scholarly journals Coupling Degree between the Demand and Supply of Bus Services at Stops: A Density-Based Approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 173
Author(s):  
Bowen Li ◽  
Zhengdong Huang ◽  
Jizhe Xia ◽  
Wenshu Li ◽  
Ying Zhang

The bus stop layout and route deployment may influence the efficiency of bus services. Evaluating the supply of bus service requires the consideration of demand from various urban activities, such as residential and job-related activities. Although various evaluation methods have been explored from different perspectives, it remains a challenging issue. This study proposes a spatial statistical approach by comparing the density of the potential demand and supply of bus services at bus stops. The potential demand takes jobs-housing locations into account, and the supply of bus services considers bus stops and their associated total number of daily bus arrivals. The kernel density estimation (KDE) and spatial autocorrelation analyses are employed to investigate the coupling relationship between the demand and supply densities at global and local scales. A coupling degree index (CDI) is constructed to standardize the measurement of demand-supply balance. A case study in Wuhan, China demonstrated that: (1) the spatial distribution of bus stops is reasonable at global level, (2) Seriously unbalanced locations for bus services have been detected at several stops. Related adjustments that can improve these defects are highly recommended.

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shi-chao Sun

To better sustain passengers’ loyalty towards bus service, this paper addressed the modeling of the public transit loyalty by the use of structural equation model. As a novel hypothesis, the emotional value was considered to have effects on the perceived value of bus services in this study, which reflected the degree of passengers’ emotional dependence on the public transit. Specifically, in order to better assess the loyalty, seven unobserved variables were measured to construct the structural model, namely, “service guarantee,” “operational services and efficiency,” “emotional value,” “perceived value,” “expectation,” “satisfaction,” and “loyalty.” The goodness-of-fit of the model was estimated and evaluated by using the survey data harvested from Xiamen, China. Besides, the index score of variables was also computed to help determine targeted approaches to better improve the level of bus service. The results indicated that the time cost and the monetary cost actually had no effects on the perceived value of users in the case study. At the same time, however, it also proved that passengers’ emotional value towards the public transit indeed affected passengers’ perception of the service value. In addition, whether users’ perceived value was as expected determined how much passengers satisfied with the service. Regarding the index score of variables, it indicated a great dissatisfaction of passengers towards the current bus service. Unexpectedly, the score of loyalty even still retained a relatively high level, which reflected continue-to-use willingness of passengers. It implied that being subject to economic conditions and other factors, passengers were captive and had to continue relying on the public transit, in spite of their dissatisfaction. As for the improvement direction of bus services, targeted approaches should be determined to improve the quality of bus service, regarding the aspects of “condition of facilities in the bus,” “driving stability and comfort,” “vehicle speed,” and “safety.”


Author(s):  
Chao Wang ◽  
Weijie Chen ◽  
Yueru Xu ◽  
Zhirui Ye

For bus service quality and line capacity, one critical influencing factor is bus stop capacity. This paper proposes a bus capacity estimation method incorporating diffusion approximation and queuing theory for individual bus stops. A concurrent queuing system between public transportation vehicles and passengers can be used to describe the scenario of a bus stop. For most of the queuing systems, the explicit distributions of basic characteristics (e.g., waiting time, queue length, and busy period) are difficult to obtain. Therefore, the diffusion approximation method was introduced to deal with this theoretical gap in this study. In this method, a continuous diffusion process was applied to estimate the discrete queuing process. The proposed model was validated using relevant data from seven bus stops. As a comparison, two common methods— Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) formula and M/M/S queuing model (i.e., Poisson arrivals, exponential distribution for bus service time, and S number of berths)—were used to estimate the capacity of the bus stop. The mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of the diffusion approximation method is 7.12%, while the MAPEs of the HCM method and M/M/S queuing model are 16.53% and 10.23%, respectively. Therefore, the proposed model is more accurate and reliable than the others. In addition, the influences of traffic intensity, bus arrival rate, coefficient of variation of bus arrival headway, service time, coefficient of variation of service time, and the number of bus berths on the capacity of bus stops are explored by sensitivity analyses.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 803 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Corazza ◽  
Nicola Favaretto

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.


Author(s):  
Jone Orbea ◽  
Sebastian Castellanos ◽  
Cristina Albuquerque ◽  
Ryan Sclar ◽  
Berta Pinheiro

Bus services are a fundamental component of transportation networks in Latin America, but buses often account for a disproportionately large number of environmental externalities. Electric buses (e-buses) are emerging as an effective and pragmatic option for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and local pollutants. However, e-buses are difficult to procure in Latin America because of existing procurement challenges in the region, especially as those challenges relate to forming contracts to deal with high upfront costs and unknown risks. To overcome these procurement issues, this paper presents a new contractual model, based on literature and case study research. This new model suggests the separation of bus service responsibilities into three separate actors: multiple bus procurement companies, one or multiple bus depots and charging infrastructure companies, and multiple bus operating companies. By separating bus service responsibilities, the proposed model would bring about three concrete improvements: lower costs to the transit system, better quality of service, and lower-emission fleet deployment.


Author(s):  
Brendan Pender ◽  
Graham Currie ◽  
Alexa Delbosc ◽  
Yibing Wang

This paper explores the importance of providing track crossovers in addressing the issue of replacement bus services in response to unplanned rail service disruptions by using a case study in Melbourne, Australia. Crossovers determine the point from which rail replacement bus services can operate and thus are critical in determining the scale, costs, and benefits of rail disruption management. Despite research evidence that provision for crossovers is important in managing rail disruption, the research literature gives little guidance concerning how it can be achieved and what the relative costs and benefits of providing crossovers are. Theoretical modeling evaluated passenger and operator impacts of alternative crossover plans for a case study of unplanned service disruptions on a suburban rail line in Melbourne. Results showed that an additional crossover reduced user rail disruption costs by 78% to 96%, while bus hire costs were reduced by 63% to 93%. Results suggested that only a few rail disruptions annually would make the provision of track crossovers financially viable on the basis of savings in rail replacement bus service costs. Research found that locating crossovers as close as possible to areas of major disruption provided the most benefits for users and operators. Sensitivity tests showed that even with significantly lower ridership and a lower frequency of disruption, the addition of crossovers was financially positive and generated substantial user benefits. All highlighted results are with respect to the one suburban rail line under analysis. Provision of additional track crossovers appears to be a highly positive means of reducing costs and improving services. However, research indicates that crossovers can cause disruption on some rail systems, and this factor needs to be considered in rail planning.


2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Izzati Khairimah Ismail ◽  
Oliver Ling Hoon Leh ◽  
Zulkifli Ahmad Zaki

Urban public transportation system is a means of providing mobility to locals, visitors as well as tourists. KL Hop-On Hop-Off buses, for instance, are designed specifically for local and foreign tourists to move within the Kuala Lumpur (KL) city centre areas for the purpose of tourism. However, there is only one route provided by the KL Hop-On Hop-Off, with more than 20 stops. The duration for a complete route tour without any stop is too long; that is around 2-2 ½ hours. Coupled with the problem of traffic congestion in KL, passengers face the problems of punctuality and long waiting periods. Thus, this study was carried out to evaluate the existing route of the KL Hop-On Hop-Off bus services. GIS application and questionnaire survey were used to evaluate the route. As a result, this study proposes three new routes as the alternatives to the existing single route Hop-On Hop-Off bus service. With the new routes, duration of a single full route tour can be reduced based on the interest of tourist. Tourists will be able to concentrate on just one part of KL city centre for their one-day tour based on their interest either heritage, shopping or nature.


2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 247-258
Author(s):  
Rabindra Nath Dubey ◽  

Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC and Delhi Metro-Rail System (DMRS) are two important public transport systems in Delhi. The DMRS has been attractive in respect to ridership but in 2015 it has shown a decrease in its ridership. It has also been found that ridership of the bus service, the most important public transport system for the poor in Delhi, has decreased over time whereas the numbers of private vehicles have recorded phenomenal increase resulting in traffic congestions and pollution problems in the city. The purpose of this study is to explore the role of the fear of crimes along with other reasons for decreasing trends in the usage of public transport in Delhi. The study is based on people opinion and perception for which 350 persons were interviewed with the structured questionnaire from ten transit places having varied socio-economic conditions. Fear of crimes within buses/coaches is considered an important reason for not using public transport in western countries but as per this study, the same is not true in the case of Delhi. Role of fear of crimes along with other factors was verified with the spearman’s correlation coefficient. The weak negative correlation has been found between the preference to public bus services and the fear of crimes; the crowing; the unavailability. It indicates that along with these other factors are equally responsible for the choice of public transports in Delhi.


This paper is totally based on a critical review of Transport Network Analysis in a Upper Assam district of State of Assam in India. It’s a comparative study between ASTC Bus Services and Traveller Services from Jorhat District (Centre) to Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Sibsagarh, Golaghat, Lakhimpur and Dhemaji District. There have only 11 ASTC Bus Services and More than (on Average) 15 Traveler Service in every district. The ASTC Bus Services were fixed for riding every day but Traveller Services are not fixed. It is flexible on time and demand by the passengers situations. From these it is clear that the government (ASTC) bus service are very less than the traveler services in this Upper Assam. There have many factors for the shortage of Govt. service and increase of Traveller Services. For this there have face many problems by passenger like travel fare, capacity of arrangement of seats, lack of comfortness of travelling etc.


Author(s):  
Marie-Pier Veillette ◽  
Emily Grisé ◽  
Ahmed El-Geneidy

Promoting active modes of transportation, such as cycling, is an ongoing challenge faced by many cities around the world. Fostering a bicycle culture in an auto-dominant region is riddled with challenges, but success has been achieved with investments in bicycle infrastructure, including bicycle parking. This study presents a new methodology to identify the optimal locations to install short-term (bicycle racks) and long-term (bicycle lockers or indoor locking facilities) bicycle parking using a GIS-based approach that considers multiple criteria. Using Québec City, Canada, as a case study, our methodology considers multiple criteria related to the demand for bicycle parking, including the destinations of existing and potential cyclists and proximity to a frequent bus service. A prioritization index is developed to identify the optimal locations for long-term and short-term bicycle parking. This is followed by a recommendation of the number of bicycle parking spaces required to meet existing and potential demand. This paper aims to provide practitioners with an easy-to-use method to aid in the planning of new bicycle parking infrastructure, which is designed to be flexible and adaptable to other contexts.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel Hansson ◽  
Fredrik Pettersson-Löfstedt ◽  
Helena Svensson ◽  
Anders Wretstrand

AbstractDue to relatively low patronage levels, rural bus stops are sometimes questioned in order to improve travel time and reliability on regional bus services. Previous research into stop spacing has focused on urban areas, which means that there is a lack of knowledge regarding the effects of bus stops in regional networks, with longer distances, higher speeds, and lower passenger volumes, in general. The present study addresses this knowledge gap by analysing the effects of bus stops on a regional bus service regarding average travel times, travel time variability, and on-time performance. This is done by statistical analysis of automatic vehicle location (AVL) data, using a combination of methods previously used for analysis of rail traffic and urban bus operations. The results reveal that bus stops that are only used sporadically have a limited impact on average travel times, in general. In contrast, they are all the more influential on travel time variability, and, in turn, on on-time performance. On the studied bus service, the number of stops made have a far greater impact on travel time variability than any of the other included variables, such as the weather or traffic conditions during peak hours. However, the results suggest that rural bus stops have a much lower impact than what we define as secondary bus stops in urban areas. Consequently, by primarily focusing on bus stop consolidation in urban areas, it is possible to significantly improve service reliability without impairing rural coverage.


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