GUIDE: group for urban interchanges development and evaluation

George Terzis

Document Type

Conference Paper

Publication Date

1-1998

Subject Area

infrastructure - interchange/transfer, economics - appraisal/evaluation, place - urban

Abstract

An increased public transport share of travel is essential for the long-term welt-being of most urban areas, as is encouragement of more sustainable modes such as cycling and walking. Improving the accessibility of public transport and the quality of interchange between public transport services is a crucial factor if the overall attractiveness of public transport is to be enhanced. Accessibility and interchange are two distinct functions of the public transport interface with passengers. At present, the organisations responsible for urban public transport tend to manage passenger interfaces on an ad hoc basis. Often the point of interface is a boundary between different authorities or different operators and it is unclear who is responsible for ensuring that passengers are provided with a seamless transition from access mode (foot, cycle or car) to the public transport mode. Features such as inconvenient pedestrian paths, inadequate parking (car and bicycle), poor information, inconsistent signing, lack of integrated ticketing and lack of personal security represent barriers to potential passengers and make it harder for public transport to provide an appealing alternative to the private car. Interest in the subject of the passenger interface has grown over the last few years and has been steadily supported by the European Commission (EC). This paper presents the GUIDE project which is sponsored by the EC. At the time of writing this paper only one of the project work packages was complete and two more were in progress. Therefore, the following sections are rather descriptive and address mainly methodological issues and some preliminary findings.

Comments

Permission to publish abstract given by AET.

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