Photo by Damir Kopezhanov on Unsplash Equal access to opportunities has emerged in public transport planning as a social objective that many transport agencies are trying to achieve. Yet in practice, not all public transport agencies are currently providing urban residents with comparable levels of service due to physical barriers in the public transport network that can significantly hinder the ability of individuals with physical disabilities to access opportunities. In countries without a strong federal accessibility act and/or with major financial constraints, some public transport agencies fall behind in applying universal access design principles, making it even harder [...]

Photo from www.stm.info Abstract Transit agencies often focus on developing strategies aimed at reducing travel time to increase passengers’ satisfaction. One strategy used by transit agencies to reduce passenger activity time, and accordingly travel times, is the implementation of all-door boarding – a service allowing transit users to board and alight vehicles through any door. The present study uses data collected in Montreal, Canada, to assess the impacts of an all-door boarding pilot project from two points of view: (1) operationally through passenger activity time, and (2) by assessing passenger satisfaction. Operationally, the results reveal that when compared [...]

Photo by Launde Morel on Unsplash Abstract The growth rate of adults older than 65 in Canada is increasing more rapidly than the population as a whole. This increase is reflective of the aging baby boomer population. That population is known to have a strong attachment to automobiles, which might be reflected in their travel behavior as they move toward different stages in their older life. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of the travel behavior, mainly public transit usage, of Canada’s older population relative to younger cohorts. A pseudocohort analysis was conducted [...]

Photo by Andrew Coop on Unsplash Abstract Data from automated vehicle location (AVL) systems, automatic passenger counter (APC) systems, and fare box payments have been heavily used to generate dwell time models with the goal of recommending improvements in efficiency and reliability of bus transit systems. However, automatic data collection methods may result in a loss of detail with regard to the dynamics of passenger activity, which may bias the estimates associated with dwell or passenger activity time. The purpose of this study is to understand better any biases that might exist from using data from AVL–APC [...]

Photo by Lawless Capture on Unsplash Abstract Affordable and efficient urban public transport is important for the development of a sustainable urban environment. Making sure public transport users are satisfied with the service is a goal many public transport agencies are trying to achieve. Customer satisfaction surveys are often used to monitor customer perceptions of service quality and to determine the relative influence of service attributes on a customer’s overall assessment of the service. This study presents a new method to spatially evaluate customer satisfaction survey data through examining satisfaction with bus service across neighbourhoods of varying levels [...]

Photo by Karen Lau on Unsplash Abstract As cities have grown more dispersed and auto-oriented, demand for travel has become increasingly difficult to meet via public transit. Delivering high-quality bus service in this challenging environment has recently brought attention to bus network design. Commonly, bus networks are designed with a door-to-door approach, which often entails a circuitous route design leading to slow and infrequent service, especially in the suburbs. Alternatively, high-frequency transfer based networks have been promoted as the optimal network design for ridership, experience and operational efficiency. For cities wishing to adopt such a network design, there [...]

Photo by Dhruv on Unsplash Abstract Public transport agencies implement different strategies aimed at improving transit service operation and to improve satisfaction among its riders. One service strategy employed by transit agencies is the introduction of a limited-stop bus service that runs parallel to a heavily used route to decrease travel times for existing riders and to reduce pressure from the local route. Using bus operations data obtained from automatic vehicle location (AVL) and automatic passenger counter (APC) systems and customer satisfaction data collected in Vancouver, Canada, the present study evaluates levels of satisfaction among users of the [...]