Level of Service Measures for an Urban Bus Route

The ability to measure the level of the quality of transit service provided is of utmost importance for customers to assess the level of service they receive and for the transit agency to assess the effectiveness of the service improvements made. Despite its importance, the transportation industry lacks an efficient, widely accepted, and widely applicable overall level of service (LOS) measure. Specifically, one that can assess and compare the overall quality of service (QOS) of transit lines or systems or one that can compare different operational performances of the same transit line or system is needed. The content of the thesis consists of four major parts. The first part critically reviews major domains of transit level of service (TLOS) measures in industry and academic literature. It focuses on the success in achieving anticipated goals as opposed to the requirement of such a measure. Existing measures fall short in incorporating a combined view of both the passenger and operator and in assessing the overall TLOS by a single measure. A new approach to evaluate TLOS is proposed that has the potential to address these drawbacks. The second part of the thesis proposes a novel approach to measure the LOS with respect to the value of time (VoT) distribution of the passengers. An implied VoT representing the LOS of a particular attribute, a combination of attributes, or overall service is derived and is compared with the respective VoT distribution of the passengers to obtain the LOS. An approach to distinguish LOS grades depending on the standard deviation (SD) of the VoT distribution is proposed. The third part of the thesis engages in developing three LOS measures representing five attributes of concern in the thesis. Accordingly, a measure to represent headway and crowding attributes, a measure to represent access and travel time attributes, and a measure to represent the reliability attribute are developed. Each measure represents an implied VoT figure obtained by simulating an existing operation using an analytical model of optimum operation related to the service attributes of concern. The analytical model of optimum operation is developed from the basics for reliability LOS measure, while for other measures, existing models in the literature are modified and used. Finally, the three measures developed are combined using a novel approach to represent the overall LOS of a bus route. The development of each LOS measure is accompanied by a numerical example explaining the calculation of the LOS of a bus route. The fourth and final part of the thesis applies the developed measures to a bus route operation in Calgary. The data for the bus route is obtained from Calgary Transit for the year 2021. While each chapter discusses the derived LOS measure and draws conclusions, the final chapter provides insights into potential improvements to the suggested approaches and potential future research related to the developed work

Pricing externalities from passenger transportation in Mexico city

The Mexico City Metropolitan Area has been suffering severely from transportation externalities such as accidents, air pollution, and traffic congestion. This study examines pricing instruments to reduce these externalities using an analytical and numerical model. The study shows that the optimal levels of a gasoline tax and a congestion toll on automobiles could generate social benefits, measured in terms of welfare gain, of US$132 and US$109 per capita, respectively, through the reduction of externalities. The largest component of the welfare gains comes from reduced congestion, followed by local air pollution reduction. The optimal toll and tax would, however, double the cost of driving and could be politically sensitive. Still, more than half of those welfare gains could be obtained through a more modest tax or toll, equivalent to $1 per gallon of gasoline. The welfare gains from reforming the pricing of public transportation are small relative to those from reforming the taxation of automobiles. Although the choice among travel modes depends on specific circumstances, in the absence of road travel pricing that accounts for externalities, there will be potential for higher investment in roads relative to mass transit. Given the rapidly increasing demand for transportation infrastructure in Mexico City, careful efforts should be made to include the full social costs of travel in evaluating alternative infrastructure investments.Transport Economics Policy&Planning,Roads&Highways,Energy Production and Transportation,Transport and Environment,Transport in Urban Areas

Critical Appraisal of Parameters for Successful Implementation of BRTS in India

Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) is establishing itself as a new and sustainable solution to mass transit against the conventional transit systems in many cities across the globe as well as in India. Different BRTSs have adopted various case-specific solutions to make the system contextual to the place, user-friendly, strategic, technologically advanced, and ecologically sustainable. In most cases, the most favoured solution is governed by aspects related to available infrastructure, budgetary allocations, demand and behavioral patterns of passengers, and areas of focus. The paper makes a critical appraisal of various parameters contributing to the implementation of BRTS services across the world and applicability of the same in India. It also deals with how the application of a new transportation system affects the surrounding area and with the resulting various social and physical impacts. As a conclusion, this paper establishes that successful BRTS must combine proper station design, track design, maintained vehicles and running ways with backup infrastructure, educated and updated drivers and workforce, public cautiousness, and system-backed information technology. Further, it concludes that the institutional framework needs revamping in Indian scenario for successful implementation of BRTS projects

How Should Passenger Travel in Mexico City Be Priced?

This paper uses an analytical-simulation model to examine the optimal extent and welfare effects of pricing reforms for passenger transportation in Mexico City. The model incorporates travel by auto, microbus, public bus, and rail, plus externalities from local and global air pollution, traffic congestion, and road accidents. In our benchmark case, the optimal gasoline tax is $2.72 (29.6 pesos) per gallon, or 16 times the current tax. However, a per-mile toll would reduce traffic congestion, the largest externality, more directly, and we put the optimized auto toll at 20.3 cents per mile. Tolls should also be imposed on microbuses even though the welfare gains are relatively modest, as are those from reforming public transit fares.gasoline taxes, mileage tolls, transit subsidy, pollution, congestion, Mexico City, welfare effects

Multi-Objective and Multi-Attribute Optimisation for Sustainable Development Decision Aiding

Optimization is considered as a decision-making process for getting the most out of available resources for the best attainable results. Many real-world problems are multi-objective or multi-attribute problems that naturally involve several competing objectives that need to be optimized simultaneously, while respecting some constraints or involving selection among feasible discrete alternatives. In this Reprint of the Special Issue, 19 research papers co-authored by 88 researchers from 14 different countries explore aspects of multi-objective or multi-attribute modeling and optimization in crisp or uncertain environments by suggesting multiple-attribute decision-making (MADM) and multi-objective decision-making (MODM) approaches. The papers elaborate upon the approaches of state-of-the-art case studies in selected areas of applications related to sustainable development decision aiding in engineering and management, including construction, transportation, infrastructure development, production, and organization management

Models and algorithms for the optimal design of bus routes in public transportation systems

In this thesis we study models and algorithms for the optimal design of bus routes in urban public transportation systems. The problem known as TNDP (Transit Network Design Problem) consists in determining the number and itinerary of public transportation lines and their corresponding frequencies, in terms of a given infrastructure of streets and stops. The solutions should satisfy a given origin-destination demand and should take into account the interests of users and operators and a given set of physical, policy and budgetary constraints. We propose an explicit mixed integer linear programming formulation which incorporates the waiting time and the existence of multiple lines in the behavior of the passengers.Then, we discuss the impact in the structure of the model of adding transfer, infrastructure and bus capacity constraints. We apply the model (using a standard solver) to very small test cases as well as to a real one, related to a small-sized city comprising 13 bus lines. In order to deal with cases of larger sizes, we propose a greedy constructive algorithm that produces a set of routes that are convenient for both users and operators, taking into account constraints related to transfers. By using a real test case, we show that the proposed algorithm improves results from the state of the art.As a further extension, we represent the existence of the conflicting objectives of users and operators using a multi-objective combinatorial optimization model for the TNDP. This new model is solved by a metaheuristic that exploits the multi-objective nature of the problem in order to solve it eficiently. By using a benchmark test case and a real one, we show that the proposed algorithm improves results from the state of the art and produces solutions with characteristics comparable to the real one. Objective values of both constructive and metaheuristic algorithms are compared with values corresponding to reference solutions; for the first one we compare against optimal solutions obtained with the mathematical formulation, while for the second one we compare with the solution operating the public transportation system of the city corresponding to the real test case. Finally we discuss the relationships between the diferent contributions of this thesis and we comment several issues related to the application of the proposed methodologies to real cases. We also give some opinions and recommendations concerning future developments in this research field.En esta tesis se estudian modelos y algoritmos para el diseño óptimo de recorridos de buses en sistemas de transporte público urbano colectivo. El problema conocido como TNDP (Transit Network Design Problem) consiste en determinar el número y el itinerario de líneas de transporte público y sus correspondientes frecuencias, en términos de una infraestructura dada de calles y paradas. Las soluciones deben satisfacer una demanda origen-destino dada y deben tener en cuenta los intereses de los usuarios y de los operadores y un conjunto dado de restricciones físicas, políticas y de presupuesto. Se propone una formulación explícita de programación lineal entera mixta, que incorpora el tiempo de espera y la existencia de múltiples líneas en el comportamiento de los pasajeros. Seguidamente se discute el impacto en la estructura del modelo, al agregar restricciones de transbordos y de capacidad de la infraestructura y de los buses. El modelo se aplica (usando un solver estándar) a casos de prueba muy pequeños, así como a uno real relativo a una ciudad pequeña que consta de 13 líneas de buses. Con el propósito de atacar casos de mayor tamaño, se propone un algoritmo constructivo ávido que produce un conjunto de recorridos que son convenientes tanto para los usuarios como para los operadores, teniendo en cuenta restricciones de transbordos. Utilizando un caso de prueba real, se muestra que el algoritmo propuesto mejora resultados del estado del arte. Como una extensión del algoritmo constructivo, se representa la existencia de los objetivos en conflicto de usuarios y operadores usando un modelo de optimización combinatoria multi-objetivo para el TNDP.Este nuevo modelo se resuelve con una metaheurística que explota la naturaleza multi-objetivo del problema para resolverlo eficientemente. Utilizando un caso de prueba de referencia existente en la literatura y uno real, se muestra que el algoritmo propuesto mejora resultados del estado del arte y produce soluciones de características comparables a las del sistema real. Los valores objetivo del algoritmo constructivo y de la metaheurística se comparan con valores correspondientes a soluciones de referencia; en el primer caso se compara contra soluciones óptimas obtenidas con la formulación matemática, mientras que para el segundo se compara contra la solución que opera el sistema de transporte público de la ciudad correspondiente al caso de prueba real. Finalmente se discuten las relaciones entre las diferentes contribuciones de esta tesis y se comentan varias cuestiones relacionadas a la aplicación de las metodologías propuestas a casos reales. También se formulan algunas opiniones y recomendaciones en relación a futuros desarrollos de éste tópico de investigación