Public Transport

Travelling by public transport involves access and egress time, platform or bus
waiting time, and transfer waiting time.

From: Bus Transport, 2020

Related terms:

Transport Systems, Autonomous Vehicle, Transport Network

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Public Transport
John Preston, in International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (Second Edition),
2020

Concluding Comments
Public transport, both of itself and as a field of geographic enquiry, is continually
evolving. Bus and rail services are responding to a range of self-pronounced disrup-
tive technologies characterized by the three revolutions in mobility of autonomy,
electrification, and the sharing economy and digital transformations permitted by
pervasive smart phones and ubiquitous computing. These disruptive technologies
have led some to speculate that the end of public transport as we know it might
be in sight. As a field of geographic enquiry, public transport has evolved from
descriptive accounts to quantitative analytical approaches. More recently, these
developments have been supplemented by a more qualitative approach, informed
by the new mobilities paradigm, which sees public transport as a sociocultural
practice. Diverse topics that have been studied include the impact of railways on
the Victorian imagination, the role of environmental attitudes in determining public
transport behaviors, the everyday materialities of commuting, and the concept of
splintering urbanism in which (public) transport infrastructure and information and
communication technologies fragment the experience of the city. As public transport
becomes more diverse, so too does its geographic research base.
> Read full chapter

New Methods, Reflections and Applica-

tion Domains in Transport Appraisal
Niels van Oort, Menno Yap, in Advances in Transport Policy and Planning, 2021

Abstract
Public transport is an effective tool to address multiple societal challenges, regarding
mobility, sustainability and livability. When looking at typical public transport pro-
jects and traditional appraisal methods, the main type of benefits that are considered
for public transport projects are passenger travel time savings, additional revenues
due to increased ridership or a new fare policy and timetable savings (due to shorter
trip times and less timetable hours). These current approaches provide insights into
the expected performance and benefits of public transport to some extent, but they
often disregard many other (positive) effects. This is partly due to a limited focus,
but also due to a lack of a framework and knowledge. In this chapter, we present a
framework, the 5E model, that supports the assessment of the broader benefits of
public transport projects. Specifically, we show how to quantify and monetize the
improvements of service reliability, robustness and crowding relief.

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Germany and Austria

Axel Wolfermann, ... Martin Fellendorf, in Global Practices on Road Traffic Signal
Control, 2019

4.3.4 Public transport

Public transport can either use general vehicle signals or have its own signals (cf.
Section 1.2), if a separate lane exists. Dynamic public transport stops can be created
for trams or buses on a central lane by stopping vehicles during passenger service
time in front of the bus stop with two signals (yellow-red-dark). These signals can be
coordinated with a subsequent intersection, thus reducing the delay for both public
transport and vehicles.

As described for cyclists, “bus locks” can be deployed for buses traveling on the right
on a separate lane, but having to turn left at the intersection (Fig. 4.8).
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Slow modes, slow design, slow spaces:

new goals for traffic management and
planning
Paul Tranter, Rodney Tolley, in Slow Cities, 2020

Distance to public transport

Distance to public transport is the fifth ‘D’. Ewing and Cervero (2010) showed how
having public transport stops nearby might stimulate walking, as well as encourage
people to use public transport. If ‘nearness to public transport’ is associated with
other variables discussed in this section, its power is enhanced. For example, access
distances to stops and stations are reduced by high intersection densities, whilst
diversity of land uses makes trip chaining—such as picking up some groceries on
the way home from the train station—more feasible. Moreover, Campoli (2012, p.
16) has referred to ‘the virtuous cycle of density and transit’, whereby concentrating
people and jobs next to public transport increases ridership, which facilitates en-
hanced frequencies, which in turn make public transport more attractive and driving
less necessary.

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Roadmap to develop a data-driven city

Didier Grimaldi, ... Carlos Carrasco-Farré, in Implementing Data-Driven Strategies
in Smart Cities, 2022

6.6 Other cases: Integrate with other big data

TRIPS has helped Seoul and other cities in South Korea develop mature and dynamic
data-driven policies based on real data collected by smart cards. To further the
usefulness of the tool, especially for cities where fares are not based on distance and
the type of data available is different because users do not tag out when exiting a
mode of transport, TRIPS is working with telecom operators to bring the same kind
of data-driven solutions used in Seoul. TRIPS has developed an alighting location
estimation algorithm which has shown more than 90% accuracy within two stops.
Also, TRIPS has a forecasting function that uses AI technology integrated with land
use data. It can estimate the expected number of users by origin-destination for new
bus stops. This function can be used in areas of new development to help public
transportation operators create more efficient operations plans.

Although not created through the TRIPS tool but using similar methodology, an
example of how Seoul is combining data sources to create policy to improve the lives
of citizens is the Owl Bus, a late-night city bus operating in Seoul since 2013. It is not
part of the regular Seoul transport network but has routes between principle areas
of the city from midnight to 5 a.m. The routes were determined through analysis
of taxi data and mobile phone data during these late-night hours to cover transport
demand during the hours when the Seoul metro is closed. Responding to a clear
need in the city, the data-driven service was awarded both the “Best Policy” award
by citizens and the Presidential Award after its first year of service.

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Switzerland
Thomas Riedel, Monica Menendez, in Global Practices on Road Traffic Signal Con-
trol, 2019

7.3.1 Public transport signals

Public transport signals are under local legislation. Most contain four white dots.
Sometimes, a fifth dot is used for priority-call feedback. Fig. 7.1A shows the lamp
combination for “red.” Fig. 7.1B–D shows the lamp combination for “green.” They
specify the green turning direction, that is, turning either left or right, turning only
right, and turning only left, respectively. Fig. 7.1E shows “red” with an additional
feedback lamp on the top that indicates whether a priority call has been registered.
Sometimes this lamp is blue, and sometimes this lamp might blink corresponding
to a “red-yellow” state, that is, giving some preparation time to the public transport
vehicle.

Figure 7.1. Possible signal combinations for public transport.

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Financing
O.P. Agarwal, ... Samuel Zimmerman, in Emerging Paradigms in Urban Mobility,
2019

Exploitation of Land Resources

Public transport systems typically own significant parcels of very valuable land in
an urban area. The monetary value of these is immense. Yet they are inadequately
used. Innovative ways of commercially exploiting this land, especially the air rights
above this land, have been able to generate significant revenues. Commercial and
residential properties built on these land resources would command a premium
price due to easy access to the public transport system. Besides, it would encourage
greater use of public transport by offering easy access to it.

In Hong Kong, the MRT company earned an amount of HK$23.73 billion from its
properties as compared to HK$17.66 billion from its transport operations during
2016 [25]. Similarly, SMRT, the dominant metro rail operator in the city earned about
S$492 million from its rental and advertising activities out of its total earnings of
S$1300 million during 2016 [26]. Out of its total earnings of INR38.1 billion (approx.
US$640 million) during 2015–16, the Delhi metro earned INR4.4 billion (approx.
US$73 million) from rentals and leasing of property [27].

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How to Study Perceived Quality in Pub-

lic Transport
Luigi dell’Olio, ... Rocio de Oña, in Public Transportation Quality of Service, 2018

2.1 Introduction
Public transport represents a suitable alternative to traveling by private car and has
become a hugely important part of sustainable transport policies. As the perceived
quality of public transport users is widely recognized to be a determining factor on
their behavior, the quality of public transport service being delivered has become one
of the main priorities within sustainable transport politics, given that it motivates
and encourages travelers to choose modes of transport that are more efficient in
their use of space and energy (Cascetta & Carteni, 2014).
The European Union has adopted a user-based quality of service policy that encour-
ages the development of methods, which concentrate on the needs and expectations
of passengers. Over recent years, the quality has been seen to become a critical factor
for companies that believe they can edge an advantage over their competitors due to
their superior quality standards. In fact, quality has now become a key concept in the
framework of a competitive company's commercial strategy (Grönroos, 2001). The
level of quality will depend largely on the decisions taken by the system managers,
within their budgetary limitations, about the service coverage (territorial and time
tables), the type of service, etc. This can also be an indicator of how successful
managers are in providing a service to their customers because the quality of the
service has implications for the demand. The Handbook for Measuring Customer
Satisfaction and Service Quality (Transportation Research Board, 1999) considers that
for public transport agencies an increase in customer satisfaction translates into
passenger retention, increased usage of the system, new client capture, and an
improvement in public image.

All the above has resulted in a growing interest in understanding and analyzing the
quality being provided by public transport systems. Since the end of the 20th century,
the number of studies analyzing quality in this sector has grown significantly. Wide
ranging diverse and varied methodologies have been developed over recent years to
analyze quality of service. This is because of the complexity of the subject, implied
in the extensive range of attributes required to evaluate quality and the imprecision,
subjectivity, and heterogeneous nature of the data used in its analysis. Most of these
methods are based on satisfaction surveys, although other types of studies have also
been performed based on stated preferences surveys (e.g., Hensher, 2000; Hensher
& Prioni, 2002). These methods are based on the hypothesis that a user's overall
perception of service quality is formed around a package of attributes rather than
by aggregating their perceptions about specific aspects of the service. Nevertheless,
the models based on satisfaction surveys continue to be the most widely used.

This chapter will summarize the different methodologies used in evaluating service
quality in the public transport sector and can be considered as an update of some
of the sections in the article of de Oña J. and de Oña R. (2015).

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Sustainable Urban Mobility in Action

Oliver Lah, in Sustainable Urban Mobility Pathways, 2019

Transferability
Integrated public transport planning would ultimately be an enabler for encouraging
shifts toward public transport. Successful metros are generally viewed to be conve-
nient, comfortable, attractive, affordable, efficient and reliable, thus the integration
is not only by physical infrastructure with easy interchanges but also through tick-
eting system integration for seamless transfers between various transport modes.
A thorough understanding of cost requirements for metros would allow planners
to anticipate operating and maintenance expenses. Another approach is land-value
capture, which is a funding instrument used to recover land-value increments
(i.e., unearned income of the private land owner) generated from publicly created
value generated by public infrastructure investments. Land-value capture is used
for financing public transport systems that have intensive capital and operation and
maintenance costs like metros, or for furthering transport-oriented developments.
Transport agencies and developers could agree to have the latter contribute to the
construction of transport infrastructure including public transport services, walkable
districts, and public spaces (e.g., parks, bicycle lanes, sidewalks) as their property
value would increase.

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Decarbonization Scenarios for Trans-

port and the Role of Urban Mobility
Oliver Lah, ... Magdala Arioli, in Sustainable Urban Mobility Pathways, 2019

The Role of Public Transport, Walking, and Cycling in a 2°C

Pathway
Public transport, walking, and cycling have huge potential to cut urban transport
CO2 emissions, in both OECD and non-OCED countries for this chapter. Two sce-
narios developed by Fulton et al. (2013) highlight the emission reduction potential in
OECD and non-OECD countries of increasing public transport, walking, and cycling
at the expense of more energy-intensive modes (results shown in Fig. 3.4), and will
be examined further here.
Figure 3.4. CO2 emissions in Belo Horizonte and Kochi for BAU, 2DS, and 1.5DS.

Firstly, a baseline scenario adjusted from the 4°C global warming scenario (4DS)
developed by the Mobility Model of the International Energy Agency. Secondly the
“high shift” (HS) scenario, which involves adjusting the growth rates in non-OECD
countries to reduce private light-duty vehicle travel by 50% (replacing it with in-
creased public transport and nonmotorized vehicle use), while in OECD countries
total urban passenger travel is reduced through urban planning (compact land
use, which shortens trips), increased telecommunicating, changing lifestyles, and
demographic shifts.

As shown in Fig. 3.5, OECD residents each traveled almost twice as much as
non-OECD residents in 2010. By 2050, according to the HS scenario, OECD travel
will reduce to around 8000 km per person per year—suggesting more equal levels
of mobility than currently or as predicted in the baseline scenario.
Figure 3.5. High shift scenario vs. base scenario, OECD and non-OECD, in 2050:
total passenger-kilometers (A) and per capita (B).

Beside the overall amounts of travel, the efficiency of the vehicles and the
ridership on those vehicles determine the overall energy-use and CO2 emissions.
For each region and mode, Fig. 3.6 shows the efficiency per passenger-kilo-
meter (MJ/pkm)(top) and total energy-use (EJ) (bottom), respectively. Compared to
light-duty vehicles, public transport modes are far more efficient (less energy
and CO2 per passenger-km). This leads to the improvement in efficiency per
passenger-km in the high-shift scenario, as this is based on increased ridership per
vehicle compared to the baseline, in turn based on the assumption that improved
system management, high-quality services, and urban densification, etc. are applied.
 Figure 3.6. Low-carbon mobility scenarios for Belo-Horizonte and Kochi.

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