Characterization of Transit Ride Quality

Strategies often proposed to combat the growing traffic congestion problems of urban environments target enhancements to increase the use of bus transit. Therefore, service providers are keen to identify and understand factors that could attract more transit riders. Other than affordability, most researchers explored convenience and stress factors such as schedule uncertainty, waiting time, travel time, crowding, noises, and smells. However, few studies evaluated the significance of ride quality. The high cost to collect and analyze roughness data likely deters such studies. This work developed a low-cost smartphone based method and associated data transforms to characterize ride quality for non-uniform speed profiles. The method distinguished between vibrations induced from road unevenness and operator behavior. The authors validated the accuracy of the method by conducting surveys to characterize the perceived roughness intensities from buses traveling routes of distinctly different roughness levels. The surveys found that smooth rides mattered to most passengers, and that rough rides could even lead to some loss of ridership. Additionally, the authors proposed a theory of roughness acclimation and provided some evidence that unlike objective measurements, subjective assessments of ride quality could lead to significant biases and inconsistencies.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.5038/CUTR-NCTR-RR-2016-07
• Record URL:
  https://www.ugpti.org/resources/reports/details.php?id=857
• 
• Record URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/31617
• Supplemental Notes:
  • This document was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation, University Transportation Centers Program.
• Corporate Authors:

  Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute

  North Dakota State University
  1320 Albrecht Boulevard
  Fargo, ND  United States  581052

  National Center for Transit Research

  Center for Urban Transportation Research, University of South Florida
  4202 East Fowler Avenue, CUT 100
  Tampa, FL  United States  33620

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Bridgelall, Raj
  • Hough, Jill
  • Chia, Leonard
• Publication Date: 2016-8

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Edition: Final Report
• Features: Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 53p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bus transit; Data collection; Evaluation and assessment; Methodology; Ride quality; Roughness; Smartphones; Surveys; Transit riders
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Passenger Transportation; Public Transportation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01619057
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 21177060-NCTR-NDSU09
• Files: UTC, NTL, TRIS, ATRI, USDOT
• Created Date: Dec 21 2016 11:28AM