Impacts of Regulatory Schemes on Innovation: The Case of Urban Public Bus Transport in Santiago
Impacts of Regulatory Schemes on Innovation: The Case of Urban Public Bus Transport in Santiago
Innovation is starting to play an important role in the provision of urban public bus transport. This paper analyses the implications of different contractual interactions, on both technological (i.e., vehicles and infrastructure) and service operation innovation, in private and public procurement of urban bus services in Santiago, Chile. Our findings indicate that the contractual framework […]
Accounting for travel time variability in the optimal pricing of cars and buses in a multimodal transport corridor
This paper addresses the problem of optimal pricing of both cars and buses in a multimodal transport corridor including externalities of congestion, bus crowding and travel time variability. A social welfare maximisation approach is implemented and applied to Sydney, Australia. To characterise travel time variability, a mean-variance model is embedded in the model and a […]
Crowding in public transport systems: Effects on users, operation and implications for the estimation of demand
The effects of high passenger density at bus stops, at rail stations, inside buses and trains are diverse. This paper examines the multiple dimensions of passenger crowding related to public transport demand, supply and operations, including effects on operating speed, waiting time, travel time reliability, passengers’ wellbeing, valuation of waiting and in- vehicle time savings, […]
Incentive Schemes for Bus Drivers: the case of the public transit system in Santiago de Chile
Although many authors have studied regulatory schemes for bus operators of public transport provision, little attention has been given to incentive schemes towards bus drivers in terms of economic incentives and labour conditions. Therefore, there is a need to analyse incentive schemes for bus drivers since the level of performance of the bus system it […]
Valuation of housing and neighbourhood attributes for city centre location: a case study in Santiago
A stated choice (SC) experiment was designed to study the locational preferences of new CBD residents in Santiago de Chile. Eight attributes were analysed, separated into two SC games. The first was associated with neighbourhood characteristics (accessibility, green areas, commercial services and cultural services) and the second with dwelling characteristics (flat size, gym and pool […]
Valuing casualty risk reductions from estimated baseline risk
Stated choice studies have been applied regularly to the valuation of time savings and other attributes of travelling as perceived by individuals. In such experiments, respondents often provide reference levels for the attributes and the hypothetical choices presented to them are pivoted around actual behaviour. However, most individuals are not able to provide reference levels […]
Assessing the Equity Impacts of Bus Rapid Transit: Emerging Frameworkds and Evidence
Implementing Bus Reform: Institutional Dimensions
Developing surveys for the study of departure time choice: a two-stage efficient design approach
Modeling of departure time choice has recently received renewed attention because of the increasing levels of congestion in many cities and the growing popularity of travel demand management strategies such as road pricing. Current practice for evaluation of the effectiveness of travel demand management policies usually involves incorporation of the temporal dimension into transport planning […]
Obtaining public transport level-of-service measures using in-vehicle GPS data and freely available GIS web-based tools
Identifying the performance parameters of importance in the design of Bus Rapid Transit: an experimental framework using microscopic simulation
Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is acknowledged to be an emerging mode of public transport and has the ability to deliver fast and high quality urban mobility. A BRT networks consist of six major components, namely the running ways, the stations, the vehicles, the fare collection, the ITS technologies, and the service and operating plans and it is the combination of these six dimensions that defines a BRT system and its quality.
Using microscopic simulation as the experimental framework for a calibrated and coded corridor within the Metropolitan network in Sydney, Australia, the impact of these parameters is explored. The objective of this work is to identify which parameters are most important to BRT system performance. Several scenarios including the increasing capacity of vehicles, changing frequency and the introduction of bus lanes have been designed and measures used from the output of the microsimulation to compare with a baseline scenario. The research findings point to the importance of particular components in the design of a BRT system and in particular the frequency of the services, the number of bus stops within the network, the presence of bus lanes and the demand applied on the network.
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Exhaust Emissions of Transit Buses
EMBARQ’s Sustainable Urban Transportation Fuels and Vehicles (SUTFV) program aims to take an unbiased approach to analyzing the impacts of different fuels and technologies for bus transit fleets. The program jointly addresses lifecycle costs and emissions of transit buses and is targeted to provide context-specific recommendations for cities in India, Mexico, and Brazil—countries in which EMBARQ works. This report, the first in the SUTFV program, compiles a large data set of in-use transit bus emissions tests for use in a meta-analysis to define ranges of exhaust emissions for fuel and technology combinations. The analysis looks at both local and global emissions to understand their impact on human health and the environment.
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Aggregate price-demand elasticities estimation for a fare-integrated public transport system
An integrated real time transit signal priority control for high frecuency transit services
How much can holding and/or limiting boarding improve transit performance?
Bus bunching affects transit operations by increasing passenger waiting times and its variability. This work proposes a new mathematical programming model to control vehicles operating on a transit corridor minimizing total delays. The model can handle a heterogeneous fleet of vehicles with different capacities without using binary variables, which make solution times compatible with real-time […]
Information processing in choice-based conjoint experiments: a process-tracing study
Purpose – This paper investigates how respondents to conjoint experiments process information and choose among product profiles, and how this varies with their knowledge about the product. Models for estimating conjoint attribute weights are almost exclusively based on principles of compensatory decision making. The paper aims to explore to what extent and in what way […]
Traffic Safety on Bus Corridors: Pilot Version – Road Test
The purpose of this guidebook is to provide bus agencies, local jurisdictions, as well as regional and international organizations with a set of suggested design, planning, and operational criteria that should be considered in the planning and design of new bus systems.
The information contained in these guidelines should by no means be used as standard details on which to base a final design, but rather as recommended criteria and general guidance which, in conjunction with engineering judgment and a thorough analysis of existing conditions on the corridors, should help develop final designs. Moreover, these are global guidelines representing general concepts and are not site or country specific, and they may not always be adapted to local design and signalization standards. The applicable local standards for signalization and markings should always be checked before applying the recommendations set forth in these guidelines.
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Traffic safety in surface public transport systems
Understanding Road Safety Impact of High-Performance Bus Rapid Transit and Busway Design Features
The design choices made in the planning of a new bus rapid transit (BRT) or busway corridor (e.g., use of a center-lane or curbside configuration, counterflow lanes, and open or closed stations) affect not only the operational performance of the system but also the risks of crashes, injuries, and fatalities on the facility over its lifetime. With data from nine BRT systems and busways around the world (including Bogotá, Colombia; Curitiba, Brazil; Mexico City, Mexico; and Delhi, India), some of the road safety impacts of major BRT-busway corridor design characteristics are illustrated. The approach included a combination of crash frequency modeling, road safety inspections, and interviews with transit agency staff and safety experts. Center-lane systems tended generally to be safer than were curbside systems, and counterflow lanes were the most dangerous possible configuration. Some of the features that provide higher passenger capacity (such as multiple bus lanes and multiple docking bays at stations) may introduce new types of conflicts and crashes. In the planning of any bus system, trade-offs often need to be made between capacity, safety, and pedestrian accessibility along the corridor. This study provides the necessary elements for successfully integrating road safety considerations into the design and operation of future BRT systems and busways.
The costs of inclusion: Incorporating existing bus and paratransit operators into Mexico City’s BRT
The costs of inclusion: Incorporating existing bus operators into Mexico City’s emerging bus rapid transit system
Implementing bus rapid transit (BRT) in systems characterized by a strong presence of weakly regulated private bus operators can be categorized along a “force-foster” continuum, representing the range in effort to replace incumbents. We examine the fostering end of the spectrum in terms of the consequences of incorporating, rather than replacing, existing operators. While the immediate effect enhances the political feasibility of implementation, what are the longer-term consequences on project sustainability? We hypothesize that the short-term political gain from involving existing bus operators may a) negatively affect performance, b) reduce leverage to regulate the emerging system, c) increase operating costs, and/or d) constrain the ability to expand or integrate the system in the future. We test our hypothesis by examining four BRT corridors implemented in Mexico City between 2005 and 2012. Our findings confirm BRT’s potential to transition away from weakly regulated, privatized and atomized systems and empower the state as planner and regulator. We also find longer-term challenges, particularly in the form of non-explicit subsidies to the system and related expectations for subsequent negotiations. The cases suggest that, when managed without a healthy dose of conflict, compromises can be costly. Cities pursuing a “fostering” approach to public transport industry transition should take note.
Public transport pre-pay tickets: Understanding passenger choice for different products
Growing cashless services in the Sydney metropolitan region are motivated by the clear supply-side benefits associated with the prepayment of public transport fares. This paper examines the effect on prepay following the ‘MyZone’ fare and ticket reform in New South Wales introduced in April 2010. ‘MyZone’, introduced two new discounted and standardised prepay products, including a new, multimode ticket. Whilst these changes had implications for all public transport providers in the Sydney Metropolitan area, it had significant ramifications for the many private bus operators who, for the first time, could provide and accept tickets, which integrated their services with the state-run rail, ferry and bus network.
With empirical data collected from two surveys of passengers of a private bus operator in northern Sydney this study analyses the ticket purchasing behaviour of passengers both before the fare reform, when passengers only had access to operator-specific prepay products, and post-MyZone, when the new standardised prepay products were available. The results clearly show there are significant differences in the characteristics of passengers using multi-modal versus pay-as-you-go tickets and that this difference is driven largely by age, income and whether or not the journey involved interchange. Prior to MyZone, prepay users were easily predicted and the fare and ticket reform was successful in transitioning some cash users to prepay but prepay users were no longer predictable unless separated into prepay product groups. This suggests that a policy designed to exploit the supply-side benefits associated with cashless services needs to consider that introducing only one prepay product will not address the market need of frequent users. Passengers who continued to pay cash after the fare and ticket reform showed high sensitivity to public transport cost and are those passengers with the lowest incomes. This raises policy questions of how to mitigate against the upfront costs often associated with prepay to transition less affluent, but frequent passengers, onto cashless ticketing.
Ridership Drivers of Bus Rapid Transit Systems
We have collected information on 46 bus rapid transit (BRT) systems throughout the world to investigate the potential patronage drivers. From a large number of candidate explanatory variables (quantitative and qualitative), 11 sources of systematic variation are identified which have a statistically significant impact on daily passenger-trip numbers. These sources are fare, headway, the length […]
Choosing public transport – some behavioural challenges
Drivers of Bus Rapid Transit Systems – Influences on Ridership and Service Frequency
This document reports the findings of a comparative analysis of bus rapid transit (BRT) performance using information on 121 BRT systems throughout the world, in which random effects regression is employed as the modelling framework. A number of sources of systematic variation are identified which have a statistically significant impact on BRT patronage in terms of daily passenger numbers such as fare, frequency, connectivity, pre-board fare collection, and location of with-flow bus lanes and doorways of a bus. In addition to the patronage model, a bus frequency model is estimated to identify the context within which higher levels of service frequency are delivered, notably where there exists higher population density, more trunk lines, the corridor provides bus priority facilities such as priority lanes for many bus routes, and where there is the presence of overtaking lanes at more than half of all stations along the heaviest section of the corridor. The findings offer important insights into features of BRT systems that are positive contributors to growing patronage which should be taken into account in designing and planning BRT systems.
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Does the choice model method and/or the data matter?
The opportunity to have seven data sets associated with a stated choice experiment that are very similar in content and design is rare, and provides an opportunity to look in detail at the empirical evidence within and between each data set in the context of a range of discrete choice estimation methods, from multinomial logit to latent class to scale multinomial logit to mixed logit, and the most general model, generalized mixed multinomial logit that accounts for preference and scale heterogeneity. Given the problems associated with data from different countries and time periods, we estimate separate models for each data set, obtaining values of travel time savings that are then updated post estimation to a common dollar for comparative purposes. We also pooled all data sets for a scaled MNL model, treating each data set as a set of three separate utility expressions, but linked to the other data sets through scale heterogeneity. This is not behaviourally appropriate with MNL, latent class or mixed logit. The main question investigated is whether there exists greater synergy in the willingness to pay evidence within model form across data sets compared to across model forms within data sets. The evidence suggests that there is a relatively greater convergence of evidence across the choice models, with the exception of generalized mixed logit, after controlling for data set differences; and there is strong evidence to suggest that differences between data sets do matter.
Ciudades Sostenibles Estructuradas a Partir del Transporte – Una mirada al Plan de Movilidad Bogota Humana
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NAMA Transporte Integrado Belo Horizonte, Brasil
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New kids on the Latin American Block: Line 4 Mexico, Transoeste Rio de Janerio, Fase III TransMilenio, Bogotá
BRT continues its strong growth in Latin America in 2012. Mexico City expanded its network through its historic downtown. Rio de Janeiro opened its first full BRT corridor, the first installment of a 150 km network to be ready before the summer Olympics in 2016. Bogotá opened sections of TransMilenio Phase III, which will expand the system to 104 km by the end of 2012. This presentation will discuss particular aspects of each system, showing the evolution of BRT design concepts, as well as some challenges
Prioridades sobre Transporte Masivo para Bogota
Transporte en la Economía Verde
Transporte Sostenible: Paradigma Evitar-Cambiar-Mejorar
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A review of technological improvements in BRT and BHLS
Walk the line: station context, corridor type and bus rapid transit walk access in Jinan, China
This paper examines BRT station walk access patterns in rapidly urbanizing China and the relationship between bus rapid transit (BRT) station context and corridor type and the distance people will walk to access the system (i.e., catchment area). We hypothesize that certain contextual built environment features and station and right-of-way configurations will increase the walk-access catchment area; that is, that urban design influences users’ willingness to walk to BRT. We base our analysis on 1233 user surveys, conducted at 19 BRT stations along three existing (as of summer 2009) BRT corridors in the city of Jinan. Ordinary least squares regression is applied to estimate the relationship between walk access distances and aggregate station- and corridor-area characteristics, controlling for individual- and trip-specific attributes. The results suggest that people walk farther to BRT stations when the walking environment has certain features (median transit-way station location, shaded corridors, busy and interesting). Trip and trip maker characteristics play a relatively minor role in defining BRT walk access distance. Implications include the need for flexible transit station catchment area definitions in identifying transit-oriented development opportunities and estimating system demand.
The promise and challenges of integrating public transportation in Bogotá, Colombia
User perception of Bogotá’s integrated public transport system: trends and implications for program implementation
Several cities in the developing world are transforming decentralized bus transit services into integrated transit systems. These programs aspire to improve service quality and mitigate negative impacts, such as pollution and traffic injuries and deaths. However, implementation processes in Santiago, Chile and elsewhere have proven difficult. One contributing factor has been a lack of integration of community concerns in the planning process. In this paper, we provide a framework for direct identification of user needs and apply it to the ongoing process in Bogotá, Colombia. Bogotá is integrating its BRT system with reorganized bus services throughout the city. Using expert interviews and a semi-structured community survey, we identify awareness, expectations and aspiration gaps, as well as equity concerns. We also suggest specific actions to improve user information during system implementation. The methods developed for this research and understanding of Bogotá’s lessons are useful for improving planning and implementation of other large-scale transit integration processes.
Express services for a bus corridor: A case study and some analytical insights
Embedding Risk Attitudes in a Scheduling Model: Application to the Study of Commuting Departure Time
In traditional travel time reliability valuation studies, the value of travel time savings and the value of travel time reliability (or reduced time variability) are estimated within a linear utility functional form, which assumes risk-neutral attitudes for decision makers. In this paper, we develop nonlinear scheduling models to address both risk attitude and preference in the context of a stated choice experiment of car commuters facing risky choices where the risk is associated with the trip time. We also investigate unobserved between-individual heterogeneity in time-related parameters and risk attitudes using a mixed multinomial logit model. The willingness-to-pay values for reducing the mean travel time and variability (earlier/later than the preferred arrival time) are also estimated within the nonlinear scheduling framework. The model is then used to estimate preferred departure times for commuters, assuming that random link capacities are the source of travel time variability. Results show that the more variable travel times are, the earlier commuters depart and that the nonlinear scheduling model predicts earlier optimal departure times than the linear scheduling model does. The application in this paper helps to bridge the gap between theory and practice.
Transporte Sustentável no Século Urbano
Access as a social good and as an economic good: is there a need of paradigm shift?
Funding and financing constraints in the aftermath of institutional design: a critical review
In the last years many countries started the reform of their legal and organizational frameworks for public transport, aiming to obtain better performances and improve the market shares of these services. Only a few cities succeeded in introducing effective change and overcome barriers to the reform process. Several background studies have exhaustively identified and assessed these barriers for different types of cities, but there is a deficit of analysis on the paths which were followed by those few cities which succeeded in the reform process.
In the background of this wave of reform is the evolution of urban areas that occurred in the last decades and changed patterns of mobility from a radial concentric shape towards a typical interaction spread across peri-urban areas and very often ignoring the city centre. This caused organized mobility services to extend beyond the administrative borders of the city and, consequently, the need to extend the scope of intervention of the mobility authority to all communities with a direct stake in the mobility system became more obvious, yet easier said than done.
The rationale behind this problem of extension of the scope of action and influence of the mobility system is relatively easy to understand but raises additional problems between that scope of action and the scope of intervention of the different institutions in charge of the several aspects of the system, such as territorial definition, financial autonomies, etc.
This paper aims to observe in a structured way the critical issues that surround this problem aiming to pursue in-depth research on institutional design and financing alternatives.
Evaluation of the traffic control system of open Bus Rapid Transit corridors: An application to the city of Guangzhou
Modelos de Demanda de Transporte
Partiendo de experiencias anteriores, de fracasos y aciertos, propone una serie de modelos para satisfacer la demanda de transporte urbano de personas, considerando a la vez los objetivos que las personas tienen y realizan a diferentes horas del día y en diversos medios; Un libro que muestra cómo formular, seleccionar, adaptar y aplicar modelos de […]
Methodological developments in activity-travel behaviour analysis
Sistemas de Transporte Público Urbano: análise comparativa entre modais de alta capacidade
Analyzing route choice decisions in Metro networks: A comparison between Santiago and London
Route choice modelling on metro networks
Route choice modelling on metro networks: A comparison between Santiago and London
Practical and empirical identifiability of hybrid discrete choice models
The formulation of hybrid discrete choice (HDC) models including both observable alternative attributes and latent variables associated with attitudes and perceptions has become a renewed topic of discussion in recent years. Even though there have been developments related to HDC model estimation and theoretical parameter identification, many practical and empirical issues related with HDC modelling […]
