Public Transport Planning Research Articles

A Study on Consistency and Its Actual Situation of Hub Setting by Urban Facility Location Plan and Regional Public Transportation Plan in Local City

A Study on Consistency and Its Actual Situation of Hub Setting by Urban Facility Location Plan and Regional Public Transportation Plan in Local City

Access to bus services: an analysis of the influence of land use types

ABSTRACT During travel, commuters are naturally influenced by built environment factors, particularly land use types. However, the existing literature overlooks this impact and neglects the application of the adjusted Gaussian two-step floating catchment area method in studying accessibility to metro. To analyse the influence of land use types on accessibility to transit and the nature of such influence, we employed the adjusted Gaussian two-step floating catchment area method in measuring accessibility and the entropy index in gauging land use diversity. We also deduced the changes in accessibility scores to capture the effects of land use types. Additionally, we examined the differences in the bus and metro accessibility scores to clarify the influence of each mode. The accessibility scores in the study area were influenced by the land use types within it, and this influence was significant in the core administrative districts. These findings will support policymakers in land use and public transport planning.

Understanding the impact of COVID-19 on mobility behavior of public transport passengers: the case of Metropolitan Area of Porto

Public transport systems worldwide experienced significant declines in usage during the COVID-19 pandemic due to lockdowns and work-from-home mandates. While numerous studies have examined these phenomena, there is still a need for empirical evidence that not only documents what occurred but also provides actionable insights for future transport planning. This study aims to enhance understanding of public transport passengers’ mobility behaviors during different stages of the pandemic, using the Metropolitan Area of Porto, Portugal, as a case study. Automated Fare Collection data from 2020 were analyzed and compared with data from the pre-pandemic year of 2019. The analysis included temporal, spatial, spatio-temporal, and sociodemographic dimensions. Key patterns and trends identified include a rapid recovery of ridership post-restriction easing, homogenized daily travel patterns, varied impacts on different transport modes, and significant shifts in demographic travel behaviors. These findings highlight the resilience of public transport demand and suggest that adaptive scheduling, enhanced safety measures, targeted support for vulnerable groups, promotion of off-peak travel, investment in bus infrastructure, and encouragement of multi-modal transport are essential strategies. Implementing these strategies can help improve public transport planning and mitigate the adverse effects of future crises.

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.

The public transport disadvantaged in a highly transit-oriented city: An analytical framework, key challenges and opportunities

This paper proposes a holistic framework to identify public transport disadvantaged areas in terms of the level of services (LOS), area-based accessibility, and facility-based accessibility by employing the General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) dataset. The framework considers the spatial and temporal levels of transit services, the spatial separation by urban functional areas, the availability of facilities based on the cumulative opportunity method, and the minimum time cost based on dual accessibility. A case study is performed in Hong Kong. The results show that the main problem for rural residents using public transport services lies in walking to transit stops/piers instead of long waits at public transport stops or infrequent services. The map of area-based accessibility shows great variations by urban functional areas. Despite being a highly transit-dependent city, we find huge disparities of accessibility to public facilities within Hong Kong and people living in some rural areas have difficulties in accessing basic services such as education, health care and shopping through public transport. Theoretically, this study reinforces the significance of place-based transport disadvantage and its intricate relationship with urban form. Empirically, it provides practical recommendations for public transport planning. The findings can direct transit agencies to re-plan and deploy services such as introducing demand-responsive transit services to better address the needs of people living in transport disadvantaged areas.

Alighting location estimation from public transit data: a case study of Shenzhen

ABSTRACT This study proposes a framework to estimate alighting locations from Smart Card Data (SCD) that are absent information on entry-only public transport systems such as buses and trams. The proposed method uses the characteristics of SCD to (i) determine boarding locations from SCD and GPS-bus data based on exact match and time windows using common attributes, (ii) infer individuals’ home locations and user types from multimodal SCD, (iii) estimate alighting locations using inferred information with different scenarios such as with and without home locations based on the type of users. Reliable results are obtained once home locations are identified with high confidence for all user types. The proposed framework is applied to Shenzhen, China as a case study to validate the proposed model's effectiveness. The study offers valuable insight into aligning location estimation from user types to optimise the quality of public transport planning and services.

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.

Empowering Urban Public Transport Planning Process for Medium-Sized Cities in Developing Countries: Innovative Decision Support Framework for Sustainability

The challenges resulting from rapid economic growth, urbanization, and increased motorization in developing nations necessitate a comprehensive and sustainable approach to urban public transport planning. While sustainable urban public transport (SUPT) planning offers a solution, the complexity of choosing suitable policy measure options remains a challenge. This study first introduces a decision support framework (DSF) that integrates the sustainable urban public transport manual (SUPTM) adopted for generating the potential SUPT policy measure options, the KonSULT knowledge base applied for providing the performance scores of each measure option for all determined criteria, and the HMADM (including FAHP, FSM, and TOPSIS) technique to create, rank, and select SUPT policy measure options tailored to medium-sized urban areas in developing nations. A case study of Khon Kaen City, Thailand, illustrates the practical application of the framework, resulting in a set of 31 (91.2%) out of the total of 34 ranked policy measure options. Comparing these prioritizations with the city’s existing plan reveals a substantial agreement, which suggests the potential applicability of the DSF. Overall, the DSF marks a significant advancement in SUPT planning, which is crucial for shaping efficient, equitable, and environmentally conscious urban mobility in developing countries, which are undergoing transformative change.

Agent-based decision-support model for bus route redesign in networks of small cities and towns: case study of Agder, Norway

Small cities and towns often struggle to provide high-quality public transport services to daily commuters. This is reflected in the modal split, where the share of car users dominates. Such a problem requires a modern solution, where transport planners can verify the impact of potential transport network improvements on the travel behavior of the residents before the changes are actually deployed. This study aims to demonstrate the usefulness of employing an agent-based simulation tool in the decision process for redesigning an express service regional bus route connecting a network of small cities and towns. The model was initially developed as a Mobility as a Service simulation solution for suburban areas of European metropolises. The model is adapted and applied to a case study for the region of Agder, Norway, simulating the impact of nine different scenarios on the patronage of a specific bus route. The simulation model proposes to upgrade the classic agent structure to a persona profile designed specifically for the case study. The main objective of this research is to identify the scenario that maximizes patronage while minimizing total route travel time and additional costs. The results suggest that the proposed model can be successfully adapted from suburban metropolitan areas to the realities of the considered case study, and potentially other similar regions. Specifically, out of the nine proposed scenarios, the model identified four promising ones. One of the four scenarios also fits the cost constraints imposed by the transport provider. The model provides a solid approach for analyzing complex transport systems that are practically impossible to consider in detail if the analysis is done without computer support. Thus, the results can be used as a decision support system for public transport planning and operations in networks of small cities and towns.

Making MOVES move: Fast emissions estimates for repeated transportation policy scenario analyses

Efforts to reduce US emissions from transportation rely greatly on the Environmental Protection Agency's MOVES software to estimate pollutant emissions, a high-precision, computationally intensive tool with many required inputs. To compare numerous scenarios at scale, decision-makers need a faster, user-friendly, and credible emissions estimator. This study introduces MOVESLite, a framework for making fast, highly accurate predictions (with respect to MOVES) of emissions tailored to a user's county, with a limited, more user-friendly number of inputs. MOVESLite uses county- and pollutant-specific models trained on previous MOVES estimates to estimate transportation emissions immediately. While MOVES may take minutes-to-hours to estimate one county-year's emissions, MOVESLite takes approximately 1 ms, with acceptable accuracy. We test MOVESLite performance, comparing thousands of possible models' accuracy for random samples of US counties, and we implement a case study of public transportation planning in Tompkins County, NY. MOVESLite aims to help decision-makers compare and select effective climate action policies.

Prospects and Challenges of E-Rickshaws in Urban Transportation Systems of Bangladesh: A Case Study of Rangpur City Corporation

The availability of public transportation is frequently insufficient and the quality of the services is quite low in many cities of developing country. This is mostly because of the growing discrepancy between the supply and demand for transportation infrastructure and the provision of services. As a result, E-rickshaws (battery-operated electric three-wheelers locally termed as Auto/Easy bike) have emerged as a form of para-transit/informal public transport in many developing country cities and providing flexible and demand-responsive services to users. E-rickshaws are becoming one of the main travel modes and playing a crucial role in urban mobility because bus-based or formal public transportation is lacking in many medium- and small-sized cities in Bangladesh. This study made an effort to answer how E-rickshaws might function in the future when public bus service will be launched in a mixed traffic situation of Bangladesh. Rangpur in Bangladesh was selected as the representative of developing country cities for conducting the case study. This study is generally based on primary survey because the E-rickshaw is a new concept in urban transport. Primary data were collected at different road intersections and some temporary E-rickshaw stands in Rangpur City (as no permanent E-rickshaw stand in the city). Basically, the data was collected by Questionnaires Survey with E-rickshaw Drivers and Users; Focus Group Discussion (FGD) with E-rickshaw union members and Key Informants Interview (KII) with local authorities who are concerned with E-rickshaws. The driver-owned, operational E-rickshaw has an income-investment ratio of 1.45 and generates an average daily income of BDT 850. According to the survey, 81% of the drivers of E-rickshaws agreed that their current financial situation or income is better than it was when they worked in another or previous occupation. Compared with other travel modes, commuters are very satisfied with the quality of E-rickshaw services. Based on study findings it may be concluded that the E-rickshaw is a potential future-proof means of transportation. Public transport planning should include E-rickshaw in providing services which may not be catered by the formal public transport. The conclusions drawn from this case study is that locations may be applied to other places in the country or cities where rickshaws are a significant source of informal public transportation.

Rescaling public transport planning in Sweden: investigating the continued planning at the scale ‘left behind’

ABSTRACT This paper aims to contribute to a qualitative understanding of rescaling and its impact on planning strategies and governance relations across scales. By investigating the effects of rescaling for the old scale ‘left behind’ – through the case of public transport planning in Sweden – this paper illustrates how rescaled tasks continue to engage the scale ‘left behind’ (and is a source of ‘tensions’), long after a rescaling process has taken place. Through the lens of rescaling, three main points of discussion are highlighted in the paper: Firstly, processes of rescaling are intertwined with policy layering, and can as such be a source of both ‘good and evil’ for the continued planning on the scale ‘left behind’. Secondly, this calls for an increased geographical sensitivity in research when investigating the effects of rescaling, as the formal and practical outcomes of rescaling can be spatially unequal for planning bodies with similar formal mandates on the same scale. Thirdly, the development of governance relations and ‘tensions’ between new and old scales, are by no means static in time nor space, and calls for increased dialogue across planning scales to aid in the transition of responsibilities from the old to the new scale.

Determinants of irregular demand for regional rail passenger services – case study of High Tatras in Slovakia

AbstractThe demand for public transport by tourists increases significantly in tourist-attractive destinations. This is in addition to regular passengers commuting to school and work. The level of irregular demand is influenced by several factors related to the characteristics of the day of the week, the period of the year, and the current weather. The main goal of the paper is to verify which factors most influence the irregular demand for transport in a tourist-attractive area to ensure operational planning of public passenger transport. Thanks to this, it is possible to ensure sufficient capacity and, at the same time, the efficiency of the operation of public passenger transport. The paper analyzes the main determinants of the irregular demand for regional public rail passenger transport in the High Tatras region of Slovakia. Multiple linear regressions were used to model the number of irregular passengers. The variables representing the day of the week, the attractiveness of the period, and the holiday were found to be the most significant. The variables describing the weather such as maximum daily temperature, precipitation, clouds, and wind had less influence. The obtained mathematical models for forecasting the irregular demand for public passenger transport can help optimize the timetable’s operational setting and the train sets’ size.

Speeding up the Passenger Assignment Problem in transit planning by the Direct Link Network representation

When designing a public transport network with the passenger travel time in mind, the passenger assignment problem (PAP) needs to be addressed explicitly. It is a complex problem on its own and even the simplest version requires determination of the shortest path for all demand pairs in the network. It is typically treated as a subproblem of larger problems by public transport planners, such as the transit network design problem (TNDP). In the TNDP, bi-level optimization models and/or metaheuristics are used where the PAP is solved when evaluating a line plan. In doing so, the PAP is often addressed by representing the transit network with a so-called ‘Change-and-Go’ (CNG) network with dummy transfer nodes in order to model transfer penalties as part of the passenger travel time. Then, in order to solve the PAP, the all-pairs shortest path problem needs to be solved for this CNG network representation. In this paper, we present a much more efficient network representation, ‘Direct Link Network’ (DLN), where additional edges are added instead of additional nodes. We compare the theoretical complexity of both representations and the computation time required to solve the PAP by using CNG and DLN on the most commonly used benchmark networks and also several real-life networks. The results show that with the DLN representation, the PAP can be solved multiple times faster than with CNG. Consequently, DLN can significantly speed up all TNDP algorithms that solve the PAP multiple times when designing a public transport network.

IDENTIFICATION OF MOBILITY STRATEGIES FOR SMALL AND URBANIZED BRAZILIAN MUNICIPALITIES

Due to intense urbanization and inadequate planning, various mobility problems have emerged in small Brazilian municipalities. To reverse this scenario, it is necessary to adopt sustainable mobility policies. Thus, this article aims to identify mobility strategies for small and urbanized Brazilian municipalities. Firstly, based on the literature, twenty strategies were identified. Then, experts and managers evaluated these strategies to identify the most suitable ones for small municipalities. Next, the data was analyzed to measure the reliability of the responses, the correlation, and the ranking of the strategies. Finally, the most appropriate strategies were identified using Categorical Principal Component Analysis. The results indicated that the most relevant strategies to be implemented in small Brazilian municipalities are related to policy issues, promoting active transportation, and encouraging public transportation. The findings can improve public policies and transportation planning, with implications for quality of life and sustainable development in small Brazilian municipalities.

Integrated Bus Timetabling and Scheduling with a Mutation-Based Evolutionary Scheme Maximizing Headway Quality and Connections

Public transport planning is a multi-level process that includes various complex tasks. These tasks are traditionally executed sequentially, and the result of each task serves as input for consecutive tasks. A simultaneous integrated consideration of multiple tasks may lead to an overall improved solution, but further increase the complexity of already hard-to-solve planning problems. This work focuses on timetabling and vehicle scheduling and evaluates synergies from the integrated optimization. We investigate an exact sequential, exact integrated, and heuristic approach to solve the combined problem for large public transport networks considering the interlining of vehicles, multiple vehicle types, or multiple depots while additionally aiming to maximize regular “clock-faced’’ headways and transfer connections. Compared to sequential optimization, an integrated approach significantly reduces nominal and operational costs while maintaining high service quality. However, an exact integrated approach is only able to compute solutions for problems of limited size in a reasonable time. We propose an adaptive modular evolutionary extendable scheme that effectively balances computational efficiency and solution quality. By utilizing various problem-specific mutation operators and adaptively applying them based on their impact, the heuristic can compute high-quality solutions for large real-world-inspired public transport networks in a reasonable time while considering short connecting times between lines and regular clock-faced headways.

Entropy-Based Node Importance Identification Method for Public Transportation Infrastructure Coupled Networks: A Case Study of Chengdu.

Public transportation infrastructure is a typical, complex, coupled network that is usually composed of connected bus lines and subway networks. This study proposes an entropy-based node importance identification method for this type of coupled network that is helpful for the integrated planning of urban public transport and traffic flows, as well as enhancing network information dissemination and maintaining network resilience. The proposed method develops a systematic entropy-based metric based on five centrality metrics, namely the degree centrality (DC), betweenness centrality (BC), closeness centrality (CC), eigenvector centrality (EC), and clustering coefficient (CCO). It then identifies the most important nodes in the coupled networks by considering the information entropy of the nodes and their neighboring ones. To evaluate the performance of the proposed method, a bus-subway coupled network in Chengdu, containing 10,652 nodes and 15,476 edges, is employed as a case study. Four network resilience assessment metrics, namely the maximum connectivity coefficient (MCC), network efficiency (NE), susceptibility (S), and natural connectivity (NC), were used to conduct group experiments. The experimental results demonstrate the following: (1) the multi-functional fitting analysis improves the analytical accuracy by 30% as compared to fitting with power law functions only; (2) for both CC and CCO, the improved metric's performance in important node identification is greatly improved, and it demonstrates good network resilience.

Pemanfaatan fasilitas bus rapit transit (BRT) Semarang bagi penyandang disabilitas

Utilization of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) facilities for people with disabilities is an important aspect in efforts to create public transportation that is inclusive and friendly to diverse communities. This research aims to analyze the extent to which BRT facilities can be utilized by people with disabilities and identify the challenges and opportunities faced in the utilization process. This research method involves field surveys, interviews, and qualitative data analysis. The research results show that although several BRT facilities have been designed taking into account the needs of people with disabilities, there are still obstacles in their use. Some of these obstacles include stop accessibility, bus stop designs that are not fully disability-friendly, as well as a lack of understanding and awareness on the part of BRT managers and general users regarding the needs of people with disabilities. On the other hand, this research also identified several opportunities to increase the use of BRT facilities by people with disabilities, including through the development of information and communication technology, active involvement of people with disabilities in the planning and evaluation process of facilities, as well as increasing training for BRT operators and officers in serving passengers. with special needs. It is hoped that this research can contribute to the development of more inclusive public transportation policies and planning, ensuring that BRT facilities not only meet technical standards but are truly accessible and utilized by all levels of society, including people with disabilities.

Integrated Bus Timetabling, Vehicle Scheduling, and Crew Scheduling with a mutation-based evolutionary scheme

Public transport planning is a complex process that covers multiple interdependent planning tasks. Traditionally, these tasks are executed sequentially. However, an integrated approach to planning multiple tasks can improve the overall solution. This study focuses on the timetabling, vehicle scheduling, and crew scheduling problems and evaluates the benefits of integrated solution approaches. A mutation-based evolutionary scheme is proposed and applied to different real-world inspired instances to solve a complex integration of all three planning tasks. Integrated solving of all three problems significantly improves the solution quality compared to a sequential approach. In reasonable computational time, the full integration led to reduced vehicle and duty schedule costs and, as a result, reduced overall costs while keeping the service quality equally high.

The Impacts of Public Transportation Policy on Bus Rapid Transit Operational in the Metropolitan Jakarta

The public transportation planning has an essential role in traffic accessibility management. As the urban population grows, the traffic issues also significantly rise and more complex. The problems are traffic casualties, traffic jams, air pollution, and other severe issues. Meanwhile, the DKI Jakarta managed a regulation number 10 in 2014 regarding the bus rapid transit operation in the metropolitan area. Unfortunately, the private vehicle is still favorable since public buses have many drawbacks, particularly in transportation integration and service. The research aims to analyse the impact of public transport policy on Bus Rapid Transit operation in Metropolitan Jakarta. The methodology applies a qualitative approach, where it analyses the current condition of transportation problems. Besides, a deep review of the Master Transportation Plan is conducted to evaluate the potential problems in Bus Rapid Transit Operation. Following that, the impact of transport policy consists of direct impact, indirect impact, and cumulative impact. The PESTEL analysis applies to study the social, economic, environmental, infrastructure, and regulation in BRT management. The result indicated that the social, economic, and environmental aspect has a direct impact on BRT operation. Meanwhile, only the infrastructure aspect is classified as indirect impact since the integration modes only related to the transport demand. Finally, the mitigation strategy is formulated to overcome the BRT problems in Metropolitan Jakarta.