Analysis of transit users’ waiting tolerance in response to unplanned service disruptions

Authors

Ehsan Rahimi
Ali Shamshiripour
Ramin Shabanpour
Abolfazl Mohammadian
Joshua Auld

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

2019

Subject Area

place - north america, place - urban, operations - frequency, ridership - attitudes, ridership - behaviour

Keywords

Public transit, Unplanned disruption, Waiting tolerance, Survival analysis, Transportation resilience, Passenger satisfaction

Abstract

Public transit not only provides an affordable, efficient, and green service but also plays a critical role in the development of resilient transportation systems in urban areas. Transit disruption as a common incident in transit service operation can severely affect the resiliency of the transportation system as well as users’ satisfaction. While it is of great interest to transportation authorities to understand passengers’ decision behavior during unplanned transit disruptions in order to implement efficacious recovery strategies, still little is known about users’ behavior in case of such incidents. The scarcity of available data is a major underlying factor for this gap. Utilizing a recently collected data of transit users in the Chicago metropolitan area, the current study investigates transit users’ waiting tolerance during unplanned service disruptions and disclose the factors that affect their behavior. A set of interval-censored accelerated failure time models using different survival distributions are developed, compared, and the factors influencing the survival functions of the waiting tolerance are identified. The results of the analysis reveal that, for instance, having experience of using ridesharing services decreases users’ waiting tolerance during a disruption. Further, built-environment attributes (such as the density of pedestrian-oriented links and transit service frequency), availability of alternative modes, transit service type, user’s attitudes, and trip characteristics turn to be significant in users’ decision behavior.

Rights

Permission to publish the abstract has been given by Elsevier, copyright remains with them.

Comments

Transportation Research Part D Home Page:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/13619209

Recommended Citation

Rahimi, E., Shamshiripour, A., Shabanpour, R., Mohammadian, A., & Auld, J. (2019). Analysis of transit users’ waiting tolerance in response to unplanned service disruptions. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, Vol. 77, pp. 639-653.