Sustainable Public Transport System Research Articles

The Role of Quality Assessment for Development of Sustainable Bus Service in Mid-sized Cities of India: A Case Study of Patna

Public transport in urban areas has been observed to have contributed significantly to the reduction of traffic congestion and pollution, providing alternate means of sustainable transport mode and in a general improvement in ‘quality of life’ of city dwellers. In developing countries like India, rapid urbanization has led to increased travel demand, an increase in a number of the personalized vehicles; however, lack of commensurate comprehensive transportation planning in urban areas has put tremendous pressure on the existing inadequate and out of date transport infrastructure. In order to overcome such alarming situation, improved public transport both in qualitative and quantitative terms has been recommended from all quarters. The present study assesses the existing ‘quality of services’ of midi buses operating in Patna, India. Accordingly, a Likert-type ordinal scale rating based face-to-face survey was conducted among midi bus users in Patna. Respondents were asked to rate the 20 attributes of midi bus services in the city, in terms of satisfaction based on their experiences while commuting. A total of 402 refined questionnaires were analyzed using TOPSIS method. The findings will help to understand the shortcomings of the existing public bus service and provide the responsible authorities and bus operators with suggestions that can enhance the ‘quality of service’ and attract more users to public bus service. Commuters were found satisfied with ‘qualitative’ attributes such as ‘ticketing facility’, ‘seat comfort’, ‘condition of bus stops’, ‘condition of bus’, etc. while dissatisfaction was found for ‘bus information at the bus stop’, ‘frequency of bus service’ and ‘buses being on time’. This study justifies the need of improving ‘qualitative’ aspects of existing bus services. The findings of the study will provide the policy makers and bus operators in planning and implement the effective and sustainable public transport system in future for small and mid-sized cities of developing countries.

Exploring the Determinants of Public Transport System Planning in Car-dependent Cities

This paper attempts to explore the determinants of public transport system planning based on people opinions in car-dependant cities. A survey has been conducted to collect the data for determining the people opinion of the following public transport characteristics: walking distance, mode preference, number of transfers and comfort. A questionnaire was distributed to collect this information for different age groups of Jeddah city residents. Jeddah city, the second largest city is Saudi Arabia, characterized by high car dependency and currently faces the challenges of planning effective and sustainable public transport system.

Study of the fatigue behaviour of dissimilar aluminium joints produced by friction stir welding

Building lightweight structures is one of the key strategies to guarantee an efficient, competitive, safe and sustainable public transport system. The implementation of reliable and optimized lightweight structures needs to achieve high levels of performance, cost effectiveness and sustainability. The expected weight saving will significantly reduce fuel consumption and therefore CO2 emission per passenger-kilometer.Friction Stir Welding (FSW) is a solid state process enabling to develop new design concepts for lightweight metallic materials, where previously conventional manufacturing processes as riveting or classical welding were used.This study was conducted within the LighTRAIN project that aims to improve the life cycle costs of the underframe of a passenger railway car, with a novel lightweighted solution. The major objective of the research was to study the fatigue behaviour of dissimilar welded joints based on two different aluminium alloys: AA6082 and AA5754. The paper presents the experimental results obtained in two different structures: AA6082-T6 2mm and AA5754-H111 2mm thick joints, and AA6082-T6 2mm thick joints. Fatigue tests were carried out on lap joints specimens with a constant amplitude loading with a stress ratio R=0.1. The results of the fatigue tests are presented as well as detailed metallographic characterization of the weld zone and also the hardness distribution at the weld region.Fatigue tests performed on similar and dissimilar joints show low fatigue strength when compared with base materials AA5754 and AA6082, which is associated with the typical “hook” defect inherent to this welding process.The fatigue performance of AA6082 and AA5754 FSW welded joints suggests a shallower S–N curve than for the similar AA6082 FSW welded joints with an improvement in fatigue performance for lower applied stress ranges.

⁎A101 Surveying acceptable walking distance to different modes of local public transport in Munich area ID

Abstract Background Walking is often referred as sports or recreational activities but it has been observed through the years that it is not only a physical activity for achieving fitness but also to access different public transport in transit to destination. There is an increasing demand to improve the accessibility of walking to different services in order to develop sustainable public transport system. In Munich city, the modal split for mobility without car is around 68% and among them 26% makes their trip by foot. Most of these trips made by foot are engaged with walking for public transport. So in order to increase the facilities for the pedestrian to improve their accessibility, it is important to know how far people are willing to walk for different local public transport modes. In large metropolitan areas planners makes assumption about walking distance for the catchment areas for the accessibility of public transport according guidelines, which differ from city to city. But for Munich, the empirical origin of these commonly used measures is unclear. According to the transport plan for the city of Munich the threshold for the catchment area of public transport is different for the central business district (CBD), highly dense area (HAD) and low dense area (LDA). So, it is a clear question whether pedestrians are walking within the assumed threshold or further and how this catchment area affects the decision of travel to desired station. Methods The aim of this research is to observe actual walking distance of the pedestrian for different public transport modes and to find individual’s perception for deciding their route in terms of trip purpose and mode choice. Paper based intercept survey was done in Munich area with 500 respondents to collect the data and analysed through SPSS and Esri-ArcGIS. Results Results showed that respondents living in LDA, walked comparatively longer than respondents living in CBD. It is observed that pedestrian on an average walked longer for suburban train and subway rather than bus and tram. It is also found that pedestrian accepts longer walk to train than other public transport modes and they choose the most direct and quickest route for their access to public transport. Conclusions In order to increase the user of public transport as well as to encourage people towards walking in future, these findings can be considered by the city of Munich to provide the infrastructure and design scale for public transport station within a larger radius.

Investigating the contribution of Demand Responsive Transport to a sustainable local public transport system

Various studies have advocated the potential for Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) services to deliver sustainable local public transport. This paper investigates the sustainability credentials of DRT services using evidence from UK-based research. More specifically, six potential DRT market niches were identified, including those which offer potential commercial opportunities (e.g. airport surface access) and those that meet social needs (e.g. non-emergency hospital trips). Mode share of these DRT services, against car or bus travel, was simulated from mixed logit models within a panel data modelling framework estimated from survey data. The survey was conducted of over 400 respondents in urban (Rochdale, Manchester) and rural (Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire) areas.Experience shows that it is particularly difficult to make DRT services financially viable. Of the DRT services investigated, those targeting airline or train passengers offer potential. However, they are in direct competition with the car, and so their success depends on the cost and availability of parking spaces. Some of the DRT schemes explored meet social needs, such as to access shopping facilities or hospitals, but they face cost challenges. In addition, institutional barriers for new DRT schemes need to be overcome in order to develop a sustainable local public transport system.

Passenger's Aspiration Towards Sustainable Public Transportation System: Kerian District, Perak, Malaysia

Transportation implies the mobility of activities and goods from all sustainable development key dimensions. Over the past years, more trips of public transportation moves people towards a more sustainable future, by reduce congestion on the roads and increase the efficiency of the road system. The research aims at analysing the passenger's aspiration and perspective of sustainable public transport measure and focuses on the evaluation Malaysia rural bus services. Methods of On-board passenger survey and adoption of Geographical Information System (GIS) / Global Positioning System (GPS) used to collect the primary data.

Introduction of public bus transit in Indian cities

Abstract Introducing public bus transit system in Indian cities raises many challenging issues of different nature ranging from technical to operational. The present study examines the impact of a new public bus transit system by applying a binary logit analysis for assessing the possible variation in modal shift behavior. The case study of mode-choice was developed, calibrated, and validated using socio-economic data collected on six proposed corridors in the city of Bardoli, Gujarat, India. Traffic quality parameters, such as average speed, delay, congestion, travel time, and travel cost were modeled to investigate the impact of the new bus transit system in VISSIM environment. The probability of an overall modal shift to proposed bus transit system corridors ranges from 45% to 51%. The maximum modal shift ranges from 80.58% to 87.40% for three-wheelers (para-transit) followed by bicycle and walking mode. However, cars have the least modal shift ranging from 6.78% to 11.49% and 37.38% to 45.46% for two-wheelers. The average speed of the bus transit system in both directions could reach 47.75–49.59 kmph with 15 min frequency. Likewise, mean travel time was estimated from 1.3 to 1.6 min per km and average commuter cost of less than Rs. 1.0 per km for bus transit with insignificant delay and congestion. Introduction of the new public bus system shows promising results and has to play a significant role in developing a sustainable urban public transportation system. These findings can be used to form the basis for the implementation of the new public bus transit in peer cities with relatively similar sizes, which may impact an inhabitant sustainable choice on ridership in due course.

Investigation of SkyCabs Monorail System in Urban Regions

The increased popularity of the private vehicle and the low budgets available to public-transport (PT) planners have meant that PT patronage has decreased significantly from what it once was. This has led to congestion and pollution problems in many cities around the world. It is thus apparent that a new, high quality and sustainable PT system is needed to open the opportunity to attract more people to use PT. This work describes such a system called SkyCabs. The SkyCabs concept is comprised of many lightweight, driverless cabs running two ways on a single elevated monobeam. With each cab seating up to eight people, the aim is to create a feeling of personal travel, and by doing so increase the level of patronage on PT services. The SkyCabs system is investigated based on the following three criteria: a comparative analysis which involves researching and comparing system characteristics, a computer simulation analysing operational feasibility and an economic analysis which involves calculating and comparing the benefit-cost ratios for each mode analysed. A background section has been included to provide information on existing PT modes which have been compared to SkyCabs throughout this work. The SkyCabs concept has been deemed feasible within an urban context such as the North Shore of Auckland, New Zealand. This finding is based on a comparison with other options investigated and it is due to SkyCabs favourable characteristics, the high level of service offered and the low cost of implementation relative to return benefits.

Investigation of SkyCabs Monorail System in Urban Regions

The increased popularity of the private vehicle and the low budgets available to public-transport (PT) planners has meant that PT patronage has decreased significantly from what it once was. This has led to congestion and pollution problems in many cities around the world. It is thus apparent that new, high quality and sustainable PT system is needed to open the opportunity to attract more people to use PT. This work describes such a system called SkyCabs. The SkyCabs concept is comprised of many, lightweight, driverless cabs running two ways on a single elevated monobeam. With each cab seating up to eight people, the aim is to create a feeling of personal travel, and in doing so increase the level of patronage on PT services. The SkyCabs system is investigated based on the following three criteria; a comparative analysis which involves researching and comparing system characteristics, a computer simulation analysing operational feasibility and an economic analysis which involves calculating and comparing the benefit-cost ratios for each mode analysed. A background section has been included to provide information on existing PT modes which have been compared to SkyCabs throughout this work. The SkyCabs concept has been deemed feasible within an urban context such as the North Shore of Auckland, New Zealand. This finding is based on a comparison with other options investigated and it is due to SkyCabs favourable characteristics, the high level of service offered and the low cost of implementation relative to return benefits.

Sustainable Public Transportation System for Emerging Metropolitan Cite

Nowadays, the number of the vehicles has gotten more and more than before, especially the private cars and two wheelers with the development of the economics in India. The urbanized course is also more and more quick in the big city automobile holds assumes the geometric series to grow but the transportation infrastructure rate of rise is lower by far than the vehicles actually the rate of rise, thus our country metropolitans are facing the huge traffic pressure. Public this also affected the urban economy increase in some kind of degree further to develop and the promotion of the people lives level. It also brings traffic jam, the accident, the energy waste and the environmental pollution causes the transportation to become restriction bottleneck in the economic development. The effective method of solving the city municipal transportation problem is to develop the public transit vigorously, especially to establish bus rapid transit system in the big city.

Spatial investigation of the temporal urban form to assess impact on transit services and public transportation access

The rapid urban growth in developing city increases the requirement of the efficient and sustainable public transportation system. The urban growth affects the urban form, which indicates the change in human and urban development activity. Urban form affects directly and indirectly access to the public transportation system as an assessment of potential riders and proximity to stops increase transit services users. Therefore, access is one of the important aspects for the assessment of transit service efficiency. Public transportation access can be represented by a coverage area and useful to estimate potential riders of public transportation. In this study, a Geographical Information System (GIS)-based spatial statistical analysis method is used to examine the spatial relationship of different urban form indicators with population or riders of transit service in a coverage area and to ascertain how urban form influences public transportation trips in this coverage area. The coverage area is delineated using a GIS-based road/street network distance approach. The spatial analysis results suggested that urban forms have certain impact on trips in coverage area at both ward level and zone level. The statistical analysis implies that significant and positive values of spatial lag coefficient indicate a positive spatial interaction between wards and variable like total coverage area; worker density have shown positive and significant effects on trips of public transportation.

Enhance Accessibility in Traditional Districts a Case Study of the “Upper Town” of Thessaloniki

The object of this research was the planning and organisation of a sustainable urban transport system in the “Upper Town” of Thessaloniki. In this article the main findings of a household travel survey held before and after the operation of a new bus line in the area will be discussed. Then what will be presented are the specific measures and interventions aiming at the safeguard, maintenance and enhancement of the special characteristics of this residential area, adopting a “green” mobility approach The Upper Town is a historic district situated in the north-east part of the intra muros city with traditional architecture and organic urban tissue. Steep slopes, a complex network of narrow paved streets, dead-ends, small glades and picturesque squares compose the road system. These characteristics cause unfavorable travel conditions for pedestrians, bicycles and vehicles. The findings of the research show that the improvement of infrastructure for pedestrians, the development of a dense public transport network connecting the district with the city centre, the improvement of the urban landscape and the preservation and enhancement of its spatial features are the main priorities. The operation of the new bus line has to meet the expectations of the residents and serve the mobility needs of the area. The participation of the citizens constitutes an important tool for the development, acceptance and implementation of an integrated and sustainable public transport system.

Towards a new mobility concept for cities: architecture and programming of semi‐autonomous electric vehicles

PurposeThis paper aims to focus on cybernetic transportation systems (CTS) due to their effectiveness for solving mobility problems in cities. A new mobility concept is proposed which allows to attain the same flexibility of the private passenger car but with much less nuisances. It is based on small semi‐autonomous electric vehicles, which may be used to complement mass public transportation, by providing passenger service for any location at any time.Design/methodology/approachA set of automatic guided vehicles for public transportation are described. Two different control paradigms of the fleet are compared: centralized vs distributed control.FindingsThe pros and cons of both control approaches are highlighted so as to support decisions about the configuration of a CTS for people transportation on public places.Originality/valueThe paper provides a new offer of transportation for people in short path cities downtown or public gardens, in order to move people based on sustainable and efficient public transportation systems.

Initiating Bus Rapid Transit in Jakarta, Indonesia

On February 1, 2004, a 12.9-km (8-mi) bus rapid transit (BRT) line began revenue operation in Jakarta, Indonesia. The BRT line has incorporated most of the characteristics of BRT systems. The line was implemented in only 9 months at a cost of less than US$1 million/km ($1.6 million/mi). Two additional lines are scheduled to begin operation in 2005 and triple the size of the BRT. While design shortcomings for the road surface and terminals have impaired performance of the system, public reaction has been positive. Travel time over the whole corridor has been reduced by 59 min at peak hour. Average ridership is about 49,000/day at a flat fare of 30 cents. Furthermore, 20% of BRT riders have switched from private motorized modes, and private bus operators have been supportive of expanding Jakarta's BRT. Immediate improvements are needed in the areas of fiscal handling of revenues and reconfiguring of other bus routes. The TransJakarta BRT is reducing transport emissions for Jakarta and providing an alternative to congested streets. The BRT provides a tangible vision for an effective, viable, and sustainable public transportation system in Jakarta and elsewhere.