Transport Interchanges Research Articles

Analysis of satisfaction factors at urban transport interchanges: Measuring travellers’ attitudes to information, security and waiting

Transport interchanges can be seen as nodes where people transfer from one mode to another, and also as a place to stay and use facilities, services and waiting areas. Reducing transfer disruption in multimodal trips is a key element for ensuring seamless mobility in big cities.Based on previous research (Hernández and Monzón, 2016), this paper aims to explore how attitudes towards several service factors can predict general satisfaction with a transport interchange. It also analyses how personal and trip characteristics affect the evaluation of some variables, and examine the relationship between waiting time and perceived quality. A two-step methodology (personal and online interview) was applied to a representative sample of 740 users (54% female, 55% travelling for work purposes). The model was tested with path analysis and showed a satisfactory statistical fit.The model performed well when predicting general satisfaction with the Moncloa transport interchange (Madrid, Spain). The outputs indicate that Information and Safety and Security factors predicted 49% of general satisfaction. The results also revealed a strong association between Design and Environmental quality, although these factors do not affect general satisfaction directly, but through the perception of Information and Safety & Security, which act as mediator variables.Time spent queuing inside the interchange is negatively correlated with Information and Safety & Security, while the age of participants negatively affects Information, indicating that older individuals have some cognitive problems with accessibility. Our data shows gender differences in safety perception, since women (particularly younger women) feel less safe inside the interchange. The results point to a number of priority measures to enhance the perceived quality and efficiency of interchanges.

Evaluation of the functioning of selected public transport interchanges in Szczecin

The article presents the result of calculations on the average waiting time for the planned merger, which has been designated on the basis of the timetable and the actual average waiting time for connection designated on the basis of actual data of arrivals and departures of vehicles transport of Szczecin.

BUILDING ON EUROPEAN SCIENTIFIC EXCELLENCE TO DEVELOP AN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM ON INTERMODAL CONNECTIONS FOR LATVIA AND THE REGION

Economic and social factors, including existing trends in urban population and employment growth combined with urbanization, have led to enhanced consumption and thus, increasing freight flows in the cities. Mitigation of transport impacts has led to plans towards a more sustainable urban environment. However, managerial and regulatory barriers restrict the incorporation of technological instruments and solutions to the sustainable dimension of decision-making and planning. This paper has sought to bridge this gap by organizing an educational and training program, which involves the participation of todays and tomorrow’s researchers, decision-makers and practitioners. Towards this direction, a methodology is developed that identifies existing gaps between the transport industry and the existing research, education and training programs and converts identified requirements and gaps into training courses. The paper addresses the context of intermodal interconnections for the case of Latvia and the region for stimulating and strengthening its scientific and technological capacity by providing knowledge in the field of smart interconnecting sustainable transport networks. The 2-level gap analysis that was developed and implemented with respect to the thematic areas of (1) ‘Governance and policy development’, (2) ‘Smart solutions’, and (3) ‘Decision-making’, and the validation process that followed, has revealed several requirements that exist currently for passenger and freight interchanges and educational programs for Latvia and the region. Based on the identified educational requirements for Latvia and the region, 20 educational areas were created that resulted in 12 courses for passenger and freight transport interchanges that are going to be used for training and education in Latvia.

Transport Interchanges Design Features in Seismically Dangerous and Densely Built-Up Areas

The article describes design peculiar properties of multi-level transport interchange in Karasunsky administrative district of the city of Krasnodar city with a roundabout location at the intersection at a higher level and organization of tram rail traffic in ramp. The interchange is designed with maximum convenience for drivers and passengers of all modes of transport. The project combines modern technological solutions, which is allowed to realize project in a seismically dangerous area in conditions of dense building. The use of seismic isolation and strengthening of the structure with proper design ensures the reliability of structures and the absence of necessary rehabilitation works after an earthquake.

Evaluation of Urban Consolidation Centers: A Methodological Framework

Over the last decade, the focus in the domain of freight transport has been set on the investigation of ways to eliminate time and cost in last mile delivery, while continuously upgrading the level of provided services, promoting a number of innovative logistics solutions. One of the most important issues is the optimization of the interconnection amongst the interurban and urban sections of the supply chain, where the role of the Freight Transport Interchanges (i.e. Freight Centers) has been fundamental. The key issue is three fold and the optimum solution lies between: a) the selection of the most appropriate location for the establishment of each facility, b) the identification of the facility's attributes that should match the interest area's needs and c) the evaluation of the concept as considered to be part of the local policies and measures promoted or planned for the area of interest. The answer to the afore mentioned issues is provided through a two level approach incorporating the development of two discrete, but successive decision making supportive evaluation tools: a methodological approach to provide a solution to the facility location problem for Freight Centers and an integrated evaluation framework used for the assessment of the operation of the specific Freight Center category, the Urban Consolidation Centers (UCC). Both methodological frameworks are based on selected performance indicators, incorporating divergent stakeholders’ interests considering conflicting business models and operations.

Knowledge Sharing Strategy as a Key Element of the H2020 Programme: Enhancing Excellence and Innovation Capacity in Sustainable Transport Interchanges (Alliance) Project

The knowledge sharing among researchers, decision makers and practitioners becomes necessary for understanding new transportation trends and incorporating innovative transportation strategies in urban planning according to the economic competitiveness and business needs. The paper presents the tools and activities used in the frame of the “Enhancing excellence and innovation capacity in sustainable transport interchanges” (ALLIANCE) project in order to make knowledge sharing among project partners and stakeholders effective and sustainable. The paper goal is to define the framework to measure the effectiveness of the knowledge sharing activities with linkage to the general H2020 TWINNING programme goals, Transport and Telecommunication Institute (Latvia) Research programme for 2016−2020 and specific goals of the ALLIANCE project.

Определение критических показателей работы транспортно-пересадочного узла на основе многофазной системы массового обслуживания

Определение критических показателей работы транспортно-пересадочного узла на основе многофазной системы массового обслуживания

Analysis of satisfaction factors at urban transport interchanges: Measuring travelers’ attitudes to information, security and waiting

Transport interchanges can be considered as a node, where people transfer from one mode to another, and as a place to stay, using facilities and services as well as waiting areas. Reducing disruption of transfer in multimodal trips is a key element for assuring seamless mobility in big cities. Based on previous research (Hernandez & Monzon, 2016) this paper aims to explore the predictive capacity of attitudes towards several service factors on general satisfaction with transport interchange. Complementary, it was analyzing how personal and trip characteristics are related to evaluation of some variables, and examining the influence of waiting time on the perceived quality. To that end, a two steps methodology was conducted (personal and on-line interview) in a representative sample of 740 users (54% female, 55% work purpose trip). We performed path analysis to test the model showing a satisfactory statistical fit. The model developed show good performance for predicting general satisfaction at Moncloa Transport Interchange (Madrid, Spain). The outputs of the model indicate that Information and Safety and Security factors predicted 49% of general satisfaction. Furthermore, the results showed also a strong association between evaluation of Design and Environmental quality, factors that not affect directly general satisfaction but do so through Information and Safety & Security perception, acting the last as mediator variables. Nevertheless, spending time queuing inside the interchange show a negative influence on Information and Safety & Security , while age of participants affect negatively to Information , which mean that elder have some cognitive accessibility problems. Moreover, our data shows gender differences in safety perception, since women feel less safe (particularity the youngest) inside the interchange. The results indicate a number of priority measures to enhance perceived quality and efficiency of interchanges. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/CIT2016.2016.4207

Modernizing public transport interchanges: Rotterdam Centraal case study

This article provides an overview of the aims, topics, findings and main deliverables of the EU-funded NODES project. The NODES project investigates and evaluates tools that support the innovative design and operation of new or upgraded efficient urban transport interchanges. The key topics that are addressed in the project are illustrated by means of a review of the recently upgraded interchange in Rotterdam city centre.

Underground Space Development in Comprehensive Transport Hubs in China

Along with the Chinese high – speed rail network taking shape, the transport hubs centered around high – speed rail stations appeared in some major cities in China. The development and construction of transport hubs usually integrate urban renewal with jointly development of both ground and underground space. Meanwhile, the transport hub is usually regarded as a “city flagship” promoting the regional economic growth. This study firstly analyzes the importance of underground space development in transport hubs. Then this study will focus on four comprehensive transport hub projects of which author was either leading or participating in the design, namely Lanzhou west rail station, Ningbo rail station, Chongqing west station, and Lanzhou Zhongchuan airport transport hubs. Based on those four projects, this study analyzes and summarizes the scale and components of underground space, transport interchange in transport hubs and so on. The summary and outlook of development of transport hubs and their importance in urban development will be presented in the end.

New Tools and Strategies for Design and Operation of Urban Transport Interchanges

NODES “New tOols for Design and OpEration of Urban Transport InterchangeS” is a collaborative project co-funded by the Seventh Framework Programme focused on building and testing a Toolbox to support European cities in the design and operation of new or upgraded urban transport interchanges. NODES thereby provides greater support, services and satisfaction to travellers and users, to interchange operators as well as those societal and economic actors depending on the efficiency of the interchange. NODES provides a helping hand for European cities striving for inclusive, multimodal and sustainable urban transport. NODES is able to supply solutions and methods for Local Authorities, Public Transport operators as well as interchange promoters to better and more effectively plan, design and manage multimodal transport interchanges in European cities and beyond. NODES uses an integrated approach balancing and integrating land use and transport planning, interchange design, intermodality and Information Communication Technologies (ICT), interchange management and business models, energy and environment issues.The developed Toolbox is a catalogue of integrated planning, design and management tools for new or upgraded efficient urban interchange enabling every interchange promoter to create a more efficient, effective and inclusive urban transport system, bringing together all elements of a clean, energy-efficient, safe and intelligent transport. The Toolbox consists in a set of tools including technical, organizational, legislative, financial, energy and environment tools. NODES successfully developed and tested tools and integrated methodologies based on the most innovative technique, methods, models, software and regulations aimed at boosting performance of urban transport interchange in the different lifecycle stages such as newly build, refurbishment, governance and management changes, etc.NODES has assessed the effects of the Toolbox in the areas of land use planning, transport, society, economy, energy and environment. Nine different European cities have successfully tested the tools and integrated methodologies included in the Toolbox covering different situations, transport patterns and local peculiarities. These cities are: Toulouse (France), Reading (UK), Budapest (Hungary), Rotterdam (Netherlands), Rouen (France), Rome (Italy), Thessaloniki (Greece), Osnabrück (Germany), Birmingham (UK). Despite of significant differences among the above cities and relevant interchanges involved in the demonstrationś activities (e.g. small city interchange, central interchange in large city, etc.), all the involved sites achieved tangible results and benefits from the Toolbox's implementation, enabling to transfer results in other cities beyond the project.The main benefits can be measured in terms of increasing multimodal integration and integrated information provision, reducing time of transfer among different modes, enhancing liveability and experience from travellers’ prospective, safety and security, enhancing energy efficiency, etc. The achieved results are the basis for a future further exploitation of the Toolbox towards a more technological and modelling-oriented solution based on multi-criteria, object oriented and agent-based approaches, enabling to deliver most effective and efficient combination of integrated tools and techniques, through an incremental and modular approach.

Efficient Urban Interchanges: The City-HUB Model

Multimodal trips are increasing in metropolitan areas, making public transport less attractive. There is a need for integration in order to achieve effective seamless mobility. One dimension of integration is to reduce the disruption of transfer among modes and interchanges appear as the best solution when big number of travellers has to transfer.The City-HUB 7FP project1 has developed a three years research for deploying new interchanges and improving existing ones. It starts by identifying two groups of dimensions that define Interchange key features. The first dimension is related to Physical&Size, including passenger demand, modes of transport, services and facilities and location in the city. The second dimension is related to Local Impacts such as developing of new activities –housing, offices, nearby shopping-, jobs creation and its connection with the local Development Plan. The combination of the elements of the two dimensions define the following key features: building design, stakeholders’ involvement and the type of business model. The findings are based on interviews to practitioners undertaken in 26 selected interchanges in 9 European countries.According to these key features, the interchange should organize the space among three different zones: access-egress zone; facilities zone; and arrival-departure-transfer zone. The first one is where links to the local area and access to transport modes are focused. The last one caters for intermodal transfers. Travel information and intermodal services are spread across both zones as well as the facilities and retailing.Users’ perceptions should be collected to improve interchange efficiency. To that end a travellers’ attitudinal survey has been carried out in interchanges in 5 European cities. From the user point of view the most important factors identified in the surveys are safety and security, transfer conditions, emergency situation, information, design, services&facilities, environmental quality and comfort of waiting time. All these elements define the interchange from two different perspectives: “as a transport node” and “as a place”. The first one is related to the functionality as a node of the transport network; the second includes all the features for make the transfer experience more attractive and efficient.The project has identified a number of recommendations for developing urban transport interchanges. Some of them refers to users, other to operators and the third part deals with local impacts, governance issues and business models. All these findings have served to develop an integrated concept of interchange: City-HUB model.

Key factors for defining an efficient urban transport interchange: Users' perceptions

The sustained increase in the urban population and the trend towards urban sprawl in European cities has led to a change in mobility patterns, and many public transport users now need to combine several modes or transport services at urban transport interchanges before they reach their final destination. Therefore, they have become an everyday experience for users where, in addition, users spend time inside. This paper aims to identify the key factors both from a functional and psychological perspective for defining an efficient transport interchange. Since the users' perceptions of their experience are particularly important for achieving the most appropriate policy measures for interchanges, an ad-hoc travellers' satisfaction survey was designed and carried out in three European transport interchanges. The assessment methodology used here – Principal Component Analysis – is proposed as a useful step-by-step procedure. The results of this research highlight the ambivalent nature of the urban transport interchanges. The key functional aspects identified contribute to make easier the transfer and reduce the waiting time, while the psychological factors make the stay more comfortable for users.

Urban transport interchanges: A methodology for evaluating perceived quality

Travel patterns in urban areas are becoming increasingly complex, and many public transport users need to transfer between different modes to complete their daily trips. Transport interchanges play a key role as urban transport network nodes, and the quality of the service provided in an urban transport interchange therefore has a direct influence on travellers’ daily experience. This study proposes a useful methodological framework to identify the potential strengths and weaknesses of urban transport interchanges and to manage resources more efficiently. It is based on a two-step analytical procedure combining the classification and regression tree model and importance-performance analysis. A travellers’ attitudinal survey was carried out in the Moncloa transport interchange (Madrid, Spain) and the methodological framework was applied to the data collected. The greatest strengths of the interchange from the users’ point of view are the information provision through signposting, the features of the internal design of the interchange which have a direct influence on aspects related to safety performance, and security conditions, particularly during day-time.

Key quality factors at urban interchanges

Quality of service should not be overlooked in public transport planning and policy making, as it influences modal shift from car use to more sustainable means. Little research has been conducted on the quality of public transport interchanges from the perspective of current travellers (i.e. perceived quality). This work thus aimed to identify key quality factors at urban interchanges through an exploratory approach (multiple correspondence analysis) that provides novel elements for further investigation. The methodology was applied at interchanges in Madrid and Gothenburg and the data used in the analysis were collected through customer satisfaction surveys conducted in 2011. The analysis identified five key quality factors per interchange. Ticketing plays a key role at both interchanges while physical and environmental issues emerged at Avenida de América in Madrid, and services, temporal issues and interconnectivity characterise Gothenburg central station. Compared with other quality aspects, classical issues such as safety/security and information are not perceived as important by intermodal travellers.

Multimodal processes scheduling in mesh-like network environment

Abstract Multimodal processes planning and scheduling play a pivotal role in many different domains including city networks, multimodal transportation systems, computer and telecommunication networks and so on. Multimodal process can be seen as a process partially processed by locally executed cyclic processes. In that context the concept of a Mesh-like Multimodal Transportation Network (MMTN) in which several isomorphic subnetworks interact each other via distinguished subsets of common shared intermodal transport interchange facilities (such as a railway station, bus station or bus/tram stop) as to provide a variety of demand-responsive passenger transportation services is examined. Consider a mesh-like layout of a passengers transport network equipped with different lines including buses, trams, metro, trains etc. where passenger flows are treated as multimodal processes. The goal is to provide a declarative model enabling to state a constraint satisfaction problem aimed at multimodal transportation processes scheduling encompassing passenger flow itineraries. Then, the main objective is to provide conditions guaranteeing solvability of particular transport lines scheduling, i.e. guaranteeing the right match-up of local cyclic acting bus, tram, metro and train schedules to a given passengers flow itineraries.

Assessing the accessibility of the Wolverhampton interchange, UK

The UK Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) of 2005 requires transport service providers and local authorities to make reasonable infrastructure adjustments to accommodate the needs of disabled transport users. This paper presents the findings of a study that aimed to evaluate the extent to which the recently developed Wolverhampton Transport Interchange project meets the requirements set out in the Disability Discrimination Act. The study involved the implementation of a questionnaire survey of disabled users and semistructured interviews with stakeholders of the project. Site audits on three transport interchanges were undertaken for assessing the services offered and for enabling a comparative study. The paper presents the perceptions of users with various disability types regarding the infrastructure offered and concludes that the legislation had made an impact on improving the accessibility for disabled users, but what is needed is a process of rationalisation. Data from the transport interchange providers showed evidence of reasonable adjustments to meet the needs of the disabled, but obstacles to full compliance remained and further improvements could be made in order to enhance the services offered to the disabled users.

Mobility and Urban Planning Integration at City-regional Level in the Design of Urban Transport Interchanges (EC FP7 NODES Project–Task 3.2.1.)

Nodes is a European Commission R&D project aiming to build a toolbox to support European cities in the design and operation of new or upgraded public transport interchanges. NODES seeks to find the most innovative approaches to key areas in this arena such as design, ICT, management models, energy and environment. The Madrid Transports Consortium (CRTM) has led the work on the topic ‘Integrated land use and infrastructure planning’ (Task 3.2), which is a long standing mantra for planning policies and proved to be difficult in practice. This document describes a first section (3.2.1) that focuses on the city-regional scale: a theoretical framework is developed for a further understanding of the question, whereas a first tool is proposed for a complete assessment and diagnosis of the public transport network, urban integration, the relationship with land uses and the strategic role of a node within the whole network. This tool may also enable more prompt detection of areas for intervention and/or investment. Second, a simpler tool can guide a new interchange project by evaluating an array of different scenarios at a city-regional level by a selection of indicators that identify the optimal scenario for interchange performance.

Transport Interchange and Local Urban Environment Integration

Among the different interchange design aspects, integrated land use and infrastructure planning is maybe one of the most problematic fields in practice, given that a joint transport and urban planning spills over the regular scope of action of interchange developers, whereas it involves the cooperation and agreement of various authorities. Not only this, but the very issue of land use-transport integration seems to be a long-standing mantra in planning and transport research, lacking scientific evidence. This paper is an output of an ongoing European research project called “NODES - New tOols for Design and OpEration of Urban Transport InterchangeS”. Its aim is to start re-focusing the academic-scientific evidence on the question and to foresee a specific and practical framework to approach the problem. The underlying hypothesis is that the interchange could be a catalyst of life and security in the city.

Waiting pedestrians in the social force model

Microscopic simulation of pedestrian traffic is an important and increasingly popular method to evaluate the performance of existing or proposed infrastructure. The social force model is a common model in simulations, describing the dynamics of pedestrian crowds given the goals of the simulated pedestrians encoded as their preferred velocities.The main focus of the literature has so far been how to choose the preferred velocities to produce realistic dynamic route choices for pedestrians moving through congested infrastructure. However, limited attention has been given the problem of choosing the preferred velocity to produce other behaviors, such as waiting, commonly occurring at, e.g., public transport interchange stations.We hypothesize that: (1) the inclusion of waiting pedestrians in a simulated scenario will significantly affect the level of service for passing pedestrians, and (2) the details of the waiting model affect the predicted level of service, that is, it is important to choose an appropriate model of waiting.We show that the treatment of waiting pedestrians have a significant impact on simulations of pedestrian traffic. We do this by introducing a series of extensions to the social force model to produce waiting behavior, and provide predictions of the model extensions that highlight their differences. We also present a sensitivity analysis and provide sufficient criteria for stability.