Public Bus Transport Research Articles

Modernization of the Public Transport Bus Fleet in the Context of Low-Carbon Development in Poland

The development of urban transport in recent years has become one of the most important issues related to improving the quality of life in Polish cities. Excessive pollution in the form of greenhouse gases and other harmful substances from buses affects people’s health as does the excessive noise. This article analysed the measures being taken to reduce emissions, and the results showed that it is possible to reduce CO2 emissions by more than 28 thousand megagrams (Mg) per annum. Policymakers in Poland should consider limiting electricity generation through coal combustion and recognize, at least temporarily, CNG/LNG-powered buses as low-carbon rolling stock and co-finance their purchase and the necessary infrastructure.

Analysis of bus performance on the risk of traffic accidents in East Java-Indonesia

Bus transportation performance must be able to demonstrate safety performance capabilities, one of which is the condition of the vehicle. Therefore, to achieve bus vehicles' safety performance, research must be carried out to determine the causes of accidents. This study aims to determine the causes of accidents related to vehicle conditions. Some of the variables that are observed include brake, wheel, equipment, stability, and worthiness. The data collection method used is to collect secondary data on the incidence of accidents from each Resort Police Office in each district traversed by the intercity public bus route. The roads traversed by the public bus transportation routes between the cities that are the object of the study include Sidoarjo Regency, Pasuruan Regency, Probolinggo Regency, Mojokerto Regency, Madiun Regency, and Ngawi Regency. The analytical method to obtain mathematical modeling is to use Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The results show that five factors analyzed, four main actors, cause intercity bus accidents, namely brakes, wheels, stability, and worthiness. The four factors are interrelated with each other, where these factors support each other and trigger accidents and obtained a mathematical model of the factors causing the accident which can be explained by two mathematical equations, namely PC1=0.61X1+0.70X2+0.46X3+0.63X4+0.72X5 and PC2= 0.47X1 0.17X2+0.76X3 0.26X4+0.31X5. The study results also illustrate that accidents caused by an inappropriate wheel are always followed by a breakdown of the braking system that is not functioning properly, and the wheel system consisting of wheel and brake conditions will be a problem triggering the accident

Performance Measures and Level of Transit Service Assessment of Public Transport Bus Network in Baghdad City during 2002-2003

Buses of General Company for Passenger Transport was the primary mode for public transportation in Baghdad City. This system suffers from many problems, part of which were related to bus routes, while the other part was related to the bus and its operators. These problems have a direct effect on the users of public transport buses. The objective of this study was to assess the performance of eight public transport bus routes which they represented by the Al-Tahrir bus network and adopting the level of the transit service method. Seven transit performance measures were selected in this study, such as bus travel time, hours of service during the day, service frequency (headway), total delay on the route, running speed of the bus, bus occupancy, and capacity of the route. The results of this study showed that bus routes No. (72, 36, 13, 114, 11, 30, 37, and 9) were operating at overall Level of Transit Service LOTS (D, E, E, E, E, D, E, and E) respectively, whereas the bus network (Al-Tahrir bus network) was operating at overall LOTS (E); therefore, the performance of Al-Tahrir bus network was not acceptable, and improvements were needed to increase the level of transit service of this network.

Fare inequities in public transit system in Costa Rica

Problems in transit fare equity affect the daily commute of specific groups that depend mostly on public transportation. Previous studies showed that some routes present operational characteristics that increased the price charged to the users. To address this issue, a methodology to identify the routes that have fares much higher than expected, after considering operational parameters, is developed. This paper presents a methodology implemented to evaluate fare inequities in public transport networks. The case study is the bus public transport network in Costa Rica. The evaluation is performed using fare per kilometer as independent variable and operational variables, such as route length, monthly ridership and vehicle occupancy by using cluster analysis and Bayesian multilevel modelling. The results indicate that random coefficients models perform better than independent models for clustered data. Furthermore, the routes with higher differences between observed and estimated (i.e. expected) fares are the ones to be addressed first in individual audits, because these are the routes who charge higher operational costs into the fare, increasing inequity among the population.

Influence of public transport quality attributes on user satisfaction of different age cohorts

This study developed a multi-group structural equation model to determine the relationship between general satisfaction and quality attributes of public bus transportation, based on the users’ perception, and compare the effects of these attributes for different age cohorts. The structural equation model approach allows the analysis of interrelations between quality attributes evaluated in the survey (observed variables) and the interrelations between unobservable variables (latent variables). The three latent variables evaluated in this study were Operational characteristics, Comfort, and User exposure to externalities. The results attest the theory that Operational characteristics have a direct influence on General satisfaction, while Comfort and User exposure to externalities have an indirect influence on satisfaction. The analysis for different age cohorts showed that the importance of indicators within each latent variable is the same, but the impact of Operational characteristics on General satisfaction is higher for Young adults.

Identification of Affecting Factors on the Travel Time Reliability for Bus Transportation

Public bus transit travel time is affected by many factors, including traffic signals and traffic condition. Transit agencies have implemented transit signal priority (TSP) strategies to reduce transit travel time and improve service reliability. However, due to the lack of empirical data, these factors' collective impact and bus travel time strategies have not been studied at the stop-to-stop segment level. This research focuses on the factors affecting travel time reliability, emphasising the variability between operators and the policy implications of such differences. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) statistical methods have been used to assess the quality implications of public bus transportation time reliability. This research seeks to investigate the factors affecting the travel time (TT) reliability of bus transport. Studies were conducted along three bus routes serving different areas. Factors strongly related to TT reliability include route length, number of signalised intersections, day of the week, bus stops, departure delays, bus lane, passenger boarding and alighting, weather condition, and fare structure. Based on the proposed model factors affecting TT reliability, it was found that TT is strongly affected by the number of bus stoppings and also the length of the route. The reliability of all three routes during the weekday is low because of delays in departure. The number of signalised intersections along the route affects reliability. Meanwhile, more passengers boarding and paying cash increased the travel time reliability of buses.

Multimodal pricing model in a deficit public transport market: Implication of informal transport

This article explores one of the most important segments of public transport in developing countries, namely informal transport and its relation to the pricing system of public transport. This paper is an extension of the work of Tirachini, A. and Hensher, D.A., who have developed a model to analyze the impact of non-motorized transport on an optimal public transport pricing policy. We are looking at three congested modes of transportation, and we introduce informal transport as an independent mode of transport instead of non-motorized transport in this analysis. Informal transport has never been incorporated into an intercity transport pricing analysis and this is the first one that informal transport has been considered an autonomous mode in a pricing model. We tried to show how the pricing policy would change by considering or ignoring the Informal Transport. We propose three congested modes (Public transport, particular vehicular and informal transport) pricing model that incorporates informal transport and reconstruct the impact of a capacity constraint on optimal public transport prices. Pricing model were developed explaining the first best and second best prices and the changes effects of capacities and frequency of public transport bus.

Public bus transport service satisfaction: Understanding its value to urban passengers towards improved uptake

To accurately direct investments towards sustainable transit, current transport status and factors driving passengers towards private cars instead of public transport (PT) should be identified first. Past research advocated improvements in PT to shift mode-usage but has yet to model the different causal effects that direct bus users to cars in rapidly developing yet congested areas. On-board questionnaire survey data from intra-city Abu Dhabi bus passengers (n = 1520, variables = 31) over a month were gathered in this study during both weekends and weekdays. The study modelled existing bias of travellers and quality attributes as antecedents of bus service's perceived value for money (VfM) and satisfaction from level of service (LoS) and mode choice (car vs. bus) as the ultimate consequence. Findings revealed that any previous biased opinions of travellers adversely affected satisfaction and perceived value, while quality attributes had a positive effect. Mode use was influenced by satisfaction from LoS (frequency of buses and network coverage), which was a positive consequence of perceived VfM (quality of ride and level of fare trade-off). Journey time and bus-stop waiting area quality also positively influenced satisfaction from fare level while passenger socio-demographic distribution showed that most respondents travelled more than five times a week by bus and were full-time workers and transport agencies may target service improvements around office-hours.

Service innovation in digitalized product platforms: An illustration of the implications of generativity on remote diagnostics of public transport buses

The digitalization of products stimulates service innovation and new business opportunities for industrial manufacturing firms. These opportunities are driven by generativity, which denotes digital technology's capacity in enabling organizations to innovate. While generativity on the one hand provides opportunities for digital service innovation, on the other hand it challenges the traditional business logic of industrial manufacturing firms. The traditional stable product-centric businesses where resources of a product platform are controlled by industrial manufacturing firms become destabilized and driven towards a flexible service innovation. The aim of this research is to explore the implications of generativity for service innovation in digitalized product platforms. We show the paradoxical relationship between generativity and control by following a bus manufacturer's endeavour in service innovation with digitalized public transport buses. We contribute with empirical illustrations of the implications for service innovation with three different degrees of control in digitalized product platforms.

Mixed electric bus fleet scheduling problem with partial mixed-route and partial recharging

Given the goal of reducing emissions and saving energy, an increasing number of transit agencies have proposed electrification plans for public transport buses. The two fundamental challenges to adopting electric vehicles in transit operations are the purchase of appropriate electric vehicles to establish the bus fleet and the creation of an efficient schedule and recharging plan. This paper examines the multi-depot and multi-vehicle type electric vehicle scheduling problem with partial mixed-route strategy and partial recharging policy. The partial mixed-route strategy proposed in this paper allows multiple transit routes to operate in a more cost-efficient way. Moreover, it takes into account the bus allocation problem of the transit network fleet to meet the parking restrictions of each depot. The problem is formulated in a mixed-integer programming model, and an adaptive large neighborhood search (ALNS) algorithm with new mechanisms specific to the problem is proposed to apply the model in a more efficient manner. The dataset of a real transit network in Nanjing is used for case study, and the performance of ALNS is tested by using randomly generated instances from the dataset. The results show that the proposed method is effective in finding high quality solutions and adopting partial recharging policy can reduce the fleet size and the total cost while providing advantages depending on the operational parameters of the schedule. In addition, comparison of two schedules using different partial mixed-route strategies shows that there may be two sides of adopting mixed-route scheduling.

Factors Influencing Passengers’ Preference towards Public Bus Transportation from Kelantan to Northern Region

A convenient and reliable transport system is integral for every country’s development and this study investigates the factors that influence passengers’ preference towards public bus transportation from Kelantan to Northern Region. The number of passengers who travel to Northern Region by public bus transportation is larger than using train and flight. This research adopted quantitative method where a total of 384 respondents who are using express bus to commute to their destinations. This study was performed in Kota Bharu, Kelantan using simple random sampling technique. The study tested the hypothesis that the factors are positively related to the passengers’ preference. The reliability and Pearson Correlation was also tested with the help of Cronbach’ Alpha. The findings of this study show that factorssuch as accessibility, convenience and safety, play considerable role in promoting the use of public bus transportation. However, the study revealed that price of the bus ticket was the leading factor that influence passengers’ preference. The results of this study will be helpful to the management of bus operators in their effort to continuously upgrade their services for their customer services and recommends that future studies should be conducted using a large sample size and also involve other bus transport service providers in other states or Malaysia as a whole.

The Improvement of Suroboyo Bus Public Transportation Services Based on the Bus Golek Application Innovation in the City of Surabaya Indonesia

One of the government's duties to fulfill the need for safe, comfortable and affordable public transportation services so as to facilitate the mobilization of the community in carrying out its activities is the Golek Bus Application Service as an innovation in improving public transportation services for users of the Suroboyo Bus service. The purpose of this research is to find out and describe the application innovation Gobis in improving public transportation services Suroboyo Bus in the city of Surabaya by using qualitative research methods with data collection techniques observation, interviews, and documentation. Data analysis techniques are data collection, data condensation, data presentation, and drawing conclusions. The results show that the five attributes of innovation are as follows: 1) Relative advantage in innovation has been carried out optimally because it has advantages over previous innovations, 2) Conformity in the innovation of gobis applications in suroboyo bus services is optimal, but there are still some that need improvement due to the lack of additional routes for lines that match the corridors in the gobis application, 3) The complexity of this new innovation is also good but there are still shortcomings related to the arrival and departure schedules of Suroboyo Bus.

Smart bus transportation for tracking system: A study case in Indonesia

The current public transportation system must improve the quality of its services so that they can go hand in hand with technological advancements. Transportation, as a supporter of economic progress and development of the country, is expected to be able to answer the high mobility of the community of transportation needs by utilising the expansion of existing technology. Tracking and monitoring bus locations as public transportation is now an important issue that needs attention, but there is no bus tracking system based on mobile that can provide real-time locations. The research aimed to design a wireless sensor network that automatically identified and provided accurate information about travel routes and the movement of public transport buses in real-time. By using Global Positioning Systems (GPS) as vehicle tracking systems and sensor that support, this application provided bus position information and the nearest bus route recommendations to users in real-time. Thus contributing to the time management of public transport users in their activities.

The influence of ambient scent on the passengers’ experience, emotions and behavioral intentions: An experimental study in a Public Bus service

The service experience, which comprises cognitive, emotional and sensory assessments, is important to encourage a modal shift from the private vehicle to public transport services use. However, knowledge on the effect of sensory cues, specifically ambient scent, on the consumer experience in olfactory-rich servicescapes, as public transport services, is still limited. This study conducted a field experiment within a public bus service, to explore the influence of ambient scent on the relationship between the perceived travel experience and emotions; and between emotions and travel memory, the attitude toward the company's brand and passengers' future behavioral intentions. The results show that ambient scent strengthens these relationships. The stronger influences of ambient scent were found on the relationships between travel experience and emotions, emotions and memory, and emotions and passengers' future behavioral intentions. While adding to the scant knowledge on the topic, the results also suggest that ambient scent, as a marketing tool, should be looked at with closer attention by public transport managers. • The perceived public transport bus travel experience impacts customers' emotions. • Emotions influence memories, attitudes toward the provider's brand and intentions. • These relationships are significantly strengthened by the ambient scent.

A proposed Ghanaian intercity public transport departure scheduling model based on the dynamic rate leaky bucket algorithm

In this paper, the random departure of intercity public transport buses in Ghana which is influenced by the arrival patterns of passengers is shaped into a deterministic one with regular departure intervals based on the dynamic rate leaky bucket algorithm. This is essential because a regulated bus departure system is capable of providing transit information to travellers thereby reducing passenger waiting times. The arrival patterns of passengers were simulated and grouped into three blocks based on the frequency of arrival of passengers. The three blocks represented peak seasons, moderate seasons and off-peak seasons. Departure intervals were then calculated to suit each block. The recommended fleet size required to maintain the departure consistency was also determined based on the fixed departure interval and the round-trip time. The second phase involved developing a bus schedule based on the determined fixed departure intervals and recommended fleet size. The results as depicted with graphs showed that the fixed departure schedule reduced passenger waiting times. The minimum fleet size could also give transit operators an idea of how to manage their fleet to efficiently use resources. The KNUST Campus shuttle was used as a test case for the model. A fixed departure schedule was developed based on the proposed model. Simulation results showed a significant reduction in passenger waiting times for various passenger arrival patterns and also proposed a recommended fleet size and bus capacity.

Performance Evaluation of Public Bus Transportation by Using DEA Models and Shannon's Entropy: An Example From a Company in a Large City of China

The purpose of this paper is to assess the operational efficiency of a public bus transportation via a case study from a company in a large city of China by using data envelopment analysis (DEA) model and Shannon's entropy. This company operates 37 main routes on the backbone roads. Thus, it plays a significant role in public transportation in the city. According to bus industry norms, an efficiency evaluation index system is constructed from the perspective of both company operations and passenger demands. For passenger satisfaction, passenger waiting time and passenger-crowding degree are considered, and they are undesirable indicators. To describe such indicators, a superefficient DEA model is constructed. With this model, by using actual data, efficiency is evaluated for each bus route. Results show that the DEA model with Shannon's entropy being combined achieves more reasonable results. Also, sensitivity analysis is presented. Therefore, the results are meaningful for the company to improve its operations and management.

A SURVEY OF CONSUMER SATISFACTION WITH MOBILE PAYMENT SYSTEM: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF A UNIVERSITY IN ZHEJIANG PROVINCE

Based on the extended study of online payment and settlement, we investigated interesting research on the use of online payment by students. This study mainly investigates the use of mobile payment consumers in a university in Haining, Zhejiang Province in 2020. The research object of this time is a university in Haining, Zhejiang Province. Mobile payment is very popular among young people. In this study, a college student was taken as the object of investigation, with 436 samples N, and the effective questionnaires reached 96%. The correlation was investigated through factor analysis. In recent years, mobile payment system has been more and more popular and used by consumers. Mobile payment is mainly applied to online and offline payment such as two-dimensional barcode shopping (purchased from vending machines and supermarkets), payment by public transportation (bus and subway), and game of grabbing red envelopes. In this study, Likert five-point scale was used to conduct factor analysis, and reliability and validity analysis of this action payment on consumer satisfaction was conducted. Convenience, security, credibility and consumer satisfaction brought by mobile payment system are the main research directions of this study. In the process of research design, we designed three hypothesis models, hoping to verify whether the hypothesis has causal correlation through this model.

Life cycle assessment of bio-methane and biogas-based electricity production from organic waste for utilization as a vehicle fuel

The concerns about climate change, energy security and price fluctuation of fossil fuels are driving the growing interest in the development and utilization of renewable energy as a transportation fuel. In this aspect, the utilization of organic household waste for the production of biogas avoids the environmental impact of landfills. The further upgrading and utilization of biogas as a vehicle fuel avoids the environmental impact of fossil fuels. This paper presents the life cycle assessment of two utilization pathways of biogas produced from co-digestion of organic household waste, grease trap removal sludge and ley crops grown by local farmers. Specifically, this study assessed and compared the environmental impact of the production and utilization of bio-methane and biogas-based electricity as a vehicle fuel for public transport buses in Vasteras, Sweden. The system boundary for biogas production covered seven main steps: cultivation, harvesting and transport of ley crops, collection and transport of waste, pre-treatment and co-digestion of the substrate. The system boundary for bio-methane was further extended to account for the upgrading process and tailpipe emissions from combustion of bio-methane in the buses. In the case of biogas-based electricity, the system boundary was further extended to account for the combustion of biogas in the CHP unit and further utilization of electricity in the electric bus. The evaluation of the production routes showed that the methane losses and high energy consumption for both biogas production and upgrading process dominated the environmental impact of bio-methane production. However, the emissions from the CHP unit were solely responsible for the environmental impact of biogas-based electricity production. The functional unit identified for this study is 1 vehicle km travelled (VKT) of the bio-methane fuelled bus and electric bus. The global warming potential of the electric buses was 0.11 kg CO2-eq/VKT compared to 0.26 kg CO2-eq/VKT for the bio-methane buses. The electric buses could also reduce about half of the acidification and eutrophication impacts associated with the bio-methane fuelled buses. The lower fuel efficiency and high tailpipe emissions decreased the environmental advantages of the bio-methane buses. Eventually, this study ensures the biogas utilization which is environmentally sound and compares favourably with the alternative options.

An Intelligent Framework for Analyzing the Feasible Modes of Transportation in Metropolitan Cities: A Hybrid Multicriteria Approach

The paper aims to build a hybrid personalized multicriteria model in the Indian transportation industry to identify the most feasible transport mode suitable for commuters’ customized preferences. A hybrid multicriterion model, i.e., Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), was used to compute the criteria weights, which were subsequently analyzed by three approaches, namely, Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), Fuzzy TOPSIS, Evaluation Based on Distance from Average Solution (EDA), and Interpretive Ranking Process (IRP). The case of an Indian metropolitan city, Hyderabad, is taken to illustrate the proposed approach. The paper highlights the following transport modes: metropolitan train (unconventional mode) and conventional modes such as the car, public bus transport, and bikes for Hyderabad. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis is performed to identify the consistency in ranking with variation in weights, and the Ensemble Ranking and transportation experts validate the rankings.

Assessing the Risk of Bus Crashes in Transit Systems

Although public transport buses may be considered a safe transportation mode, bus safety is a crucial issue from the perspectives of operators, passengers and local authorities owing to the relevant implications it generates. Therefore, assessing the risk of crashes on bus routes may help improve the safety performance of transit operators. Much research has identified patterns of bus crashes to understand the effects of many factors on the frequency and the severity of them. Conversely, to the best of our knowledge, the research measuring the risk of crashes in bus transit networks is seldom faced. This paper adjusts existing methods to assess the safety on bus transit networks by the integration of safety factors, prediction models and risk methods. More precisely, first, the methodology identifies several safety factors as well as the exposure risk factors. Second, this methodology specifies the risk components in terms of frequency, severity and exposure factors that may affect bus crashes and models their relationships in a risk function. Third, this methodology computes the risk of crashes for each route and provides a ranking of safety performance. A real case study demonstrates the feasibility of this methodology using 3,457 bus crashes provided by a mid-sized Italian bus operator. This experiment shows that transit managers could adopt this methodology to perform an accurate safety analysis on each route. Moreover, this methodology could be implemented in a road traffic safety management system in order to evaluate the risk of crashes on routes, monitor the safety performance of each route and qualify each route according to recent safety norms.