as important factors explaining why these interventions had been implemented. The results might be relevant for those involved in developing bus-based, regular, local public transport services for largely self-sustained small and medium-sized cities aiming at increasing patronage.

Sustainable Mobility and the Institutional Lock-In: The Example of Rural France

Sustainable mobility issues in rural areas, compared with urban mobility issues, have so far been poorly covered in the French and European public debate. However, local mobility issues are determining factors in territorial inequalities, regional development and ecological transition. This paper is based on preliminary findings of qualitative socio-anthropological fieldwork carried out in two rural departments of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region: Drôme and Ardèche. Our objective is to highlight how the question of sustainable local mobility is linked to governance issues and multiple overlapping institutions. We argue that analyzing stakeholders’ strategies and territorial governance is key to understanding the contemporary dynamics surrounding a transition towards a more sustainable mobility in rural areas. In order to do so, we show how the debates surrounding the adoption of a law allowing for the transfer of responsibility to local authorities for the organization of mobility services reveals the complexity of local mobility governance in rural areas and provides material for the analysis of the logics of stakeholder engagement, cooperation and conflict within the field of sustainable mobility. Through the case study of the organization of a local public transport service in a rural area, we shed light on the action of multiple stakeholders and their potentially antagonistic objectives.

Value for money in procurement of urban bus services – Competitive tendering versus negotiated contracts: Recent New Zealand experience

The new Public Transport Operating Model (PTOM) recently introduced by the New Zealand government for local public transport services involves a mix of competitively-tendered and negotiated bus contracts in the main metropolitan areas. Most features of the procurement procedures and almost all the contract terms and conditions are common to both types of contract. This has provided a rare opportunity internationally to compare the impacts of the alternative procurement methods on contract prices.The paper analyses the prices for the tendered and negotiated bus contracts in NZ's two largest metropolitan areas, Auckland (50 contracts, c.1100 buses) and Wellington (16 contracts, c.400 buses). Key findings are that: (i) for the tendered contracts, significant cost reductions were achieved compared with previous tendering rounds, reflecting the considerable increase in the number of bidders per contract; and (ii) for the negotiated contracts, (gross) costs averaged about 10–15% higher (Auckland) and 30–35% higher (Wellington) than the equivalent tendered costs.These cost disparities reflected the weak position of the regional councils in their contract negotiations with the operators, as a result of the councils not having recourse to tendering as a fallback negotiating position and coming under considerable time pressures to introduce the new services.

Rail versus bus local public transport services: A social cost comparison methodology

In the last years, several Italian legislative interventions concerning the local public transport (LPT) sector aimed at inducing Local Authorities to re-programming the current services by changing the existing transport modes in favor of less expensive ones, while preserving passengers mobility. Indeed, for some local railway routes the existing level demand and its characteristics (e.g. distribution along the day) would justify a switch from rail to bus mode, when the latter are proved to be less expensive in providing comparable services. We propose a methodology to compare the social economic costs associated with the bus and the rail modes in Italy that can represent a simple and effective tool to support the Italian local policy makers in re-programming the LPT services while using more efficiently the (scarce) financial public funds. The comparison is carried out by considering a given level of exogenous demand (e.g. externally fixed), not influenced by the activated transport mode. Differences in the offered level of services are taken into account through estimation of the users cost in terms of in-vehicle trip time. The social economic costs include service production costs, infrastructure usage costs and externalities impacts (e.g. air pollution, congestion, noise). The investment costs for rail and road infrastructures construction are assumed to be sunk, while the generated infrastructure usage costs (increasing maintenance and operations) are included in the analysis. Finally, the proposed methodology is finally applied to an Italian real case.

An Estimation of Origin-Destination Matrices for a Public Transport Network in Makassar using Macrosimulation Visum

The origin-destination (O-D) matrix is fundamental data for transportation planning. It is a primary process for modelling approaches the public transport. Generally, the observation survey of O-D volumes takes much cost, time, and effort. Therefore, establishing an inexpensive and simple observation method is expected to be able to carry out the continuous observation of passengers O-D volumes. Defined that many problems in transport planning and management tasks require an origin-destination (O-D) matrix to represent the travels pattern. The need for low-cost methods to estimate current and future O-D matrix is even more valuable in developing countries because of the rapid changes in population, economic activity, and land use. In this study, the O-D matrix use for modelling trip distribution of passenger in the current and future situation and plotting the model with Visum as a macro simulation program. This study focuses on the O-D volumes on a line of local public transport service. The on-board observation is carrying out, and the frequency of service is observed. Then, the passengers O-D matrix is estimated. These results must be useful to improve the operation of the service of public transport.

The allocation of national public resources in the Italian local public bus transport sector

Local public transport (LPT) operators typically operate at a deficit and require economic compensation from public authorities. In some countries, public funds are provided both at a national (centralized) level and at a regional (decentralized) level. Thus, a proper distribution of such funds should be based on the costs of an efficient operator and a methodology that does not build differential inefficiencies across regions. In this process, the Italian industry reform requires that the main criterion of historical costs currently applied to allocate national public resources among Local Authorities should be gradually overcome in favor of principles that encourage efficiency. We propose an operative methodology to apply standard costs in the allocation of national public resources available for the local public bus transport services to Regions and, in turn, to Local Authorities. Moreover, we perform simulations to illustrate the impact of this methodology in terms of reallocation of national public resources among Local Authorities. Based on certified data, results of this paper fill a severe knowledge gap and support (i) policy makers when it comes to allocate public resources, as well as competition authorities in their market assessment and scholars aimed at investigates this prominent topic.

Pedestrians and Visual Signs of Intent

Autonomous Passenger Shuttles (APS) are rapidly becoming an urban public transit alternative. Traversing populous commercial and residential centers, these shuttles are already operating in several cities. In the absence of a human driver and embedded means of communicating the autonomous shuttle's intent, the task of seamlessly navigating crosswalks and pedestrian-friendly zones becomes a challenging pursuit for pedestrians. We contribute to the emerging notion of AV-Pedestrian Interaction by examining the context of autonomous passenger shuttles (APS) in real-world settings, and by comparing four different classes of visual signals -- namely instructional, symbolic, metaphorical, and anthropomorphic -- designed to communicate the shuttle's intentions. Following a participatory methodology involving local residents and public transport service provider, and working within the framework of inflexible road traffic regulations concerning the operation and testing of autonomous vehicles, we conducted a participatory design workshop, a qualitative, and a survey study. The findings revealed differences across these four classes of signals in terms of pedestrians' subjective perceptions. Anthropomorphic signals were identified as the preferred and effective modality in terms of pedestrians' interpretation of the communicated intent and their perceived sense of attention, confidence, and calmness. Additionally, pedestrians' experiences while judging the intention of transitionary vehicular states (starting/slowing) were reported as perplexing and evoked stress. These findings were translated into design and policy implications in collaboration with other stakeholders, and exemplify a viable way for assimilating human factors research in urban mobility.

Does ICT make city compactness higher? Evidences from compact city attributes in Yogyakarta City’s districts.

From discourse to implementation compact urban development has grown rapidly in nearly two decades. In the era of information communication technology use and popularity of smart city concept, inevitably compact city has entered a new phase: Compact City Version 2.0. In Indonesia, the smart city concept is also flourishing in some cities, even though they are still in early stages of exploring some appropriate strategies. This study aims to look at the effect of the use of ICT in the Yogyakarta City’s districts, proven in previous research to be categorized as districts with high compactness, especially on the attributes of density of population, concentration of activities and social welfare. This research continuously examines how far the influence of ICT is able to give effects on making urban compactness higher. Three districts in the city of Yogyakarta generally with high to very high-density score of compactness were taken as objects of this research. Furthermore, the compact city attributes and its indicators were explored in more detail associated with the use of additional criteria, the ICT usage. The result informs that ICT was able to improve performance for a better compactness. Some of the attributes that were previously weak, such as local public transport services and range of public services were capable of being upgraded by the use of ICT. Meanwhile, attributes that had good performance previously also became stronger. This suggests that ICT with various applications that are appropriate for the life of the urban residents significantly help the performance of the city to be more compact. Welcome to the Compact City Version 2.0!

Is transport poverty socially or environmentally driven? Comparing the travel behaviours of two low-income populations living in central and peripheral locations in the same city

The paper presents a study to explore the relationship between travel poverty and social disadvantage at the local geographical level. The main aim of the research was to identify the extent to which the revealed travel behavioural outcomes of the study participants are due to personal social constraints or environmental conditions in their residential locations. Specifically, we sought to identify if the greater access to local amenities and public transport services of inner city residents led to an increase in their daily travel activities when compared with their urban peripheral counterparts. The research analysed data from a personal travel survey and one-day travel diary with 502 adults aged between 16 and 65 years in two different deprived areas in Merseyside, North West England. Our analysis is somewhat hampered by the small sample size, but the modelled results suggest that more trips, and longer journey distances do not necessarily imply greater social inclusion. The geographically weighted regression models (GWR) highlighted that the physical location of where people live within the city is more influential on their trip-making patterns than social determinants such as household income, age, gender, and/or employment status. Street connectivity, the level of bus services and neighbourhood safety were all particularly significant for determining spatial variations in the daily trips that were undertaken, with more trips being undertaken where there was a greater density of street nodes, bus stops and where people felt safer at night. This highlights the need for local transport and urban policymakers to carefully consider and target these micro-scale factors when attempting to introduce transport interventions to reduce social exclusion amongst low-income urban populations.

Assessing Satisfaction with Public Transport Service by Ordered Multiple Correspondence Analysis

This paper provides a composite indicator for comparing the perceived service of satisfaction of public transport by residents of a southern Italian city across three time periods spanning 2008–2012. Data were collected from 400 respondents that rated their agreement with 15 attribute-related statements regarding local public transport services. This study identifies passenger satisfaction in terms of the various quality aspects of public transport services using features of ordered multiple correspondence analysis. Such a method combines dimension reduction and cluster analysis for categorical data by objectively assigning individuals to clusters and identifying optimal scaling values to each of the categories. The main findings of our study indicate that there are differences in how public transport is perceived during the period of time studied.

Assessment of the efficiency of municipal companies based on local collective transport

The main objective of this article is to determine the effectiveness of enterprises providing municipal services and a model approach for processes related to the provision of local public transport services in Poland. In particular, the identification included methods of organisation and implementation of public utility tasks as well as organisational and legal forms and forms of ownership in the case of local collective transport. An attempt has been made to determine the effectiveness of enterprises providing urban transport services in cities in Poland, assessing their operational, financial, technical and social effectiveness. The research design and methods used in this article are based on the assessment of the effectiveness of enterprises using taxonomic methods of grouping e ntities according to selected characteristics and efficiency measures. The use of the k-means method with the number of clusters determined on the basis of the hierarchical Ward method, in which the contribution of variables to the differentiation of clusters was determined on the basis of a one-way analysis of ANOVA variance, to obtain groups of companies with similar efficiency indicators. The findings, based on the conducted research, present the relationship between the economic efficiency of public transport companies and their organisational and legal form as well as the type of ownership. Recommendations from empirical studies indicate that public enterprises operating in the field of municipal services provide public utility services with a higher level of economic efficiency than other distinctive groups of carriers. The added value is that the research methods presented in this work can be successfully applied to other sectors of the economy and other countries in order to verify the effectiveness of individual organizational, legal and ownership forms of enterprises. JEL classification: L300

Reading Public Service Co-Production through the Lenses of Requisite Variety

This paper conceives municipalities as Smart Local Service Systems (SLSS), where co-production and variety perform as key resources to merge service quality and sustainability. The attention is focused on local public transport services, where users’ involvement in value creation process is considered to be especially relevant. A narrative case study is presented, concerning the mobility service system of the municipality of Bologna (Italy). The research focused on the SMARTIP (Smart Metropolitan Areas Realised Through Innovation & People) European project, which was aimed at enhancing service quality and sustainability through citizens’ empowerment and co-production. Citizens’ involvement in co-planning and co-designing local transport services was found to be critical to improve service quality. Citizens’ empowerment process allows to establish a co-creating relationship among the different stakeholders who are involved in urban mobility, paving the way for their engagement in devising, implementing and assessing transportation services. Public managers should take into consideration the role of value co-creation to enhance the responsiveness of public sector organizations and to achieve increased smartness. On the one hand, a citizens’ empowerment process is required to foster their participation in service co-production; on the other hand, citizens’ involvement engenders a virtuous cycle, encouraging the latter in co-producing public services. This paper represents one of the first attempts to examine service co-production in light of the requisite variety perspective. Co-production allows to merge competing purposes by activating the citizens’ sleeping assets and by absorbing external variety through the creation of internal variety.

Assessing standard costs in local public bus transport: Evidence from Italy

We present a regression model for estimating unit standard costs for the Italian local public bus transport services. We account for quantitative and qualitative characteristics, which contribute to explain the variability of the cost structure. Economic and transport data have been collected from companies producing more than 500 million of bus-kilometers. We find that commercial speed is the most important cost driver, while economies of scale are low and only present in small size services. Results prove a positive correlation between investments in bus fleet and the cost incurred in service provision. Finally, we show how the regression model can be augmented with policy targets in order to fairly allocate among Italian Regions the public funds yearly earmarked to the local public transport sector.