Public Transport Supply Research Articles

Continuity in public transport provision during the Covid-19 pandemic – responding to organisational and health challenges facing workers

PurposeThis paper explores and analyses the major challenges faced by both customer-facing and office-based public transport employees during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic and the responses of their employers to their concerns.Design/methodology/approachQualitative semi-structured interviews and focus groups were carried out, involving 39 employees and directors representing a wide range of professionals working in the transport sector in three European countries, Poland, Ireland and the UK. Data were analysed through thematic analysis and the emerging issues explored.FindingsMajor employee challenges included: access to resources for safe working; worker mental health and well-being; and the effects of changing working practices, particularly flexible working, on their wider household circumstances and work–life balance (especially combining childcare responsibilities with work). First, physical health safety measures (such as PPE) were put in place for all workers, although sometimes with delays. Second, concerning practical support for mental health and well-being at work, the findings highlight that their employers’ practical support was considered limited by some customer-facing participants. In contrast, participants working from home were offered considerably greater employer support for their well-being, including increased and regular communication regarding work and non-work-related topics to tackle isolation and lack of social interactions. Third, work–life balance, and especially childcare were significant issues for those working from home. To improve organisational resilience, employer support for workers needs to better reflect employees’ job role, work setting and location, as well as their household demands such as childcare.Practical implicationsThe lessons learned from this study contribute to future employer responses and practices and their organisational resilience, both in times of major crises and also for improving mental-health and childcare support in normal times.Originality/valueThe study considers the role of employee perspectives on organisational resilience and service continuity in public transport during a crisis and in three countries. Importantly, the data were gathered contemporaneously during the early stages of the pandemic, and so are not influenced by retrospective rationalisation or uncertain recollections.

An investigation of regional public transport spend in Australia

This paper describes the outcome of a study to investigate the regional public transport spend in each state of Australia. The objective is to derive a reliable figure for comparison and the core metric used is spend per capita. The study assessed publicly available data on public transport spend, followed by a series of consultations with key staff from state bus associations and governments. The analysis was conducted separately for metropolitan (metro) and regional areas and then the regional data were further examined. While the Northern Territory (NT), Tasmania (TAS) and regional South Australia (SA) completely rely on bus services, Victoria (VIC) stands out as the state with the highest public transport spend per head in regional areas with robust train and bus networks which deliver the highest patronage. Western Australia (WA) is the state with the highest bus transport spend per head ensuring relatively high patronage despite the low population density. The study identifies low public transport patronage in regional areas as being influenced by low spending per capita and poor connectivity. It recommends prioritizing improvements in connectivity, multi-modal networks, and opening school buses to the general public. Additionally, funding strategies should focus more on patronage trends linked to spend rather than overemphasizing population density. Further, the study reveals that publicly available data seldom clearly segregates public transport spending in terms of regional and metro expenditure, which would lead to inefficiencies when assessing spatial equity in public transport provision.

The Service Experience Equity on Repatronage Intention within Public Transportation Services

In a highly competitive market, service providers are often expected to enhance their profitability by delivering superior service quality. This principle is evident among many public transportation providers in Malaysia, who strive to elevate the passenger experience through refined service offerings. The objective of this study is to examine the factors influencing repatronage intentions among public transportation users in Malacca, Malaysia, using the Service Experience Equity (SEE) framework. To demonstrate the causal connections between the variables, a regression analysis has been employed. The findings reveal that service atmosphere and personnel interactions significantly impact users' willingness to continue using these services. The study emphasizes the importance for management to prioritize customer experience by investing in service environment strategies that foster user engagement and discourage customer churn. It further underscores that both the overall service experience and the quality of employee-customer interactions are critical determinants of future patronage. Consequently, it is recommended that transportation service providers leverage these elements to create a competitive edge, thereby encouraging repeat usage and building long-term customer loyalty.

Land Use, Travel Patterns and Gender in Barcelona: A Sequence Analysis Approach

Transport systems are essential for the path toward sustainable urbanisation and the transition to more sustainable living. Recently, European cities have undergone substantial changes, and suburbanisation is posing new challenges. Suburban areas are often more affordable in terms of housing, but these neighbourhoods tend to be car-oriented. This leads to higher commuter costs, immobility, transport and time poverty, pollution, higher accident rates and a lack of social interactions. To offer sustainable mobility options to citizens, we must comprehensively understand, together with their individual characteristics, their specific mobility practices and the built environment where they live. This study is centred on the Barcelona Metropolitan Region, which has a public transport network that covers its entire area. The aim of this study is to examine the relationships between travel behaviour, transport mode use, individual characteristics and built environment characteristics in the place of residence using detailed information sources. Herein, we used data from the 2018 to 2021 annual travel survey conducted in the Barcelona region, together with land use and sociodemographic information. Our findings suggest that transport policies have encouraged sustainable mobility practices, particularly in the centre of Barcelona. Despite the positive results, considerable disparities exist between the inner and outer city, with a notable decline in sustainable mobility practices in the latter, due to the uneven distribution of basic services and uneven provision of public transport, together with lower density areas. Our results demonstrate that this uneven distribution reduces the available sequence profiles of inhabitants. In conclusion, the promotion of sustainable mobility policies necessitates further advances in transport, city and land-use planning that consider equity, gender, the socioeconomic profiles of citizens and mixed urban planning.

Efektivitas Pelayanan Publik Feeder Wira-Wiri Kota Surabaya

The city of Surabaya is the capital of East Java province which is known as the city of heroes and is the second largest metropolitan city with a dense population after the city of Jakarta. According to data from the official website of the East Java Central Statistics Agency in 2023, the city of Surabaya has a population of approximately 2,893,698 people, with a large population this will result in an increase in the number of private vehicles which will affect comfort in urban areas. In connection with this, the Surabaya city government has provided a program that aims to overcome problems in the transportation sector, namely the provision of public transportation called Feeder Wira-Wiri by bringing the concept of orderly, safe and comfortable driving or transportation behavior. The aim of this research is to measure the effectiveness of the Wira-Wiri Feeder Public Transport Service in the City of Surabaya. This research uses a quantitative approach using simple descriptive analysis techniques. The data collection technique in this research uses a questionnaire technique. The population of this research is people who use wira-wiri feeder services with a sample of 100 respondents. This research produced interesting findings, including: 1) The results of respondents' responses to the twelve effectiveness measurement indicators showed that all indicators still had values ​​that indicated they were quite effective. However, of the twelve effectiveness measurement indicators, the value indicating quite high effectiveness is found in the flexibility of adaptation indicator with a percentage of 23% and in the productivity indicator with a percentage of 16%. 2) The overall results of the respondents' responses showed that the Surabaya City wira-wiri feeder public transport service was said to be effective with a percentage of 53%.

Environmental resilience of the largest European public transport providers during the COVID-19 pandemic

The environmental commitment of public transport authorities plays a role in addressing the challenges ahead. After the COVID-19 pandemic, we can analyze the strength of green commitments during that turbulent time. Green public procurement (GPP) is a government tool dedicated to mitigating the environmental impact of public acquisitions. These actions can be monitored as an indicator that captures efforts for green actions by organizations. GPP adoption rates among public transport suppliers are comparable across countries because they operate in the same sector and share characteristics that facilitate comparison. In this study, the largest public transport suppliers in 38 European cities are compared from 2010 to 2023. A subsample of 13,280 contract notices was employed for the public transport sector from the Tender Electronic Database and GPP adoption was found to be higher on bus vehicle acquisitions than on tramway/metro vehicle acquisitions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a marked GPP fall. These findings also indicate that while GPP adoption rates are higher among the 38 large public transport suppliers compared with medium and lower ones, the largest ones are not the front-runners in terms of GPP adoption. Our results suggest that environmental priorities are not as significant as one might expect.

Incident reporting and data monitoring of sexual violence and harassment on public transport

IntroductionSexual violence and harassment occur in different settings, including public transport, and cause significant harm to victim-survivors' mental and physical health. While sexual violence and harassment on public transport is a documented problem, the public transport sector uptake has been slow and the true prevalence of sexual violence and harassment on public transport is yet to be determined. We aimed to investigate existing public transport and key stakeholder data systems, and explore the views of service providers, to ultimately improve sexual violence and harassment incident reporting and data monitoring. MethodsUsing a mixed methods design, researchers worked with public transport providers and other interested stakeholders in one Australian state. Twelve organizations were involved in the project and six provided current data on public transport safety for analysis. An audit of public transport and stakeholder websites was also undertaken to assess sexual violence and harassment incident reporting pathways. In addition, seven managers from five public transport organizations were interviewed to capture views on gender sensitive data collection and monitoring, and the challenges and enabling factors facing the sector. ResultsThe results uncovered varied sexual violence and harassment reporting formats and subsequent limited reporting of sexual violence and harassment incidents on public transport. In addition, poor-quality data sets lacked gender sensitivity, comprehensiveness, comparability, reliability and accessibility. Three key themes from public transport providers, on sexual violence and harassment data collection included increasing incident reporting, barriers and enablers of collecting and analysing quality data and governance frameworks. A minimum data set collection tool has been developed and could be tested in future. ConclusionTo improve women's safety on public transport, enhanced gender-sensitive data collection and monitoring is required. Long term government investment in sexual violence and harassment primary prevention strategies on public transport are urgently needed.

Get BusActive!: Protocol of a single-blinded randomised controlled trial incentivising public transport use for physical activity gain among young people and adults.

Population level physical activity generally does not meet recommended targets. Compared with private motor vehicle users, public transport users tend to be more physically active and financial incentives may encourage more public transport use, but these relationships are under-investigated. This paper describes the protocol of a randomised controlled trial that aimed to determine the effect of financially incentivising public transport use on physical activity in a regional Australian setting. Get BusActive! is a 9.5-month single-blinded randomised controlled trial. A convenience sample of Tasmanians aged ≥15 years will be randomised to a 14-week incentive-based intervention (bus trip target attainment rewarded by bus trip credits and weekly supportive text messages) or an active control following baseline measures and will be followed up ∼24 weeks later (maintenance phase). Both groups will receive written physical activity guidelines. The primary outcome is change in accelerometer-measured steps/day from baseline to immediately post intervention phase and maintenance phase. Secondary outcomes are change in: smartcard-measured bus trips/week; measured and self-reported minutes/week of physical activity and sitting; transport-related behaviour (using one-week travel diary), perspectives (e.g. enablers/barriers) and costs; health. Linear mixed model regression will determine group differences. Participant-level process evaluation will be conducted and intervention cost to the public transport provider determined. Get BusActive! will fill an important knowledge gap about the causal relationship between financially incentivised public transport use and physical activity-the findings will benefit health and transport-related decision makers. ACTRN12623000613606. U1111-1292-3414.

The Impacts of Remote Work and Attitudinal Shifts on Commuting Reductions in Post-COVID Melbourne, Australia

This paper analyses the commuting frequencies and modal choices of travellers in Melbourne, using a dataset reflecting travel behaviour before and after COVID-19. A factor analysis of 63 latent variables identified seven key factors, which were used in cluster analysis to examine the relationships between latent constructs, land use, and socio-demographic variables, as well as commuting behaviours. The analysis categorised white-collar employees into four groups based on their remote work engagement, with socio-demographics and industry type as key factors. The analysis shows that female clerical and administrative workers who worked from home during the pandemic are now returning to the office, raising gender equality concerns within society. Meanwhile, the education and training sector mandates office attendance despite the feasibility of remote work, as universities prioritise in-person attendance to attract more international students, impacting societal norms around telecommuting. The analysis revealed that saving on commute costs, reducing travel time, and spending more time with family are the among the primary factors influencing travel behaviour among white-collar employee’s post-pandemic. The study found that the decrease in public transport trips is associated with increased telecommuting rather than service dissatisfaction, especially among Central Business District (CBD) employees who still rely on public transport. This trend suggests that the CBD sector’s growing acceptance of remote work is reducing daily commutes, which puts additional pressure on public transport providers to sustain and improve their services. A decline in service quality could further reduce ridership, highlighting the need for consistent, high-quality public transport. Furthermore, the study found that increased telecommuting is likely to reduce car trips in the future, especially among healthcare and social workers who prefer driving due to public transport’s unreliability for their demanding schedules. By examining variables like the advantages and disadvantages of working from home, convenience, accessibility, and the efficiency of public transport, this study enhances the understanding of transport behaviour and underscores the need to improve public transport reliability to support sustainable cities as remote work grows.

Spatial effects of carbon pricing on transport equity

There is an ongoing process that greenhouse gas emissions of transport will be incorporated in the European Emissions Trading System. The cap-and-trade approach will result in substantial price increases for fossil fuels which will affect affordability of the transport systems. Within this paper the regressive effect on car-owning households is described in different area categories of the urban and rural region in Germany. Equal-per-household redistribution of the carbon revenue could reverse the regressive effect into a progressive effect. However, there is substantial variation within the different economic status groups leaving notable shares of households with a very low economic status without a positive net transfer. This share will be lowest in the metropolises of the urban region and highest in small-sized cities/village areas of the urban and rural region. Particularly in the latter area categories, these households may need temporary mobility allowances due to limited abatement options. Despite the environmental bonus, electric car-owning households still belong to groups of higher economic status, and public transport supply is limited, particularly in the small-sized cities/village areas of the urban and rural region.

Public transport provision and social sustainability in Sweden

ABSTRACT The provision of public transport is important for a sustainable society and is vital for many groups. Children, older people, and people from carless households are examples of such groups: they rely on public transport and risk social exclusion without it. The aim of this study is to identify areas in Sweden where an improved public transport system might enhance social sustainability. To this end, an index of public transport needs at a sub-municipality level was calculated along with an index of public transport provision using data from public transport authorities in Sweden. The results indicate that areas with a mismatch between the provision of and estimated demand for public transport are relatively heterogenous. High gaps exist both in rural and peripheral regions of Sweden as well as the suburbs of urban regions.

Changes in daily mobility and new public transport supply in Dakar (2000 – 2015)

In Dakar, the capital of Senegal, the urban transport policy aims to restructure and modernize the supply of public transport. The implementation of this policy since the years 2000 has led to the creation of the public bus company Dakar Dem Dikk and the replacement and reorganization of a number of minibuses owned by informal operators, which locally go under the name of Tata. However, this new supply still coexists with older, more or less informal, transport modes, mainly “Cars Rapides” and “Ndiaga Ndiaye” minibuses, collective clandestine taxis, and “yellow and black” taxis. The question then arises as to the impact of the new public transport supply on the mobility practices of the city’s residents. Data from two household mobility surveys, undertaken respectively in 2000 and 2015, in the Region of Dakar is used to conduct a diachronic analysis of mobility behavior. The results highlight the extent to which changes in public transport supply have modified flows and mode use for different categories of urban residents, in a context where daily mobility is highly dependent on public transport.

Ride-hailing Service and The Shape of Urban Mobility (Case Study: The City of Makassar, Indonesia)

The significant gap between supply and demand of flexible and comfortable public transport within cities in the lower-income countries encourages the opportunity for the private sector to provide a ride-hailing service. Since its introduction in 2010, the ride-hailing service has continued to grow and has shaped urban mobility in the past twenty years. Due to the growth of ride-hailing services, some concerns arise regarding their contribution to the increasing traffic volume and the increased dependency on smaller-capacity vehicles in citizen mobility. This study aims to: 1) analyze the travel patterns of ride-hailing users based on their mobility needs; 2) analyze the relationship between travel characteristics and users’ socio-economic background and travel characteristics; 3) analyze the implication of ride-hailing users in shaping Makassar’s urban mobility. This study focused on the city of Makassar as the case study. The data in this study was obtained from an online survey of ride-hailing users with 270 samples. Several approaches are used for the analysis, i.e., descriptive statistics, spatial analysis, and network analysis. The result shows that 1) Most of the ride-hailing users are young generation (Gen Z). They perform a short-distance trip daily (internal trip within the district). 2) Regardless of the users’ age, income, and private vehicle ownership, ease of service is the foremost preference of the users since it is application-based and can be accessed using a smartphone. Door-to-door service is also one of the advantages provided by ride-hailing services.

Soziale Logistik: Öffentlicher Nahverkehr als regionaler Verteiler von Gütern in ländlichen Regionen. Chancen für die langfristige Etablierung eines nachhaltigen regionalen Logistikkonzepts

This paper presents initial findings on the establishment of a social logistics project in a peripheral rural region in Germany. As part of a real-life laboratory, two services were developed and tested with the aim of improving rural supply: the delivery of regional goods and the return of online orders in cooperation with a regional public transport provider, regional retailers and parcel services. An evaluation team provided support to the project in identifying, monitoring, and documenting the societal impact of the services and promoted impact-oriented project management. The concept of providing services of general interest through social logistics and testing them in a real-world laboratory was based on preliminary work in the region. The results indicate that this approach can promote this type of social logistics in the long term. A social logistics approach does not focus solely on economic aspects but emphasises social and environmental benefits for the region. A real-world laboratory approach enables an environment that promotes open exchange, involvement of different stakeholders and joint problem solving in a reflective, iterative process. This methodological approach enabled the continuation and out-scaling of the service’s core offerings immediately after ending the test phase and is seen as an important prerequisite for establishing a long-term perspective.

An integrated causal framework to evaluate uplift value with an example on change in public transport supply

Many empirical applications aim to isolate the impact of implementing new public transport on real estate uplift value. While their conclusions generally point to positive impact, due to reduction in transportation cost, the methodological framework to investigate uplift value has largely evolved over time. This paper reviews the different methodological challenges in measuring causal uplift value and proposes an adjusted parametric approach inspired from the Alonso-Muth-Mills model, returning a complex 2-D price premium function allowing for spatial heterogeneous patterns of the average treatment effect. The proposed framework also accounts for other methodological challenges underlined by literature such as spatial autocorrelation, selectivity and representativity issues, and possible anticipation effects. To illustrate the importance of methodological choices on estimation results, the framework is applied to the case of the implementation of a bus rapid transit (BRT) system in Québec City, a medium-size Canadian city, as a specific case study.

Quality of Life Dependence on Public Transport Accessibility

Purpose. Article present the survey on dependency of quality-of-life indicators with transport accessibility. Specific focus is on rural areas. There was hypothesis to prove, that inhabitants of low population density rural areas are facing poor quality-of-life. Design/Methodology/Approach. A representative survey of the population was chosen as the research method. The study area was divided into transport districts, and the representativeness of the survey was ensured in each transport district. Transport districts are divided according to the criterion of travel time and public transport supply. The survey included questions that allowed checking whether and which quality of life parameters correlate with the quality of public services. Findings and implications. The research found that public transport accessibility is closely related with such attributes as education, employment rate and closely related to such attributes of life quality as change of clothes more often or having the proper shoes more often as well as having Internet access. Limitations. The study was conducted in just one country with a very high level of car ownership, which is still growing. Another limitation is that the public transport supply in this country is insufficient due to historical reasons. For a long time, public transport was unsubsidized or weakly subsidized in this country. Originality. The originality of the paper is based on a representative survey conducted by the authors, the results of which linked quality of life indicators with public transport availability indicators. The originality of the work is based on a representative survey conducted by the authors, the results of which linked quality of life indicators with public transport availability indicators.

“God, whatever you do, don't tell people it's unsafe”: Public transport service providers' perspectives on women's safety from sexual violence on public transport

In Australia, one in two women have experienced sexual harassment in their lifetime and one in five women has experienced sexual violence since the age of 15. Public facing organizations, such as public transport providers, have a role to play in providing safe environments and preventing violence.Our study examined the experiences and views of those working in public transport delivery organizations about the organizational challenges and opportunities to provide safe transport for women. Using Normalization Process Theory (NPT), our analysis of 19 semi-structured in-depth interviews with stakeholders focused on three key areas: making sense of safety of women on public transport; working towards women's safety on public transport; and monitoring the progress of safety initiatives.We found that public transport is delivered by multiple stakeholders, with individual and combined organizational and relational complexity. Participants highlighted the importance of leadership and the need for an overarching strategy for women's safety. Macro-level organizational and environmental barriers to implementing safety initiatives include a lack of proactive, consistent, and collaborative approaches. Differing understandings of what women's safety means can lead to conflicting strategies among organizations, but there are opportunities to develop and integrate enhanced and conceptually consistent training and policies in response to women's safety. At the micro-level, providers recognize the need to prioritize safety for women across public transport. Our findings indicate key opportunities to inform the development of interventions and policies for public transport, and public facing organizations more broadly, to provide for and sustain women's safety.

Public-Transportation Credits: The potential of three-part tariffs in public transportation

In December 2023, public-transportation providers in Switzerland introduced Public-Transportation Credits (PTCs). PTCs are credits (or “allowances”) that are greater in amount than their price and can be used to purchase any type of public-transportation tickets within a year. With the initial fixed payment, the subsequent use of the allowance and the eventual return to the standard fare, PTCs represent three-part tariff models. We explore the potential of PTCs to target particularly elastic segments of the demand curve, simultaneously allowing for increased consumption and higher revenue. To assess the revenue impact of the PTC empirically, we analyze a pilot study conducted by the Swiss public-transportation providers. In a randomized field experiment with 200,000 PTC invitees and 911 actual PTC buyers, we use the dispach of invitations as an instrumental variable. While observing substantial revenue increases, this result is insignificant due to the weak relationship between invitees and buyers. Therefore, we complement our analysis with a selection-on-observable approach, utilizing machine-learning techniques to match PTC buyers to customers in the control group. This way, we reveal a highly significant treatment effect, indicating a revenue enhancement of CHF179.7 per PTC (approximately USD200). Leveraging our comprehensive dataset and insights from a non-buyer survey, we predict a demand of around 200,000 units for the market-launch version of the PTC.

The findings of the Disability Royal Commission: the relevance for people with intellectual disabilities in rural areas

People living in rural areas of Australia are significantly disadvantaged, compared to metropolitan dwelling peers, in accessing basic support services. Australians with intellectual disabilities living in rural areas are at specific risk of further disadvantage. This article examines the findings and recommendations of the Disability Royal Commission through the lens of rurality. A frequency analysis of key words relating to rurality indicated an interesting trend in relation to the term “remote” which had a higher count rate than either “regional” or “rural”. This finding may indicate that issues from non-remote rural locations were less well represented. The Final Report included many examples from people with intellectual disabilities or their carers regarding the lack of vital services in rural areas, and specifically highlighted the need to introduce a “provider of last resort”. Problems with support were also identified following domestic violence and rape, and concerns noted regarding the provision of public transport in rural areas. The Final Report contains 222 recommendations, of which 11 contained a specific focus addressing a rural issue, and these are briefly discussed. It is unfortunate that, in some key support areas, there appear to be an implicit expectation that the remaining 200+ recommendations will all apply evenly across Australia, irrespective of location. Nonetheless, the Disability Royal Commission should be commended for their inclusive approach to involving people with disabilities living in rural areas which led to the reporting from rural people with intellectual disabilities and their carers regarding the issues that they have faced.

Problems of financing urban mobility resilience in Poland

Motivation: The efficient functioning of transportation systems is subject to various types of disruptions and risks. Transportation systems are strongly affected by all kinds of local, regional, national, or global crises. The European Union’s transport policy indicates the need to build sustainable, intelligent, and resilient urban mobility systems based on public mass transit. The paradigm of resilience has gained particular importance in the context of the global crises of the last five years. Resilient urban mobility systems are intended to provide the ability to respond quickly to disruptions that occur, allowing urban organisms to achieve operational stability.Aim: The purpose of the study is to identify the main problems with financing the resilience of public mass transit systems in Polish cities. The specific aims are the identification of the factors determining the resilience of urban mobility systems and tools supporting it, measures of resilience and ways of financing it. The study sought to verify whether the mobility systems of Polish regional cities can be considered resilient from a financial point of view.Results: Financing urban public mass transport in Poland is based on two key sources of income: fees from ticket sales and payments (compensations) made by local governments. The economic and energy crisis contributed to a significant increase in the operating costs of public mass transportation providers. In this context, the key to building resilient public mass transport systems in urban areas is to make changes to existing models to ensure a stable PTA financing system.