Potential effects of public transport planning measures
Document Type
Conference Paper
Publication Date
10-2007
Subject Area
land use - planning
Abstract
The privatization of the Dutch public transport system has brought increasing interest in the effects of planning and marketing measures on travelers’ decision making process. For efficiency reasons, Dutch public transport companies want to know in advance the success of different planning and marketing measures. Also local and regional planners want to have more insight into the effects of their planning measures. Initiatives with respect to public transport related planning measures can be taken by both public transport companies and municipalities. In recent years, the introduction of planning measures is mostly accompanied by some kind of effect measurement afterwards. In a limited number of cases, the potential effects were estimated before the introduction of the planning measures. Insight into potential effects is very important because of contrasting goals of participants. The aim of the study is to provide more insight into the effects of planning measures on travelers’ willingness to change mode in favor of public transport. The paper focuses on the following two research questions: ‘What planning measures will stimulate travelers to change from car or bike to public transport in the case of regular trips?’ and ‘What will be the effects of the most important planning measures in terms of trip frequency and trip distance? The current study is part of a more extensive study to the effectiveness and contents of planning and marketing measures in relation to public transport use. Ten different planning measures to stimulate car drivers and bicyclists to choose for public transport were investigated. Measures that can be set up by public transport companies are cost of public transport use in relation to car use, change in frequency, distance between home and bus stop, guaranteed seat, and change in in-vehicle travel time. Measures that can be set up by local government are change in distance between parking facilities and final destinations, change in travel cost of cars, change in travel time of cars and bicycles, change in cost of parking and storage, and introduction of speed limits for cars. The data were collected using a home-sent questionnaire. The questionnaires were distributed in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands. The data of 605 respondents were used for the analyses. The analyses consisted of two parts. First, the most important planning measures were identified. It appears that planning measures initiated by the public transport company might be more successful than measures initiated by the municipality. It appeared that travel costs and travel time related measures are indicated as important. The second step of the analyses dealt with the average number of trips and the average trip distance that could be transferred from car or bicycle to public transport when the most important measure was implemented. It appears that most successful planning measures in the case of trip frequency are seat guarantee and the introduction of speed limits for cars. Most successful measures in the case of trip distance concern the relative travel time of public transport compared to the car and costs of car parking and bike storage.
Recommended Citation
van der Waerden, P., & Timmermans, H., & Bérénos, M., & Vermeulen,, G. (2007). Potential effects of public transport planning measures. Paper from The Association for European Transport Conference held in Leeuwenhorst Conference Centre, The Netherlands on 17-19 October 2007.
Comments
Permission to publish abstract given by AET.