Pre-determined fixed fare structure for rickshaws to integrate with mass transit systems

This paper examines the feasibility of pre-determined fare structures for rickshaws. An empirical study was conducted with two case study locations (prospective BRT stations) in Dhaka City, Bangladesh. Eleven focus group discussions (FGDs) were held with rickshaw-pullers and other stakeholder groups, and semi-structured open-ended interviews were conducted with twenty five transport professionals/policymakers. It was found that rickshaw-pullers often like a bargaining process for fixing a fare so that they can charge more from passengers, particularly from those who are new in the area or ‘seem to be’ wealthy, or when there is no other alternative mode available for passengers. On the other hand, passengers prefer a fixed fare structure and do not like the bargaining process. Rickshaw-pullers, passengers and policymakers all mentioned that it would be possible to have a pre-determined fixed fare structure for rickshaws if rickshaws were more localised (serving only within a particular neighbourhood or for a short distance, as an access leg to public transport). However, this policy would need to be backed by effective planning, regular monitoring and enforcement, along with ‘awareness generation’ for rickshaw-pullers and wide scale publicity campaigns

Analisis Tingkat Kepentingan Berbagai Jenis Kriteria Moda, Pemakaian Metode AHP dalam Menentukan Moda Angkutan Umum di Bandar Lampung.

The local government of Bandar Lampung has done some planning and policies to solve the transportation problems by creating the effective and efficient public transport system. One of those was the plan of route network structuring in year 2003 by recommending the mode change policy from public transport passenger car type to be medium bus or it was known \u27two in one\u27 policy. However, it can not be applied in related and showed the controversial because it has not been accommodated the users and operators needs. This research aimed at identifying the importance level weight for each public transport component and criteria for considering in taking decision to determine the type of public transport mode in Bandar Lampung. Hence, it can support optimally the effective and efficient of public transport service. This research was conducted to obtain the importance level weight of each component and criteria for determining the mode alternative of urban public transport by using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. The transport elements chosen were users, operators, regulators, and transport experts, with the used criteria were travel time, waiting time, frequency, load factor, fare, reliability, safety, comfortable, and security. The sensitivity analysis was exercised for obtaining the optimal alternative by the change of scenario of the importance level weight. The results of the study showed that the determination of urban public transport type was influenced by some criteria\u27s weight, i.e. 17.45% safety, 15.68% fare, 13.27% comfortable, 11.16% security, 10.14% waiting time, 9.15% reliability, 9.12% travel time, 7.57% frequency, and 6.47% load factor. All of those were for considering the importance level weight of 49.45% users, 28.68% operators, 14.84% regulator, and 7.04% transport expert. The third alternative as the optimal alternative was the medium bus of urban public transport of mode type chosen with capacity 30 seats for the weight of 38.29%. Keywords: Two in one policy, importance level weight, AHP method, optimal alternativ

Analysing improvements to on-street public transport systems: a mesoscopic model approach

Light rail transit and bus rapid transit have shown to be efficient and cost-effective in improving public transport systems in cities around the world. As these systems comprise various elements, which can be tailored to any given setting, e.g. pre-board fare-collection, holding strategies and other advanced public transport systems (APTS), the attractiveness of such systems depends heavily on their implementation. In the early planning stage it is advantageous to deploy simple and transparent models to evaluate possible ways of implementation. For this purpose, the present study develops a mesoscopic model which makes it possible to evaluate public transport operations in details, including dwell times, intelligent traffic signal timings and holding strategies while modelling impacts from other traffic using statistical distributional data thereby ensuring simplicity in use and fast computational times. This makes it appropriate for analysing the impacts of improvements to public transport operations, individually or in combination, in early planning stages. The paper presents a joint measure of reliability for such evaluations based on passengers’ perceived travel time by considering headway time regularity and running time variability, i.e. taking into account waiting time and in-vehicle time. The approach was applied on a case study by assessing the effects of implementing segregated infrastructure and APTS elements, individually and in combination. The results showed that the reliability of on-street public transport operations mainly depends on APTS elements, and especially holding strategies, whereas pure infrastructure improvements induced travel time reductions. The results further suggested that synergy effects can be obtained by planning on-street public transport coherently in terms of reduced travel times and increased reliability

Bus rapid transit

Effective public transit is central to development. For the vast majority of developing city residents, public transit is the only practical means to access employment, education, and public services, especially when such services are beyond the viable distance of walking or cycling. Unfortunately, the current state of public transit services in developing cities often does little to serve the actual mobility needs of the population. Bus services are too often unreliable, inconvenient and dangerous. In response, transport planners and public officials have sometimes turned to extremely costly mass transit alternatives such as rail-based metros. Due to the high costs of rail infrastructure, cities can only construct such systems over a few kilometres in a few limited corridors. The result is a system that does not meet the broader transport needs of the population. Nevertheless, the municipality ends up with a long-term debt that can affect investment in more pressing areas such as health, education, water, and sanitation. However, there is an alternative between poor public transit service and high municipal debt. Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) can provide high-quality, metro-like transit service at a fraction of the cost of other options. This document provides municipal officials, non-governmental organizations, consultants, and others with an introduction to the concept of BRT as well as a step-by-step process for successfully planning a BRT system

Examination of Regional Transit Service Under Contracting: A Case Study in the Greater New Orleans Region, Research Report 10-09

Many local governments and transit agencies in the United States face financial difficulties in providing adequate public transit service in individual systems, and in providing sufficient regional coordination to accommodate transit trips involving at least one transfer between systems. These difficulties can be attributed to the recent economic downturn, continuing withdrawal of the state and federal funds that help support local transit service, a decline in local funding for transit service in inner cities due to ongoing suburbanization, and a distribution of resources that responds to geographic equity without addressing service needs. This study examines two main research questions: (1) the effect of a “delegated management” contract on efficiency and effectiveness within a single transit system, and (2) the effects of a single private firm—contracted separately by more than one agency in the same region—on regional coordination, exploring the case in Greater New Orleans. The current situation in New Orleans exhibits two unique transit service conditions. First, New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (RTA) executed a “delegated management” contract with a multinational private firm, outsourcing more functions (e.g., management, planning, funding) to the contractor than has been typical in the U.S. Second, as the same contractor has also been contracted by another transit agency in an adjacent jurisdiction—Jefferson Transit (JeT), this firm may potentially have economic incentives to improve regional coordination, in order to increase the productivity and effectiveness of its own transit service provision. Although the limited amount of available operation and financial data has prevented us from drawing more definitive conclusions, the findings of this multifaceted study should provide valuable information on a transit service contracting approach new to the U.S.: delegated management. This study also identified a coherent set of indices with which to evaluate the regional coordination of transit service, the present status of coordination among U.S. transit agencies, and barriers that need to be resolved for regional transit coordination to be successful

Keys to effective transit strategies for commuting

Commuting poses relevant challenges to cities\u2019 transport systems. Various studies have identified transit as a tool to enhance sustainability, efficiency and quality of the commute. The scope of this paper is to present strategies that increase public transport attractiveness and positively impact its modal share, looking at some case studies and underlining key success factors and possible elements of replica to be ultimately planned in some of the contexts of the Interreg project SMART-COMMUTING. The strategies analyzed in this paper concern prices and fares, service expansion, service improvements, usage of vehicle locators and other technology, changes to the built environment. Relevant gains in transit modal share are more easily achievable when considering integrations between various strategies, thus adapting and tailoring the planning process to the specific context

Towards the Sustainable City: The Impact of Land Use – Transport Interactions. The impact of accessibility and environment coefficients in location choice on transport strategy performance.

Over the last decade the concept of integrated transport strategies for urban areas and a means of evaluating them have been developed and widely accepted into practice by major studies of cities such as London (May and Gardner, 1990), Birmingham (Wenban-Smith et al, 1990) and Edinburgh (May, Roberts and Mason, 1992). The development of integrated transport strategies (May, 1991) has been based on the identification of synergy between transport policy instruments (May and Roberts, 1995). These concepts led indirectly, particularly through experience in Birmingham, to the introduction by the Department of Transport of the Package Approach for urban transport funding (May, 1994a) and more directly to the development of the Common Appraisal Framework for assessing Package Approach bids (MVA et al, 1994). It is now generally accepted that transport strategies designed to meet the objectives of economic efficiency and sustainability will require a combination of measures to manage the existing infrastructure more effectively, to provide selective enhancements to that infrastructure and to impose appropriate pricing mechanisms on both public and private transport. In a recent study, funded by EPSRC, we have developed a methodology for identifying optimal specifications for such strategies, and have shown that their performance is particularly sensitive to the contribution of pricing measures such as fares and road pricing (May, Bonsall, Bristow and Fowkes, 1995). However, while we are now able to formulate optimal transport strategies, very few studies have been able to demonstrate that transport policy measures alone will achieve a sustainable situation in which fuel consumption and emissions are maintained at or below current levels (May and Roberts, 1995). In most cases, land use changes will need to be co-ordinated with transport measures if sustainability is to be achieved, and recommendations for appropriate land use measures are beginning to emerge (DoE, DoT, 1993; DoE, 1994). An initial assessment of the potential for co-ordinating transport and land use strategies was carried out using the results of the Edinburgh study (Still, 1992), and showed that the preferred transport strategy would be up to 10% more effective in achieving sustainability when combined with a concentrated land use strategy. However, that study assumed no feedback from transport measures to land use effects. Literature reviews and interviews have demonstrated that the impact of transport on land use is perceived as a serious gap in policy understanding. Interviews also revealed that land use-transport models are treated with some scepticism, because there is insufficient understanding of the relationships within them and because the existing models are perceived as unduly complex (Still, 1996). As a result of this lack of understanding, there is a danger that impacts of transport on land use might have counter-productive effects on the land use - transport strategy. For example, road pricing, which may be a key element in a sustainable transport strategy (May, 1994b), may reduce accessibility by private car, and hence lead to outmigration of business, thus producing a less sustainable land use pattern. Conversely it could enhance the city centre environment, and hence encourage certain firms to relocate to the centre. These twin impacts of transport policy on accessibility and on environmental quality are the key elements in predicting the resulting location decisions of individuals and firms, and need to be better understood if sustainable land use - transport strategies are to be developed

Mass transit options

Choices on public transit options are choices about a city's future. Will there be congestion? Will there be high levels of air and noise pollution? Will transport be affordable? Will services be available to all? The type of public transit system will have a big impact on the answers to these questions. This module aims to provide policy-makers in developing cities - and those advising them - with guidance on choosing appropriate Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) systems. The module begins by briefly describing some basic concepts and defining features of MRT in developing cities. Current applications of each of the main MRT options are then described, focusing on applications in developing cities. Since Metros and Light Rail Transit are still relatively uncommon in low income developing cities, most of this discussion focuses on the recent development of Bus Rapid Transit systems throughout the world

The demand for public transport: The effects of fares, quality of service, income and car ownership

This paper reports on key findings from a collaborative study whose objective was to produce an up-to-date guidance manual on the factors affecting the demand for public transport for use by public transport operators and planning authorities, and for academics and other researchers. Whilst a wide range of factors was examined in the study, the paper concentrates on the findings regarding the influence of fares, quality of service and income and car ownership. The results are a distillation and synthesis of identified published and unpublished information on the factors affecting public transport demand. The context is principally that of urban surface transport in Great Britain, but extensive use was made in the study of international sources and examples

The analysis of possible measures for increasing capacity and reducing travelling times of the public bus transport system

This graduation thesis deals with the problems of the public bus transport system planning. It\ud treats the criteria for planning, methods for capacity determination, measures for increasing\ud capacity, street bus lanes and bus facilities in mixed traffic.\ud The teoretical part is based on the evaluation bus transport system study, »TCRP Synthesis\ud 10, Bus Route Evaluation Standards, A Synthesis of Transit Practice«, and the manual for\ud capacity determination of the public bus transport system, »Transit Capacity and Quality of\ud Service Manual – 2nd Edition«, both made by the Transportation Research Board.\ud The practical part includes analysis of the possible measures for increasing capacity and\ud reducing bus travelling times on the bus route of Celovška cesta, section Kosmačeva ulica –\ud Litostrojska cesta. Introduction of the street bus lane and the changing of the fare paying are\ud ensured as possible measures.\u