Passengers' perceptions and effects of bus-holding strategy using automatic vehicle location technology

Journal of Advanced Transportation, Fall, 2009 by Shinya Hanaoka, Fayyaz Mahmood Qadir

Introduction

Bus transit is the backbone of Bangkok's transit system, but it has lost ridership due to the low quality of service provided to users. Recently there has been a rapid increase in personal cars adding to the already notorious traffic problems in Bangkok. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) reported that in 1995 bus transit accounted for 48 percent of total trips in Bangkok while personal cars accounted for only 27 percent [JICA, 1997]. However, according to the Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning (OTP), by 2003 bus trips had dropped to 26 percent and personal car trips had increased to 35 percent of total trips. Over the same period, taxi (4 percent) and motorcycle (10 percent) use has also increased [OTP, 2004]. The Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA), a state-owned enterprise, has admitted a drastic decrease in daily BMTA bus ridership from 3.38 million persons per day in fiscal year 1995, to only 2.37 million persons per day in fiscal year 2003 [BMTA, 2006].

The need to attract people from personal autos to public transport is more evident today than ever toward achieving a sustainable transport system. Therefore, the use of advanced technologies in public transport and in particular BMTA bus-transit has potential for improving reliability and ridership. The improvements in bus reliability and ridership have been demonstrated by implementing advanced technologies around world as London's COUNTDOWN, Belgium's PHOEBUS, TriMet's Transit Tracer, and Sweden's "Think Tram3/4Use Buses" project [Hounsell and McLeod, 1998; Pecheux and Vandergriff, 2005]. The automatic vehicle location (AVL) systems provide continuous on-time monitoring of bus transit along corridors which might be useful to increase schedule adherence and to maintain headway regularity. As it is reported that schedule adherence, headway regularity and traffic flow are the key variables influencing bus operators and passengers [Yedlin and Lieberman, 1980; Bill and Snehamay, 1995; Al-Sahili and Taylor, 1996; Khasnabis and Rama, 1997; Chandrasekar et al, 1999 & 2002].

One aim of this study is to collect and analyze information on bus passengers' behaviors and their perceptions related to the use of potential features of AVL system in the existing bus transit system. The other aim is to determine the potential benefits of bus-holding strategy using AVL technology to reduce passengers' waiting-times by minimizing bus bunching. The specific objectives to achieve the study's aims are:

* To assess bus passengers' perceptions and expectations from the potential features of AVL systems;

* To determine and compare the perceived and actual waiting-times of passengers at bus stops;

* To assess variation of bus headway from scheduled headway; and,

* To determine the effects of a bus-holding strategy using AVL technology in bus operation using the simulation model, PARAMICS (PARAllel MICroscopic Simulation [Quadstone, 2003]).

The remainder of paper is organized into four sections. In the following section methodology for surveys is described. Next, results obtained from the attitudinal survey in-terms of passengers' perceptions and willingness regarding AVL systems features for existing bus transit system are presented along with waiting-time survey results. This is followed by a description of the output results of PARAMICS simulation. Finally, conclusions are drawn and some recommendations are made based on findings.

Methodology

BMTA has divided its whole bus service areas into eight zones in order to provide reliable and friendly bus services to people living and working in Bangkok Metropolitan Region (i.e., Bangkok and other five nearby provinces). The bus route #73 which has a total route length of 14 Km was selected for this study. It is stretched between Huaikhwang and Putthayodfa (Memorial) Bridge. This route passes through famous and busy shopping areas (like Pratunam, Siam-square, MBK, and China Town), entertainment and leisure areas (like National Stadium and Thailand Conventional Centre) and residential areas.

This route was selected as a pilot project by Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) to implement AVL system by installing global positioning system (GPS) on all existing buses and real-time bus schedule information at each bus stop (but it was canceled due to lack of budget after installing GPS on all route #73 buses). The total number of buses serving this route is 58, running from 0400 to 2300 daily [BMTA, 2006]. This route has varying scheduled headways; early morning-peak 15 minutes, morning peak 7 minutes, morning and afternoon off-peak 10 minutes, afternoon peak 8 minutes, evening 12 minutes, and night 20 minutes.

Attitudinal Survey

Pilot survey was conducted twice before putting actual attitudinal survey in field, to understand respondents' behaviors towards the nature of questions and questionnaire-filling time, so that it could be modified through removing unnecessary and redundant information. First pilot survey was conducted in the campus of Asian Institute of Technology while, second was implemented on route- #73 which caused significant changes in questionnaire making it detailed, simple and shorter in filling-time.