Public Transport Ridership Research Articles

Road infrastructure and public bus transport service provision under different funding schemes: A simulation analysis

There is a large and still growing literature on road pricing; there is also a large literature on public transport pricing and provision. However, the integration of these subtopics with the subtopic of road capacity provision as a unified topic is very small (Lindsey, 2012). Therefore, we seek to gain a better understanding of the interplay of transport pricing, transport service provision, cost recovery, together with an explicit consideration of equity in a unified fashion. To do so, we carry out a simulation analysis, as theoretical results in second-best contexts are not clean and depend on assumptions on relevant parameters.Under the assumptions of parameters typical of a city like Santiago de Chile, the most relevant conclusions of this research are the following. First, if road infrastructure provision and its pricing are jointly determined, road infrastructure provision is lower when adequately priced through user charges, with car speeds in the peak period increasing very close to free-flow speeds. Second, if user charges are designed to achieve cost recovery of road investments, public bus transport ridership will increase, taking full advantage of social economies of scale. Third, welfare redistribution through transport market interventions is limited. Fourth, if car use is subsidised, most of the benefits, if not all, of subsidising public transport are undone. Fifth, if road pricing were to be implemented in actual urban contexts, reallocation of road space away from private vehicles (even road closure) could become a reality, especially in denser parts of cities.

Factors Influencing the Intention to Use the Common Ticketing System (Spider Card) in Thailand.

The Common Ticket, locally called the “Spider Card” is a contactless smartcard ticket used for public transportation systems in Thailand. The card is used for all modes of transportation and increases the convenience of public transit passengers while increasing public transport ridership. This research aimed to identify the determinant factors that impact passengers’ intention to use the Spider Card based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model by integrating perceived convenience and perceived sacrifice as part of the perceived value. A survey of public transit users in the Bangkok metropolitan area was conducted. The Partial Least Square-Structure Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) technique was employed to examine the data. The results showed that perceived value, performance expectancy, and facilitating conditions are all significant factors. Perceived convenience and perceived sacrifice are significant antecedents for perceived value. Surprisingly, effort expectancy and social influence did not impact passengers’ intentions to use the Spider Card. The results also offer beneficial information for public transit authorities in order to comprehend what passengers desire from using these kinds of technology service systems.

Evaluating the effects of public transport fare policy change together with built and non-built environment features on ridership: The case in South East Queensland, Australia

The demand for public transport and commuter behaviour are evidently affected by a series of D-factors relating to the built environment, including density, diversity, design, destination and/or demography. The effect of fare policies, however, in conjunction with built and non-built environment features has not been assessed. Given the 2017 fare policy change introduced in South East Queensland, Australia, this study examines how the policy reform (changes in fares, its structure and incentives) affects public transport ridership. Drawing on two like-for-like periods of transport smart card data before and after the policy reform, we compare the number of card users, journeys, and travel costs under the two fare systems. Through a set of statistical analysis and spatial lag regression, we examine the impact of the fare policy change on ridership, controlled by variations of built and non-built environment features, including population density, land use diversity, demographic features of commuters, distance to the central business district (CBD) and destination accessibility. Our findings show that public transit ridership can be boosted by reducing the fare cost per journey which can then result in overall revenue gain. However, such attraction by fare reduction varies substantially by user groups. Furthermore, the influences of population density, destination accessibility, distance to CBD and demographic features of commuters on ridership are significant (p < 0.01); while the influences of land use diversity and fare change tend to be insignificant compared to the other D-factors. We argue that in order to increase public transport usage policy makers need to consider fare policy reform in conjunction with built environment and demographic factors in order to increase service availability and ensure that services are accessible and affordable to the general public. This study also offers a generic framework that employs big data analytics to assess public policy intervention in the Australian context.

Place vs. Node Transit: Planning Policies Revisited

A core contemporary planning approach is the promotion of transit-oriented developments (TODs) and in recent times cities have committed substantial financial investment to encourage sustainable precincts around public transport. Evaluation of the success of TODs is key for continuing the planning efforts. A frequently applied framework for characterizing TODs draws on Bertolini’s Node-Place (N-P) model, enriched through application in various contexts. We offer here an extension to the N-P model, using a case study in a low-density city, Perth, Western Australia. A typology of railway stations is developed using 43 indicators and then linear models are applied to ascertain the association between patronage and station precinct features. The results show that various types of measures are required to increase public transport ridership for the four clusters that emerged from the analysis. Density alone does not lead to increased use of public transport; it must be associated with city-wide accessibility, as well as access/egress to and from the station.

Framework for Public Transport Integration at Railway Stations and Its Implications for Quality of Life

The integration of public transport modes has been cited by many as one of the primary factors that enhances public transport ridership and makes public transport investments more viable. Asian cities are witnessing huge investments in high-speed rail (HSR) infrastructure, which will be instrumental in inter-city travel. The HSR station should serve as a multimodal hub, providing users with a seamless interface to various transport modes of the city, thus enabling in the provision of a sustainable transportation solution to the urban area. This paper focuses on public transportation integration at railway stations by drawing upon existing literature along with specific case studies from Asian cities. First, a generalized framework for integration is developed based on literature sources. Second, six Asian railway stations were reviewed to identify the components essential for developing the public transport integration framework. Finally, the implication of such integrated transport nodes is addressed with reference to the urban quality of life. Results reveal that a framework with three levels of integration — physical, informatory, and monetary, is required to achieve successful public transport integration at railway stations. These levels of integration also need to be supported by additional interventions, such as those that enhance user perception of transit service quality, provides contextual information of the surroundings, and garners active participation of the stakeholders, which will, in turn, enhance the sense of belonging and aid in augmenting users’ quality of life.

Is the Era of Public Urban Transport Over?

The article tackles new technologies impact on urban transportation and gives some projections on how the future of urban passenger transit and urban goods transportation would look like. The research is centered mainly on the impact of those technologies on modal choice and explains how the impact of new theologies will contribute to the obsolescence of the public urban transport. Several factors are taken into account to support this idea. Projections on decrease in urban transport are based on major challenges of labor market (automation and teleworking), as well as ecommerce development, which will cut the demand for public transport ridership by half. Those trends will also substantially reduce the car ownership, and thus contribute to traffic decongestion. At the same time, shared-ridership platforms (Uber, etc.) have significantly decreased the cost of transit by private means of transport, equal to some fares of public transport, whereas driverless and electric cars will further decrease the cost of transit by private means of transport up to making public transport unnecessary.

A METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK FOR MEASURING THE LEVEL OF CONVENIENCE OF TRANSPORT TICKETING SYSTEMS

Public transport sustainability is becoming a major driver for public transport development. Public transport ridership represents one of the key performance indicators of sustainability in the sense of balancing the economic, social and environmental aspects of public transport. There are various methods for improving the attractiveness of public transport for passengers by reducing resistances, which discourage potential and existing passengers to use public transport. Transport ticketing is one of the methods. This article presents a methodological framework for evaluating transport ticketing technologies with the use of a transport ticketing convenience model developed by the authors as well as some survey results through the application of the developed framework on traditional smart ticketing and contactless payment card ticketing technologies. First, a methodological framework for modelling ticketing convenience based on end-to-end passenger experience is presented. Second, a ticketing convenience model for barrier-free and double-sided validation baseline ticketing systems is developed. Third, the ticketing system based on contactless bank payment cards is compared with traditional smart ticketing systems in terms of convenience. It is shown that a contactless payment cards ticketing system has greater convenience or a better, more seamless travel experience than traditional smart systems. Finally, some research perspectives on enhancing the ticketing convenience model by using mobile smartphones with NFC, BLE and GPS technology, as well as the inclusion of technologies related to ticketing such as passenger information systems into the model, are contemplated.

Extreme weather, public transport ridership and moderating effect of bus stop shelters

This paper examines how extreme weather conditions influence urban public transport ridership with a particular focus on the role of bus stop shelters. Using bus ridership data from the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, we find that extreme weather such as very high and low temperatures, and heavy rainfall reduces public transport ridership, while bus stop shelters have a modest effect on mitigating ridership losses resulting from these adverse weather conditions. The moderating effect of shelters is more pronounced on weekdays, and for bus stops with lower service frequency and fewer transfers. Our research also shows that the installation of bus shelters correlates with a variety of factors including service frequency, land use types, and local socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. Overall, our findings suggest that public transport amenities with weather-proof attributes have the potential to retain and attract more ridership on extreme weather days.

How urban density, network topology and socio-economy influence public transport ridership: Empirical evidence from 48 European metropolitan areas

Understanding the determinants of public transport ridership is important in order to plan attractive public transport systems efficiently. This study analyses at a meta-level per capita public transport ridership across 48 European cities based on a rich database collected as part of this study. The dataset includes detailed mode-specific information about the public transport networks, hence extending previous research by analysing each public transport mode separately while simultaneously taking into account the main determinants of ridership identified by a thorough literature review of 36 previous studies, e.g. urban demographics and land uses. Factor analysis was deployed revealing four main composite determinants, namely i) metro coverage, network connectivity, and urban density, ii) suburban rail coverage, iii) economic inequality, and iv) light rail coverage. Subsequent multiple regression analysis confirmed the a priori hypothesis of per capita ridership being positively associated with the extent of network coverage in terms of metro, suburban rail and light rail transit. The importance of network connectivity was included with results suggesting that the number of transfer stations was more important than the cyclomatic number of the public transport network. Cities with higher economic inequality in terms of higher unemployment, lower per capita GDP and higher GINI-coefficient showed lower public transport ridership. Finally, the analyses highlighted the importance of proper definitions of urban areas in order to perform consistent analyses of data across cities. This revealed the impact on transit ridership of urban density defined as population and especially job intensity per km2. As the study is based on aggregate, cross-sectional data from a relatively small sample of European cities, it is not without limitations in terms of mainly revealing correlational structures rather than causations as well as not including all variables related to public transport ridership. Future studies should further investigate these interrelationships before drawing conclusions on the causational relationships.

Discrete-Time Hazard Model of the Dynamic Utilization of Parking Spaces within Park-and-Ride Lots

Park-and-ride (P&amp;R) offers an alternative to the exclusive use of the car when considering the door-to-door travel experience. The intended effects of good P&amp;R services are an increase in public transport ridership, a decrease in the vehicle-kilometers traveled, and a reduction in the number of cars in the city centers. However, no consensus exists in the literature about the effectiveness of P&amp;R, and no consideration of parking space utilization exists when searching for the optimal location of P&amp;R lots or analyzing P&amp;R choices. Accordingly, this study models the utilization of 7590 parking spaces in 20 P&amp;R lots along the major arterials around Brisbane (Australia). A discrete-time logistic regression model calculates the probability that each parking space is occupied at the end of one of 60 time intervals between 4:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. on a weekday. The findings from the model suggest that the probability of a parking space to be occupied increases with a larger capacity of the P&amp;R lot, a larger number of public transport services, and a lower walking time to the platforms. Moreover, the results suggest that a parking space is more likely to be occupied in P&amp;R lots farther from the central business district (CBD) until 8.00 a.m., but it is more probable to be occupied in P&amp;R lots closer to the CBD from 8.00 a.m. onwards. This dynamic model of parking space utilization within a P&amp;R lot could contribute to the evaluation of future P&amp;R utilization, the formulation of realistic optimization models, and the estimation of dynamic activity-based models.

Invest in the ride: A 14 year longitudinal analysis of the determinants of public transport ridership in 25 North American cities

Public transport ridership has been steadily increasing since the early 2000s in many urban areas in North America. However, many cities have more recently seen their transit ridership plateaued, if not decreased. This trend in transit ridership has produced a lot of discussion on which factors contributed the most to this new trend. While no recent study has been conducted on this matter, understanding the levers that can be used to sustain and/or increase transit ridership is essential. The aim of this study is, therefore, to explore the determinants of public transport ridership from 2002 to 2015 for 25 transit authorities in Canada and the United States using a longitudinal multilevel mixed-effect regression approach. Our analysis demonstrates that vehicle revenue kilometers (VRK) and car ownership are the main determinants of transit ridership. More specifically, the results suggest that the reduction in bus VRK likely explains the reduction in ridership observed in recent years in many North American cities. Furthermore, external factors such as the presence of ridesourcing services (Uber) and bicycle sharing, although not statistically significant in our models, are associated with higher levels of transit ridership, which contradicts some of the experts’ hypotheses. From a policy perspective, this research suggests that investments in public transport operations, especially bus services, can be a key factor to mitigate the decline in transit ridership or sustain and increase it. While the results of this study emphasize that fare revenues cannot support such investments without deterring ridership, additional sources of revenues are required. This study is of relevance to public transport engineers, planners, researchers, and policy-makers wishing to understand the factors leading to an increase in transit ridership.

An Analysis of Traveler’s Evaluation Frame Toward Public Transport Focusing on Dynamic Nature of Reference Point

The internal reference point of traveler’s decision-making is dynamic in nature. Public transport ridership considers a decision based on the utility value of gains and losses which can be modeled by using mental accounting theory. This study aims to analyze the dynamic of internal reference points for public transport ridership after implementing transport policies. It describes the decision of travelers’ behavior when facing the dynamic value of the utility, whether it is increasing, decreases or stable. This study developed a travelers’ behavior model based on mental accounting theory. The result showed that the public transport ridership’s are more likely to change their reference point when realizing gains than losses for transport policies. Furthermore, the way of public transport ridership combines the decrease and increase of the utility value showed that travelers tend to consider which gains and losses occurred simultaneously. Therefore, the integration outcome is more desirable than segregation outcomes, and revealed that mental accounting theory plays a major role in public transport ridership. This survey was conducted for the short-term distance trip, particularly in shopping trip from the residential area (origin) to Community Business District (destination) in Matsuyama city, Japan.

Psycho-social attributes and quality of life: Overview and pilot study of commuters’ travel behaviour

As metropolitan cities have improved and upgraded their public transport infrastructure to encourage higher public transport ridership, the next challenges understand factors that influence the individuals’ travel behaviour. Psycho-Social Attributes and Quality of Life are important elements to study the public transport ridership in metropolitan cities. This paper offers a short overview of the role of psycho-social and quality of life in understanding the travel behaviour of public transport in cities. The paper explores attributes such as social norms, personal norms, freedom, safety and comfort that have an impact on travel behaviour. Twenty-nine participants took part in the pilot study. Partial Least Square was used to analyze data. Results showed psycho-social attributes has strong direct relationship to travel behaviour while quality of life can be a good support for travel behaviour. Recommendation and suggestion are discussed.

Improving predictions of public transport usage during disturbances based on smart card data

The availability of smart card data from public transport travelling the last decades allows analyzing current and predicting future public transport usage. Public transport models are commonly applied to predict ridership due to structural network changes, using a calibrated parameter set. Predicting the impact of planned disturbances, like temporary track closures, on public transport ridership is however an unexplored area. In the Netherlands, this area becomes increasingly important, given the many track closures operators are confronted with the last and upcoming years. We investigated the passenger impact of four planned disturbances on the public transport network of The Hague, the Netherlands, by comparing predicted and realized public transport ridership using smart card data. A three-step search procedure is applied to find a parameter set resulting in higher prediction accuracy. We found that in-vehicle time in rail-replacing bus services is perceived ≈1.1 times more negatively compared to in-vehicle time perception in the initial tram line. Waiting time for temporary rail-replacement bus services is found to be perceived ≈1.3 times higher, compared to waiting time perception for regular tram and bus services. Besides, passengers do not seem to perceive the theoretical benefit of the usually higher frequency of rail-replacement bus services compared to the frequency of the replaced tram line. For the different case studies, the new parameter set results in 3% up to 13% higher prediction accuracy compared to the default parameter set. It supports public transport operators to better predict the required supply of rail-replacement services and to predict the impact on their revenues.

Fiscal instruments for regulating the sustainable development of urban transport systems in Russia

The article explains the role of public transport pricing. It proves the need for a systemic approach to building a modern public transit system. The authors argue that the main objective of the approach should be to reduce the use of private vehicles in the urban environment and increasing public transport use. It is proven that for the consumer of transport services the price per trip is an important factor when deciding whether to travel by car or by public transport. The authors analyze the available literature assessing the effects of widespread car ownership on users of the city transit system. Conflict situations that occur due to the unabated desire of city residents to travel by car are analyzed. A research method is proposed. It is shown that public transport fares have been growing in Russia at an accelerated pace when compared to the overall increase in prices of all goods and services, including motor vehicles, petrol and oils. The fare growth has resulted in a 3.6 fold drop in demand for public transport services over the 15 years being analyzed. Over the same period, the number of privately owned cars grew 120 percent. A conclusion is drawn that regular fare hikes have encouraged urban population to gradually opt against travelling by public transport. That resulted in higher demand for car travel and, eventually, in an accelerated growth in car usage. One can conclude that a persistent institutional trap has taken shape in Russian metropolises. Essentially, it means that higher public transport fares have led to lower demand for public transit services. As ridership goes down, public transport operators have to again increase prices, thus driving the demand for their services down. It is proven that escaping the trap will require restoring the ratio of prices to make sure that the price charged for a public transport trip is far lower than the cost of travelling by car. The aim of this study is to assess the influence of the factor of public transport fares on demand for private car usage and public transport ridership.

Towards the Development of Quality Standards for Public Transport Service in Developing Countries: Analysis of Public Transport Users’ Behavior

Abstract Transport user behaviour and key factors affecting them differ from country to country. For a developing country, a better understanding of the users’ behaviour helps transport operators to estimate the demand and to propose targeted incentives, services, and tools. From a city perspective, this may also help to redesign and improve existing transportation policies to increase public transport ridership. Accordingly, this paper aims at examining customer's behavioural aspects while attempting to develop a set of quality standards for public transport services in developing countries. Through identifying the specific aspects to be considered in developing countries, this study addresses the applicability of various criteria under those specific conditions. Finally, a set of appropriate criteria is proposed and recommendations for the design of quality standards for public transport in developing countries are given.

The influence of slope on walking activity and the pedestrian modal share

Abstract The aim of this paper is to research the relation between the slope of the terrain and walking activity, an area that has so far been little researched in transportation science. With the use of pedestrian counts from a busy and steeply sloped street as well as public transport ridership data, the effect of the inclination on the pedestrian modal share is researched. The results show a significant influence of slope on walking attractiveness, which is quantified by representing the walking modal share with a logit model. The model parameters acquired by maximum likelihood estimation suggest that a 1% increase in slope makes a walk roughly 10% less attractive. This value corresponds well with the small number of literature sources that exist on the same topic. The results were obtained with “live” data, acquired in the built environment rather than in a controlled experimental setting. Since this means that the exact origins and destinations or trip purposes of travelers cannot be fully known, the authors express reservation in interpreting the results.

Impacts of weather on public transport ridership: Results from mining data from different sources

The existing studies concerning the influence of weather on public transport have mainly focused on the impacts of average weather conditions on the aggregate ridership of public transit. Not much research has examined these impacts at disaggregate levels. This study aims to fill this gap by accounting for intra-day variations in weather as well as public transport ridership and investigating the effect of weather on the travel behavior of individual public transit users. We have collected smart card data for public transit and meteorological records from Shenzhen, China for the entire month of September 2014. The data allow us to establish association between the system-wide public transit ridership and weather condition on not only daily, but also hourly basis and for each metro station. In addition, with the detailed trip records of individual card holders, the travel pattern by public transit are constructed for card holders and this pattern is linked to the weather conditions he/she has experienced. Multivariate modeling approach is applied to analyze the influence of weather on public transit ridership and the travel behavior of regular transit users. Results show that some weather elements have more influence than others on public transportation. Metro stations located in urban areas are more vulnerable to outdoor weather in regard to ridership. Regular transit users are found to be rather resilient to changes in weather conditions. Findings contribute to a more in-depth understanding of the relationship between everyday weather and public transit travels and also provide valuable information for short-term scheduling in transit management.

Travel satisfaction with public transport: Determinants, user classes, regional disparities and their evolution

Increasing public transport ridership while providing a service that better caters to individual travelers poses an important goal and challenge for society, particularly public transport authorities and operators. This study identifies and characterizes current and potential users of public transport in Sweden and identifies the most important determinants of travel satisfaction with Public Transport services for each segment of travelers. In addition, it investigates the changes over time of attribute importance among the different segments and the inter-segment geographical variation of overall satisfaction. The analysis is based on a dataset of almost half a million records. Travelers were clustered based on their socio-demographics, travel patterns and accessibility measures to enable the analysis of determinants of satisfaction for different market segments. The cluster analysis results with five segments of Swedish travelers include: (i) inactive travelers; (ii) long distance commuters; (iii) urban motorist commuters; (iv) rural motorist commuters and; (v) students. By contrasting satisfaction with the importance of each quality of service attribute, three key attributes that should be prioritized by stakeholders are identified: customer interface, operation, network and length of trip time. Interestingly, the results suggest an overall similarity in the importance of service attributes among traveler segments. Nevertheless, some noticeable differences could be observed. The quality of service attributes’ importance levels reveal overall changes in appreciations and consumption goals over time. The more frequent public transport user segments are more satisfied across the board and are characterized by a more balanced distribution of attribute importance while rural motorist commuters are markedly dissatisfied with service operation attributes. This work can help authorities to tailor their policies to specific traveler groups.

Public transportation adoption requires a paradigm shift in urban development structure

Urban passenger transportation in the U.S. has been heavily dependent on car modes, mainly due to prevailing trends in urban development. However, transportation mode choice studies are currently limited to micro-level and regional-level boundaries, lacking of presenting a complete picture of the issues and the root causes associated with urban passenger transportation choices in the U.S. To this end, further analysis from a system perspective is required to investigate the interdependencies among system parameters more thoroughly, thus revealing the underlying mechanisms contributing or causing the low public transportation use in the U.S. Hence, system dynamics modeling approach is utilized to capture complex causal relationships among the critical system parameters affecting public transportation ridership in the U.S. as well as to identify possible policy areas to improve public transportation ridership rates. Considering the high degree of uncertainties inherent to the problem, multivariate sensitivity analysis is utilized to explore the effectiveness of existing and possible policy implications up to the year 2050 in the terms of their potential to increase transit ridership and locating critical parameters that influences the most on mode choice and emission rates. Transportation mode choice behavior is projected to change slightly and reach up to a maximum of 7.25% of public transportation ridership until 2050. Analysis results reveal that the effects of trip length and rate are by far the most influential factors. Both parameters are 99% sensitive compared to all other factors including the effects of fuel tax policies, federal funds for public transportation, use of alternative green bus technologies, increasing private vehicle occupancy rates, etc. on negative environmental, economic, and social impacts of transportation. This finding highlights how important urban structures are to secure the future of public transportation in the U.S. as the existing urban structures and the shared-idea in the minds of the society about how urban transportation should be (the prevailing paradigm) are the root causes of excessive trip generation and increasing average trip lengths. Thus a paradigm-shift, a radical change in the shared-idea in the minds of the society about existing urban structures, is needed.