The principles of public transport network planning: a review of the emerging literature with select examples

This paper highlights for urban planners the key strategies and tactics that can be deployed to improve suburban public transport networks. Introduction The governance and management of public transport systems is an essential component of metropolitan planning and urban management. Most metropolitan strategies in Australia and in other jurisdictions presuppose the provision of public transport. Yet there is often a disconnection between transport plans and land-use schemes. Similarly, metropolitan land-use plans that do integrate with transport plans tend to focus on infrastructure rather than service quality and connectivity. A failure to adequately consider the quality of public transport networks in land-use planning analysis has the potential to produce poor planning outcomes in two key ways. First new land-uses may be inadequately served with public transport services, leading to dependence on alternative travel modes, such as cars. Second, the failure to recognise the significance of well-planned local public transport networks may result in the preclusion of some land-use options. This preclusion may relate to the location of land-uses or their design, such as over-provision of carparking. The continuing debate over whether to address suburban cardependence via land-use change or via transport planning is a case in point. And while the arguments in favour of and against land-use change as a means to overcome car dependence are well known in the planning literature. There is a growing if not yet widely appreciated literature that advocates improvements to public transport network planning and coordination as a means of reducing car dependence. The recognition of improved public transport network planning as a means of reducing car dependence is immensely significant because it offers planners an additional or alternative tool for managing urban transport patterns beyond land-use variation or investment in heavy infrastructure. Urban planning practitioners are not yet well served and informed by the broader public transport planning literature on the advantages of public transport network planning. While there is an extensive literature focusing on the economics and engineering of urban public transport systems the planning literature on the practices that contribute to success in public transport network design and operations is relatively poorly documented. There is also very little literature dedicated to public transport network design within Australian cities which are distinguished by highly centralised radial heavy rail networks with bus or tram networks that are well developed in inner urban zones but less so in the outer suburbs. The remainder of this paper has four objectives for transport planning theory and practice. First the paper reviews the literature on public transport network planning principles; next the paper attempts to formulate these principles in practical terms such that they can be applied to line and network design; third the paper considers further dimensions of network planning, including institutional arrangements and transition points in network design. The paper is intended for three audiences. The first is planning scholars who are involved in debates about public transport. The second is strategic policy officials in planning agencies who are involved in the planning and design of public transport networks. The third audience comprises those involved in development processes and who seek insights into the technical components of public transport network planning. Some caveats are appropriate however. The paper is not seeking to justify public transport network planning. The authors consider that the case for dedicated planning is implicit in the assumption that cities should provide good quality public transport to their residents. The wider case in favour of network planning has been successfully advanced elsewhere. Conversely, the paper is not intended as a directly applicable manual of detailed transport planning practice. While it does offer some insights into the practical public transport network planning task such guidance is better provided by Nielsen et al and Vuchic. Instead the paper highlights for urban planners the key strategies and tactics for that can be deployed to improve suburban public transport networks. Understanding these principles should thus assist urban planners – and urban scholars – to better shape and evaluate urban development processes and patterns

The review of Melbourne’s Principal Public Transport Network

The integrated transport and land use strategy, Melbourne 2030, defined a Principal Public Transport Network (PPTN) in 2002 intended to provide a high quality and direct public transport connection between the activity centres. The PPTN was recently revised by the Department of Transport in response to growth in Melbourne‟s population, introduction of new services to support that growth, and release of several strategies to supplement the original Melbourne 2030.This paper summarises the process undertaken in reviewing the PPTN. It re-examines the original definition, emphasising connection to activity centres rather than between them, sets out a list of objectives of the network and the criteria used to select the individual links that form the network.Examples of proposed revisions to the network are presented, which would improve accessibility to activity centres, and improve both the catchment and coverage by public transport services. Relations to other defined transport networks are examined, particularly the Principal Freight Network and the Principal Bicycle Network, as is the implementation of the PPTN as both a land use planning tool and within VicRoads‟ network operating plans

Heritage impact assessment of the full alignment for the proposed Msunduzi Integrated Rapid Public Transport Network, Pietermaritzburg: Phase 1 survey

This report outlines the heritage impact on the alignment of the Msunduzi Integrated Rapid Public Transport Network, in Pietermaritzbur

Is successful integration of land-use and transport planning centred around a catalytic city-wide public transport network improvement project?

This case study showed that land-use and transport planning in South Africa are not successfully integrated. In addition, the institutional arrangements governing land-use and transport planning are not properly aligned and operate in silos. This study investigated various mechanisms that can be used to successfully integrate land-use and transport planning. The main purpose of this study was to find the common key features of successful integrated land-use and transport planning. The study was based on a case study method. The data was collected from secondary sources in three widely-acclaimed international cities that have implemented land-use and transport planning. The major finding of the study was that successful integration of land-use and transport planning are centred on a catalytic city-wide public transport network improvement project. All three international case studies (Curitiba, Portland and Copenhagen) that were studied, have successfully integrated its land-use and transport planning, and had a catalytic public transport network project at its core. The study concluded that, to be successful, the integration of land-use and transport planning need to be centred on a catalytic city-wide public transport network improvement project

Fractal transit networks: self-avoiding walks and L\'evy flights

Using data on the Berlin public transport network, the present study extends previous observations of fractality within public transport routes by showing that also the distribution of inter-station distances along routes displays non-trivial power law behaviour. This indicates that the routes may in part also be described as L\'evy-flights. The latter property may result from the fact that the routes are planned to adapt to fluctuating demand densities throughout the served area. We also relate this to optimization properties of L\'evy flights.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, style files included. Submitted to the topical issue 'From Brownian motion to self-avoiding walks and L\'evy flights' of the journal 'EPJ - Special Topics

Scaling in public transport networks

We analyse the statistical properties of public transport networks. These networks are defined by a set of public transport routes (bus lines) and the stations serviced by these. For larger networks these appear to possess a scale-free structure, as it is demonstrated e.g. by the Zipf law distribution of the number of routes servicing a given station or for the distribution of the number of stations which can be visited from the chosen one without changing the means of transport. Moreover, a rather particular feature of the public transport network is that many routes service common subsets of stations. We discuss the possibility of new scaling laws that govern intrinsic features of such subsets.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

Shared Autonomous Vehicles Implementation for a Disrupted Public Transport Network

The paper proposes the management of bus disruption (e.g. fleet failure) and maintain a resilient transportation system through a synergy between shared autonomous vehicles and the existing public transport system based on the organizational structure and demand characteristics. The methodology is applied to the region of Rennes (France) and its surroundings

The Impact of Alternative Access Modes on Urban Public Transport Network Design

Public transport network design determines the quality for travellers as well as operational costs. Network design is therefore crucial for the cost effectiveness of urban public transport. In urban public transport network design it is commonly assumed that all travellers walk to the stops. This might be true for short access distances, but if stop and line spacing increase other modes such as bicycles might become interesting as an alternative access mode. An analytical model is presented that determines optimal network characteristics, i.e. stop spacing, line spacing, and frequency, and that explicitly accounts for alternative access modes. The objective used is maximising social welfare. Results show that, if cycling is considered as an alternative access mode, all three network characteristics mentioned above should be increased, offering benefits for the traveller, the operator as well as the society. However, if there is a large sub-population of travellers who are not able to use the alternative mode, or if there are barriers for using an alternative mode to access the urban public transport system, it is better to assume that walking is the only access mode available. In the case of cycling as an access mode there are possibilities for positive benefits, at least in countries such as Denmark or the Netherlands. It is expected that for other access modes, such as peoplemovers and demand responsive public transport systems, the barriers are too high to have an impact on urban public transport network design