Spatial variation of transit service quality preferences in Dar-es-Salaam

Commuter preferences for transit service quality are of great importance to transit service providers and regulatory agencies. The point of view of potential passengers is fundamental for evaluating transit service quality as they are envisaged to be the real consumers of the planned services and can therefore be considered the most suitable judges. A stated preference survey of daily commuters to the central business district (CBD) in the city of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, was carried out to elicit preferences towards the proposed Dar Rapid Transit (DART) service. Preferences towards the proposed DART service are considered to vary based on the residential location of the potential users. These preferences are evaluated on the attributes travel time, fare and comfort. A binary logit model was applied to establish utility functions that were analysed spatially in a GIS, where a utility value was computed for each spatial unit. This paper accordingly analyses spatial variation of transit service quality preferences for the proposed DART service using geo-spatial techniques. The study uses a scenario-based approach to evaluate the effect of the proposed DART service by comparing the ‘without DART’ scenario, a case representing the existing public transport (daladala), and a ‘DART’ scenario, representing the future proposed DART system. The results indicate that the proposed DART attributes considered in the study have a significant effect on DART service quality. The results further reveal that utility values are significantly varying spatially, particularly dependent upon distance to CBD. Comfort is the most important attribute in zones up to 5 km from the CBD, travel fare is more important in zones between 5 and 15 km from the CBD, while travel time is more important in zones beyond 15 km distance from the CBD. The overall results indicate that the DART is likely to be more attractive than the existing public transport system

Using accessibility indicators to investigate urban growth and motorcycles use in Ha Noi City, Vietnam

To investigate the impact of urban growth on motorcycles use in Ha Noi City, Vietnam, this paper maps and analysis three types of accessibility indicators. The results show that the levels of accessibility to jobs by public transport are very poor as compared to motorcycle and car, explaining the very low share of public transport in the modal split. People living in satellite cities and towns experience very poor levels of accessibility to jobs for all transport modes, including motorcycle. The analysis shows that most urban growth takes place in areas that have relatively high levels of accessibility to jobs by motorcycle or car. This result can help to explain why Hanoians “like” to use motorcycle rather than public transport and why urban growth is not taking place in satellite cities or towns as generally assumed but concentrates around the main (accessible part of the) city

Measuring accessibility to jobs for the urban poor in Ahmedabad

Transport plays an integral role in the levels of mobility and socio-economic participation in any given society. Yet, traditional urban transport planning has neglected this important role and has limited its focus on the efficiency of the transport network itself, thereby overlooking the more difficult to measure socio-economic implications. This paper reports on the use of accessibility metrics for quantifying the effect of public transport and urban development interventions, such as BRT and social housing projects, in lowering the spatial mismatch between low income residents and their jobs, with examples from a World Bank commissioned project in Ahmedabad, India. In addition, we show how geo-spatial network modelling techniques can be used in measuring levels of accessibility for this purpose. Our findings show that the presented metrics and developed tool can highlight critical investment and policy reform needs for developing cities in India and beyond