Sustainability Of Public Transport Research Articles

Determining Usage Intention for the Sustainability of Public Transport in Northern Cyprus Using the Theory of Planned Behaviour

Transportation plays an important role in serving economic, social, political, and population mobility. Public transport is gaining importance for providing sustainability, such as by reducing traffic congestion, noise levels, providing better air quality, and contributing to public health. Public transportation facilities are undeveloped in Northern Cyprus, and only buses and minibuses are available. Many people are ready to shift to public transportation if safe, reliable, and affordable transportation options are available. The theory of planned behaviour was used, and an online survey including 33 questions was conducted with the contributions of 385 participants. All variables of the theory of planned behaviour have a greater than 0.70 Cronbach’s alpha value; therefore, multiple linear regression analysis with the SPSS V27 program was conducted to detect the impact of attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control on behavioural intention. Note that 32.2% of intention is indicated by attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control. The study concluded that subjective norms and perceived behavioural control have a positive influence on behavioural intention. Attitude is not a predictor of behavioural intention. Subjective norms are the strongest (β = 0.438, p < 0.001), and perceived behavioural control is the weakest (β = 0.438, p < 0.001) predictor of public transport usage intention.

Exploring Willingness to Pay across Different Passenger Traits

In recent years, the transportation landscape has seen a notable shift towards shared mobility, driven by its advantages over traditional systems fraught with inefficiencies. This shift has ushered in demand-responsive transport (DRT) systems, enabled by mobile technology. DRT offers a promising solution for the sustainability of public transport, also for rural Slovakia; however, higher individual journey costs and the necessity for online booking create adoption barriers for this new form. This paper conducts a thorough willingness-to-pay analysis in seven rural Slovak settlements, with the goal of understanding variations and comparing the findings with the existing research. Location, household size, age, car and train usage, and previous experiences with bus transport significantly impact the willingness to pay. Consequently, tailored DRT strategies are necessary for different target groups. To maximize the efficiency of this service, integrating DRT into the regional or national public transportation network is recommended. Insights from this study hold significant implications for policymakers tasked with transforming regional transportation, particularly by integrating DRT into fixed-route bus systems.

A composite index for the evaluation of sustainability in Latin American public transport systems

Latin American public transport (PT) systems are the backbone of urban transport with high ridership levels but at the same time, they face substantial deficits in terms of their sustainability. No comprehensive framework for PT sustainability assessment exists so far that is tailored to the specific local situation in this region. Therefore, this study develops for the first time a theoretically sound and feasible index for assessing the sustainability of PT systems in Latin America, the Sustainable Public Transport Index for Latin America (SPTI-LATAM). The index is based on an Assessment Indicator Model (AIM) with overall 49 indicators in the five dimensions system effectiveness, social, environmental, economic, governance and integrated transport planning. The SPTI-LATAM is designed with three levels: 1) the basic index (BSPTI) containing 32 indicators; 2) the extended index (ESPTI) including 11 additional indicators; and 3) the global index (GSPTI) with 6 additional indicators. The BSPTI is computed for eleven case study cities to demonstrate its feasibility and to analyze the sustainability of PT systems in the region. The framework uses the Equal Weighting Aggregation (EWA) method for assigning weights to each indicator, the Weighted Sum Model (WSM) for aggregating the indicators to the overall index and international standards and benchmarks for normalization. The final scores of the BSPTI show that the case study cities have still challenges to reach sustainability since only two cities had scores slightly higher than the half of achievable points (55 and 51), while eight cities had scores between 40 and 50 points, and one city achieved 39 points. Deficits are identified mainly for PT service quality, for the environmental performance, for the governance dimension and less for PT system coverage. Overall, the analysis of the BSPTI-LATAM for the 11 case study cities shows that the index is suitable for benchmarking sustainability of local PT systems and ready to be used in research and practice.

Evaluation of urban public transport sustainability in China based on the Driving Force-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework——A case study of 36 major cities

With urbanization and motorization, the sustainable development of urban transport has drawn extensive attention worldwide. As one of the key components of the transport system, urban public transport is the breakthrough. This study focused on the characteristics of public transport, analyzed the causal and restrictive relationships between anthropogenic activities and urban public transport sustainability based on the Driving Force-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework, and decomposed the interaction to establish an evaluation index system. An improved set pair analysis-variable fuzzy set model (ISPA-VFSM) was constructed to evaluate urban public transport sustainability in China's 36 major cities in 2020 and analyze the critical influence factors and restriction modes according to the contribution degree and obstacle degree. The results show that: (1) The sustainable development of urban public transport is a systematic process, and public transport sustainability in 36 major cities shows the spatial distribution characteristics of “high in the southeast and low in the west;” Most megacities are at the forefront, benefiting from outstanding state and response levels, with Shenzhen ranking first; while the megapolises generally display moderate sustainability. Cities in Northeast and Northwest China present lower levels of sustainability. (2) Public transport sustainability in China is deficient, exhibiting a certain gap from the target. The levels of the driving force, pressure, state, impact, and response of public transport sustainability in 36 major cities are unbalanced; (3) The restriction mode of urban public transport sustainability in 36 major cities can be roughly divided into three categories: pressure-impact restriction mode, driving force-impact restriction mode, and state-response restriction mode; (4) State and response play a crucial role in achieving public transport sustainability. Public transport infrastructure, electrification substitution, and efficiency of public transport operations are the primary contributing factors to public transport sustainability. This study enriches the indicators and methods for sustainability evaluation and provides a reference for urban public transport sustainable development.

The demand potential of shared autonomous vehicles: a large-scale simulation using mobility survey data

Shared Autonomous Vehicles (SAV), or robotaxis, are expected to be commercially available within this decade. This new transport mode has the potential to revolutionize travel, offering a level of service comparable to traditional taxis with much lower prices. This may attract travelers currently using other modes, impacting the economic sustainability of public transport as well as car ownership levels. We investigate this potential demand using a scalable SAV simulation framework. We do not establish a future equilibrium considering the interaction between all users on a detailed road network, but establish the potential demand for a large metropolitan area. Travelers can choose between their current mode and the new SAV mode, with fare and waiting times which depend on real-time demand. For our input data we train a statistical model on a large transport survey from Germany for an urban region, allowing us to generate a large number of trips with realistic characteristics. We conduct a sensitivity analysis to study the effect of several key parameters on the modal shift. We find that SAVs can be attractive to many active mode and public transport users unless regulations are put in place. Our results also show that due to SAV fleet constraints, changes in incentives for travelers currently using cars may have significant consequences on the behavior of other travelers. We further calculate key economic indicators for the fleet, which can inform the discussion on the fleet size and fare level that operators are likely to choose when maximizing their own profit.

Balancing convenience and sustainability in public transport through dynamic transit bus networks

The rapid transformation of urban mobility fueled by the evolution of digital technologies has enabled smarter and more convenient modes of transportation. However, these new modes (e.g., ride-hailing and ridesharing) are not always more sustainable than traditional modes, such as public transport networks. In this work, we propose a dynamic transit bus system that aims at combining the higher convenience provided to passengers in on-demand systems with the sustainability of public transport. The goal is to attract more passengers to the transit service by offering reduced walk-to-station distance and total travel time compared to the fixed lines. Our proposed system plans the routes and intermediate stops of the transit lines based on the actual observed demand. Due to the complexity of the resulting optimization problem under investigation, we propose a solution method which splits the problem into four stages: clustering, initialization, optimization, and merging. We compare our proposed system in two settings: flexible (i.e., all intermediate stations are dynamic), and semi-flexible (i.e., original fixed lines intermediate stations are kept at the route and more dynamic stations are added) to the fixed static line. Our results show that our proposed system offers a more sustainable option and can reduce the system-wide travel distance by attracting more on-demand passengers to the transit service by offering them reduced walking distance and travel duration compared to the static lines. We also quantify the positive impact of passengers’ willingness to act more sustainably by accepting to walk more or arrive later to their destinations on the system-wide sustainability.

Users’ perception for innovation and sustainability management: evidence from public transport

No one doubts the importance of public transport services in the economic backbone of any country. In recent decades, there has been a growing interest in the contribution to Sustainable Development Goals on the part of governments, companies, and stakeholders. In this sense, transport can contribute to the sustainability of cities and facilitate other social objectives, such as universal accessibility, with innovation being a key pillar for this. Thus, the main objective of this study is to analyze users’ perceptions of the innovation and sustainability of public transport in Spain.To analyze the user’s perception of public transport, a questionnaire was developed following Bitner’s Servicescape Model. A total of 1,354 responses were collected in different Spanish cities. The main results show that the policies implemented in both innovation and sustainability are perceived positively but do not seem to have much impact on the service user. Public transport users prioritize the speed, frequency, and safety of the service received. In addition, it should be noted that the gender of the user influences the preferences of the objectives, i.e., men value technological development in public transport more. At the same time, women give higher priority to sustainability. The age of users is another variable that conditions public transport users’ perceptions of innovation and sustainability. The results also show users’ preferences for different types of public transport.The study’s main contribution is that it shows to what extent the innovation and sustainability policies applied in the public transport service are valued and motivate citizens to use the service. The political and management decisions may be disconnected from the reality perceived by users. These decisions may be more linked to regulatory pressures and involve a high implementation cost, so it is necessary to consider the valuation of users’ service so that the benefit or social return of these investments is high, encouraging the use of the service.

Comparison of Operational Costs for Fixed-Route Bus Service and Demand Responsive Transport Systems. The Case of Kosice Region - Slovakia

The issue of sustainability of public transport is constantly receiving attention from both government and research. One possible solution, demand responsive transport (DRT), can increase accessibility in rural areas, improve the quality of service as well as reduce the costs. This paper estimates the operational costs for different types of vehicles in DRT in person-kilometers and compares it to the current costs of standard bus transport for year 2021 and analyses the capacity, occupancy and ticket prices of fixed-route bus transport. As the results indicate, in many cases the costs of DRT are higher compared to standard bus transport, but by increasing the occupancy of vehicles the DRT can provide savings up to 66 %. The use of cars, as well as car-sharing, show higher costs, which is mainly related to a low transport capacity. As the most appropriate vehicles of DRT have been identified micro buses and minibuses.

Impact of Public Transportation on European Countries’ Development: a Spatial Perspective

Abstract Sustainability is a key topic nowadays, mostly because in the last decade the pollution levels have reached an all-time high. National governments are searching for sustainable and environmentally friendly solutions to decrease the amount of pollution. This study is a cross-sectional study on 27 European countries, using data gathered in 2020. This study's main goal is to show the environmental sustainability of public transportation and its impact on country development in Europe. The methodology used in this study will consist of spatial econometrics methods with visual maps and graphs to help with a better visual representation of the phenomena presented. The empirical evidence will be confirmed by the spatial regression's results. Because the spatial diagnostic tests revealed that the spatial processes are present in terms of both spatial lag and spatial errors, the model that was used was a Spatial Autoregressive Moving Average Model (SARMA). Moreover, the environmental sustainability of public transport is also a significant factor. The expected results from which this study began – specifically, that the spatiality has a significant impact in modelling the relationship between public transportation and economic development – were confirmed.

Will COVID‐19 hinder or aid the transition to sustainable urban mobility? Spotlight on Portugal’s largest urban agglomeration

This study discusses the possible effects of two major COVID‐19 disruptions – that is, the widespread adoption of working from home and the ‘bio‐security’ fear affecting public transport – on travel patterns in Lisbon urban agglomeration. Drawing on evidence from the literature on the effects of teleworking on travel demand and the determinants of public transport, together with the analysis of travel data before and during the pandemic, the study concludes that the pandemic may hinder, more than aid, the transition to a sustainable mobility paradigm in Lisbon and its metropolitan area. The analysis of monthly travel demand shows that car use has recovered at a faster rate than public transport use, reaching pre‐pandemic levels in some of the main arterial roads serving Lisbon. There appears to be a substitution of public transport trips by both driving and active micromobility. The main losers so far are public transport operators: the pandemic increased operating deficits and the need for additional public subsidies, putting at risk the future financial sustainability of public transport. Without serious commitment by local and national governments, the pandemic is likely to be another missed opportunity to transition to a better, more sustainable, urban mobility system.

Sustainability of public transport in rural areas - Case study city of Jastrebarsko

The mobility of people in rural areas and low population density areas is sometimes difficult. This may be due to the inability of owning a means of transport as well as the inaccessibility of the public transport system. The development of public transport system in areas of low population density can be significant for ensuring mobility for all users. In this way, the quality of life in rural areas will increase. Numerous studies deal with the topic of introducing public transport systems in developed urban areas. In most cases, such systems have an economic calculation due to the large number of its users. On the other hand, there is a small number of studies that are dealing with the topic of introducing public transport systems in rural areas and sparsely populated areas. This paper analyzes the issue of introducing a public passenger transport system in rural areas with an emphasis on economic profitability and analyzes the economic indicators of the public transport system in detail. This paper also presents a case study of the public passenger transport system justification in the city of Jastrebarsko. Namely, a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) was prepared for the purposes of determining the financial and economic justification of the system and ultimately as a basis for obtaining co-financing from national and European Union funds. When calculating the basic financial and economic indicators of the cost-benefit analysis for the introduction of a public transport system of electric vehicles in the city of Jastrebarsko the influence of all measurable factors, both quantitative and qualitative, was included.

Development of a Common Framework for Analysing Public Transport Smart Card Data

The data generated in public transport systems have proven to be of great importance in improving knowledge of public transport systems, being very valuable in promoting the sustainability of public transport through rational management. However, the analysis of this data involves numerous tasks, so that when the value of analysing the data is finally verified, the effort has already been very great. The management and analysis of the collected data face some difficulties. This is the case of the data collected by the current automated fare collection systems. These systems do not follow any open standards and are not usually designed with a multipurpose nature, so they do not facilitate the data analysis workflow (i.e., acquisition, storage, quality control, integration and quantitative analysis). Intending to reduce this workload, we propose a conceptual framework for analysing data from automated fare collection systems in mobility studies. The main components of this framework are (1) a simple data model, (2) scripts for creating and querying the database and (3) a system for reusing the most useful queries. This framework has been tested in a real public transport consortium in a Spanish region shaped by tourism. The outcomes of this research work could be reused and applied, with a lower initial effort, in other areas that have data recorded by an automated fare collection system but are not sure if it is worth investing in exploiting the data. After this experience, we consider that, even with the legal limitations applicable to the analysis of this type of data, the use of open standards by automated fare collection systems would facilitate the use of this type of data to its full potential. Meanwhile, the use of a common framework may be enough to start analysing the data.

Evaluating Hierarchical Diversity and Sustainability of Public Transport: From Metropolis to a Weak Transport Demand Area in Western Japan

A variety of transport options must be utilized to enhance public transportation sustainability. Previous studies have rarely developed quantitative methods for evaluating the performance of transport diversity. Thus, this study proposes measurement indicators to evaluate transport diversity on the basis of biodiversity indicators. For the hierarchy of public transport networks, we considered that the public transport system is analogous to ecosystems with a taxonomic hierarchy. The number of operation stations, route length, and operating frequency were used to evaluate the spatial and temporal coverage of the transport services. We analyzed the latent correlation between transport diversity and sustainable transport indicators and then examined the spatial distribution of transport diversity. By visualizing the spatial distribution of transport diversity, we found that high-speed railway stations are instrumental in the hierarchy of public transport networks. Furthermore, improving diversity would increase the modal share of public transport, which is considered crucial for developing sustainable transport, especially in the period of depopulation. Finally, this paper presents a demonstration experiment conducted in a regional city that introduced a variety of transport services integrated on a MaaS platform, attempting to provide a multimodal and seamless mobility service in a weak transport demand area.

Use of Microsimulation Traffic Models as Means for Ensuring Public Transport Sustainability and Accessibility

This article deals with the issue of a partial problem in the sustainability and availability of public transport using the example of a specific transit node. In every public transport network, it is the transit nodes that can be a threat to the entire transport system in case of a bad design. The article presents a microsimulation traffic model of a transit node, which was created in the PTV VISSIM/VISWALK program. This model was tested by various traffic loads (i.e., normal loads, loads taking into account the extension of the tram network and loads at extraordinary sports or cultural events). As part of the evaluation of the monitored node, the movement of passengers on pedestrian areas, escalators and staircases was analysed. The obtained results demonstrate the importance of monitoring, for example, the Level of Service, average travel times and pedestrian speeds and other parameters, to ensure the functionality of this construction. The use of traffic models can be crucial, as they can be an invaluable aid and a suitable tool in finding the optimal transport solution that respects the requirements for sustainable and accessible public transport.

Change in land-uses of Ramadi city and its influence on public transportation sustainability

The transportation system in the city of Ramadi, like other Iraqi cities, suffers from many problems for many reasons, notably, changing land uses there. Since the mid-nineties, the change from residential to commercial use was common in Ramadi, and the absence of successful and sustainable planning has exacerbated the problems more due to a large number of planning violations. Here lies the problem of the study, which is the negative impact of the change on the sustainability of urban transportation. In order to address such problems, there is a need for in-depth knowledge of the impact ratios and their reasons for resolving the various transportation changes under study, which is the sustainability of public transport for its significance, and it is deeply affected by changes in land uses. The aim of the study stems from impact standardization and its spatial location and analyzing it by using geographic information systems. The model can be adopted and circulated to the rest of the Iraqi cities in order to present a vision to address the negative impact resulting from the change in land uses and to achieve the goals of sustainable planning for the urban area.

How Does Operational Environment Influence Public Transport Effectiveness? Evidence from European Urban Bus Operators

Public transport systems’ effectiveness is a well-recognized pillar of their sustainability. In this study, we employed order-m efficiency estimators to investigate the effectiveness of 57 bus public transport operators that provide services in both large and medium sized European cities. Their effectiveness was simulated through a tailored production model and was evaluated against critical exogenous variables, which were mostly extracted from Eurostat database. Results showed that the effectiveness of the examined operators is generally satisfactory. Our research suggests that certain exogenous factors significantly affect operators’ effectiveness and thus create either advantageous or disadvantageous operational environments for maintaining public transport sustainability. Among these factors, household size, unemployment and car ownership rates were found to be unfavorable to bus public transport operations. Contrary to them, the presence of university students and metro systems in cities create a favorable operational environment for bus public transport effectiveness. These findings assist in the identification of sustainable development policies that would both contribute to public transport sustainability and to the fulfillment of wider community goals. Our findings also rationalize benchmarking exercises in the public transport industry, since they enable fair performance comparisons between systems that seek to incorporate successful management practices to improve their sustainability.

РОЗРОБКА ПРОГРАМНОГО ЗАБЕЗПЕЧЕННЯ ДЛЯ ВИЗНАЧЕННЯ ЕКОЛОГІЧНОЇ СТІЙКОСТІ МУНІЦИПАЛЬНОГО МІСЬКОГО ТРАНСПОРТУ

Passenger transport is one of the main elements of the social infrastructure of the city, providing the residents' need for urban, suburban and intercity transportation. Reliable and efficient operation of public transport for the city is the most important indicator of socio-political and economic stability. However, the dynamic development of the road-road environment actualizes the environmental sustainability of public transport. Each traffic stream creates a certain microclimate around itself, which is constantly expanding, the ecological situation near and inside of which can adversely affect human health due to the following factors: noise; gas contamination; fever. This problem is most relevant in places of large interchange of public transport: intersection; The central areas of the city are crowded places. Some types of public transport during cyclic passage along the established route create a certain ecosystem that adversely affects many aspects of human life. Currently, in cities, one of the problems of environmental pollution is emissions of combustion products of vehicles. Most of these emissions are generated by public transport. However, it is not possible to control the emissions of private vehicles; an attempt was made to analyze the environmental sustainability of municipal transport in the city. Thanks to the already existing public transport tracking system, it was decided to develop software that could use this data to analyze the environmental situation in the city. The developed software allows you to display the ecological picture of the city. With its help, statistical data on environmental sustainability for each route and type of transport are provided. It is concluded that the introduction of the software product will draw attention to the problem of environmental ustainability of public transport, will create the most rational, from an environmental point of view, routes, improve the quality of existing transport systems by introducing more modern and more environmentally friendly solutions, and improve the overall ecological picture of the city.

Policy Model of Sustainable Public Transport Accessibility in Sukabumi City of Indonesia

Sustainable development concept is something a matter to be carried by every country within which must be followed up by the underneath sectors such as sustainable transportation, especially concerning the public transport accessibility. Public transport accessibility problem is crucial to be solved in particular of urban areas like travel distance, cost, and time of someone who conducting the mobility. Research objectives are: (1) analyze the sustainability status of public transport accessibility by using sustainable transportation accessibility criteria and indicators; (2) formulate actions for public transport accessibility priority activities in Sukabumi City; (3) designing a public transport accessibility policy model with a dynamic system; (4) arrange the direction of policies to improve accessibility of sustainable public transport. Each criteria’s indicator of public transport sustainability in Sukabumi City is determined by economic, social, environmental, institutional and legal approaches. Results of the sustainability index analysis show that for economic criteria, it is 47.96, social criteria 23.58, environmental criteria 82.95, while institutional and legal criteria are 43.61, so the average sustainability index is 49.61 and it can be said to be less sustainable. Activity programs to improve the accessibility of public transport in Sukabumi City, like in economic criteria is more directed at saving transportation costs, such as minimizing vehicle operating costs; social criteria is to increase public interest in switching to public transportation; environmental criteria is to fuel efficiency; and institutional and law criteria is more towards efforts to plan sustainable transportation programs. The dynamic model offers 4 scenarios of sustainable public transport accessibility policy models. The best scenario is implemented in 3 policies which consist of: optimization of vehicle operating costs, savings in fuel oil costs, and an increase in the number of people traveling with public transport. The results of this study are expected to be useful for stakeholders, especially the government as a reference in developing public transport sustainable city. Keywords : accessibility, mobility, sustainable transportation, vehicle operating costs DOI : 10.7176/JESD/10-8-10 Publication date : April 30th 2019

Exploring public transport sustainability with neutrosophic logic

ABSTRACTSustainable transportation is a significant component of overall sustainable development. Increasingly, evaluation and decision-making with respect to major complex projects (for example, transportation and land use projects), a multiple attribute perspective is taken. This paper illustrates a multiple attribute decision-making approach for selecting sustainable public transportation systems under uncertainty, that is, with partial or incomplete information represented by single-valued neutrosophic sets (SVNSs). A SVNS is a generalization of a classical set, a fuzzy set, and an intuitionistic fuzzy set. Here, SVNSs and SVNS connectives are illustrated in the context of a ‘Public Transit Sustainable Mobility Analysis Tool’ (PTSMAT) which involves a composite (multiple attribute) sustainability index. A case study of PTSMAT is provided for the UBC Corridor study in Vancouver, Canada. As expected, similar results are obtained to the original study, though the neutrosophic formalism opens a wide range of possibilities for recognition of uncertainty in sustainability assessment.

A Methodology to Evaluate Accessibility to Bus Stops as a Contribution to Improve Sustainability in Urban Mobility

Walking and transit are the backbone of sustainable mobility. Bus stops not only represent the connection between the two, but are also central in dictating the attractiveness of the latter. Accessibility of bus stops becomes, then, pivotal in increasing both attractiveness and sustainability of public transport. The paper describes a multi-step methodology to evaluate bus stops’ accessibility starting from a cluster of seven indicators describing objective and subjective features influencing passengers’ choice toward a given bus stop. The indicators are weighed by a questionnaire submitted to experts. Finally, a multicriteria analysis is developed to obtain a final score describing univocally the accessibility of each stop. Outcomes are mapped and a case study in Rome is reported as an example, with 231 bus and tram stops assessed accordingly. Results shows the relevance of the urban network and environment in evaluating the accessibility and in promoting more sustainable mobility patterns. Research innovation relies on the possibility to merge data from different fields into a specific GIS map and easily highlight for each bus stop the relationships between built environment, passengers’ comfort, and accessibility, with the concluding goal to provide advanced knowledge for further applications.