Measuring transit service reliability using data from web-based transit user survey: a case study at Brisbane, Australia (original) (raw)
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Transit agencies are consistently trying to improve service reliability and attract new passengers by employing various strategies. Previous literature reviews have focused on either passengers' or transit agencies' perspectives on service reliability. However, none of the earlier reviews have simultaneously addressed these differing perspectives on service reliability in an integrated manner. In response to this gap in the literature, this paper first reviews previous work on passengers' perspectives of transit service reliability and their response to service adjustments made by different agencies. Second, it analyzes transit agencies' plans and reports regarding their reliability goals and used strategies in order to improve service reliability, while looking at the impacts of these strategies on service. Reviewing these two parts together provides a needed contribution to the literature from a practical viewpoint since it allows for the identification of gaps in the public transit planning and operations field in the area of reliability and provides transit planners and decision makers with effective and valuable policy-relevant information. § Corresponding author.
Quantifying the Impact of Transit Reliability on Users Cost-A Simulation Based Approach
2009
Last, but not least, I want to thank my family for their wonderful support and continues encouragement. To my brothers and sisters: Ahmad, Anas, Yasser, Samah, Samar, and Dina for always being supportive and helpful. Special thanks to my parents for their endless love, encouragement and faith that have always motivated me to do my best. v Dedication This is dedicated to the the light of my life my lovely wife Reham and my angels Omar, Ahmad, and the new expected baby.
Quantifying Impacts of Transit Reliability on User Costs
Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2009
Transportation modeling frameworks assume that travelers are economically rational; that is, they choose the lowest-cost alternative to complete a desired trip. The reliability of travel time is of critical importance to travelers. The ability to quantify reliability allows planners to estimate more accurately how system performance influences local travel behavior and to evaluate more appropriately potential investments in the transportation system infrastructure. This paper presents a methodology that makes use of automatic vehicle location data from the regional municipality of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, to estimate the reliability of transit service. On the basis of these data, the impacts of unreliable service on generalized transit user costs are quantified by use of a simulation model of bus arrivals and passengers’ desired arrival times. It is shown that the increasing reliability of arrivals at a station can decrease transit users’ generalized costs significantly and by as ...
Does Transit Service Reliability Influence Ridership?
This research focused on analyzing the association between transit service reliability indicators and ridership. Further, the effect of road network, demographic, socioeconomic, and land use characteristics on transit service reliability was analyzed. The analysis was conducted at a bus stop level. Bus arrival/departure and ridership data from the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) was obtained. The road network, demographic, socioeconomic, and land use characteristics were captured within 0.25-mile and 0.50-mile buffers. Pearson correlation analysis was conducted to understand the association between road network, demographic, socioeconomic, and land use characteristics and bus transit service reliability measures. The results show that bus transit service reliability has a substantial impact on ridership and is influenced by road network, demographic, socioeconomic, and land use characteristics within the bus stop vicinity. The findings help public transportation agencies to eff...
Transport Reviews, 2015
Transit agencies are consistently trying to improve service reliability and attract new passengers by employing various strategies. Previous literature reviews have focused on either passengers' or transit agencies' perspectives on service reliability. However, none of the earlier reviews have simultaneously addressed these differing perspectives on service reliability in an integrated manner. In response to this gap in the literature, this paper first reviews previous work on passengers' perspectives of transit service reliability and their response to service adjustments made by different agencies. Second, it analyzes transit agencies' plans and reports regarding their reliability goals and used strategies in order to improve service reliability, while looking at the impacts of these strategies on service. Reviewing these two parts together provides a needed contribution to the literature from a practical viewpoint since it allows for the identification of gaps in the public transit planning and operations field in the area of reliability and provides transit planners and decision makers with effective and valuable policy-relevant information.
Transit agencies wishing to offer reliable service with less variability compared to schedules face several challenges, encouraging them to employ various strategies. While previous research has considered the effects of various strategies on running time, there has been little effort to understand their impacts on reliability of service. This article examines the impacts of various improvement strategies, implemented by Société de Transport de Montréal (STM) along one of its heavily utilized bus routes, on running time deviation from schedule, variation in running time, and variation in running time deviation from schedules. These strategies have been implemented at different time points over the past three years. They include, chronologically ordered, implementation of a smart card fare collection system, operation of a reserved bus lane, introduction of limited-stop bus service, use of articulated buses, and operation of transit signal priority (TSP). This study uses automatic vehicle location (AVL) and automatic passenger count (APC) systems at the bus route segment level of analysis. The introduction of a smart card fare collection system increased bus running time and service variation. Articulated buses, limited-stop bus service and reserved bus lanes have mixed effects on variation in comparison to the running time changes, while TSP did not show an impact on variations in our study. This study offers transit agencies and schedulers a better understanding of the effects of various strategies on different aspects of service variation, which are important components of transit service reliability.
Transit Ridership, Reliability and Retention
2008
This project explores two major components that affect transit ridership: travel time reliability and rider retention. It has been recognized that transit travel time reliability may have a significant impact on attractiveness of transit to many current and prospective riders. Accuracy of predictions of transit ridership based on transit travel time reliability is becoming increasingly important. Knowledge of what transit
Definition and Properties of Alternative Bus Service Reliability Measures at the Stop Level
Journal of Public Transportation, 2013
The Transit Capacity and Quality of Service Manual (TCQSM) provides transit agencies with tools for measuring system performance at different levels of operation. Bus service reliability, one of the key performance measures, has become a major concern of both transit operators and users because it significantly affects user experience and service quality perceptions. The objective of this paper is to assess the existing reliability measures proposed by TCQSM and develop new ones at the bus stop level. The latter are not suggested as replacements for the existing measures; rather, they are complementary. Using empirical data from archived Bus Dispatch System (BDS) data in Portland, Oregon, a number of key characteristics of distributions of delay (schedule deviation) and headway deviation are identified. In addition, the proposed reliability measures at the stop level are capable of differentiating between the costs of being early versus late. The results of this study can be implemented in transit operations for use in improving schedules and operations strategies. Also, transit agencies can use the proposed reliability measures to evaluate and prioritize stops for operational improvement purposes.
Perceived Quality of Bus Transit Services: A Route-Level Analysis
Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2020
Passengers’ perceptions of transit quality depend on their interactions with the service. However, given the varied operational features in any transit network, the perceived service quality is expected to vary between different types of operation. Recently, there has been an emphasis on addressing this issue and quantifying the variation in the perceived service quality at route level. In this respect, this study quantifies the perceived quality of bus services across different route types and user groups. A two-step cluster analysis is developed to classify bus routes based on their operational features, which is followed by a series of importance-performance analysis (IPA) models corresponding to each route type. The study is supported by a primary dataset collected from 1,883 users through an online survey in Hamilton, Canada. The emerging results indicate four predominant route types: core, standard, express, and local routes, each exhibiting a unique set of characteristics. Th...
Model of personal attitudes towards transit service quality
Journal of Advanced Transportation, 2010
This paper presents a critical investigation of reasons for using transit by residents of the City of Calgary, Canada. Reasons for using transit are expressed as functions of people's perceptions and attitudes towards transit service quality and attributes. A multinomial logit model combined with latent variable models is developed to capture unobserved latent variables in defining perceptions and attitudes. Using data from a transit customer satisfaction survey conducted in 2007 by Calgary Transit, this approach models the reasons for choosing transit and tests the significance of two individual specific latent variables: perceptions of ‘reliability and convenience’ and ‘ride comfort’. Many behavioural details are revealed that have important policy implications. Most importantly, it is found that the people of Calgary value ‘reliability and convenience’ over ‘ride comfort’. As for policy implications of the findings, it is clear that improving the connectivity of train service, reducing multimodal transfers, and increasing dedicated right-of-ways for transit would effectively increase transit ridership in Calgary. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.