The three-bus system in Dordrecht
Document Type
Conference Paper
Publication Date
1-1998
Subject Area
mode - bus
Abstract
In the Netherlands, public tranport policy and service provisions play an important part in strategic planning. Policy objectives are to raise the share of public transport in the modal share and to improve the financial performance of operating companies. Both central and local governments place heavy emphases on the need to plan and to undertake measures to ensure long term sustainable development. The overall policy goal is to provide high quality transport facilities and efficient services to meet the mobility needs of the public. The Second Transport Structure Plan, which has been adopted since 1990 to provide general guidelines for policy planning and project development, states clearly the need to improve accessibility, to facilitate mobility, to mitigate environmental damages and to enhance road safety. The Ministry of Transport is currently reviewing its policy and is taking new initiatives to work for a better working and living environment within which the economy can prosper and the regions can develop in a balanced manner. Dordrecht is a medium size city in the Province Znid Holland, about 20 kilometres south- east of Rotterdam. It is situated on the mouth of river Oude Maas, with a land area of 80.5 square kilomettes and a population of 116,200 inhabitants. The transport policy of Dordrecht Municipal Authority has been formulated to promote the goals set out in its strategic development plan: namely, to improve the quality of the environment and to stimulate economic growth in the region. The adopted policy is in line with central government thinkings. The municipality wishes to increase the share of public transport and the strategy centres on the Three-Bus System which is an important element in its integrated transport policy. The system is based on an operational concept devised by Dordrecht Municipal Bus Company (Stadsvervoer Dordrecht SVD). The new system is designed to stimulate patronage and to generate additional revenue. A paper to the 1997 PTR.C has provided a comprehensive description of the underlying planning principles, Dordrecht's integrated approach to service planning and the research programme to study the effects. The aim of this paper is to provide a report of the results and findings based on the monitoring and evaluation study. The structure of the paper is as follows. Section 2 gives a brief description of the 3-bus system and the introduction of an extra fare zone. Section 3 outlines the research approach and method used. Section 4 reports on the results of the first set of before and after studies based on an analysis of passenger counts and traffic data. Section 5 summarises the findings obtained from a series of interview surveys with passengers and residents of Dordrecht. An attempt is made to explain the outcomes and to clarify the issues. The paper ends in Section 6 with tentative conclusions on the basis of available results.
Recommended Citation
Cheung, F., & van der Maas, C. (1998). The three-bus system in Dordrecht. Paper from The Association for European Transport Conference held on 1 January 1998.
Comments
Permission to publish abstract given by AET.