OBTAINING BUS TRANSIT SERVICE CONSUMPTION INFORMATION THROUGH SAMPLING PROCEDURES

Evaluation of the effectiveness of bus transit systems is difficult because data on service consumption are inadequate. Passenger miles is the most useful measure but is costly to collect. Passenger revenue is a commonly used index of service consumption, but as fares have little or no relationship with distance travelled, revenue is a weak (albeit the best available) surrogate of service consumption. Various sampling procedures designed to estimate passenger miles for bus transit systems are reviewed. These are evaluated in terms of the operating data which U.S. transit operators are required to report under the Section 15 Uniform System of Accounts and Records Reporting System. Various sampling techniques used by transit operators in Los Angeles County, California are reviewed. Results illustrate how government regulations influence survey research methods and how affected agencies respond to them.(a) for the covering abstract of the conference see IRRD 286978.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • New Survey Methods in Transport. Proceedings of 2nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE, NEW SOUTH WALES, 1983.
• Corporate Authors:

  VNU Science Pres BV

  P.O. Box 2073
  Utrecht,   Netherlands 
• Authors:
  • Fielding, P
• Publication Date: 1985

Media Info

• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 227-239
• Serial:
  • Publication of: VNU SCIENCE PRESS
  • Publisher: VNU Science Pres BV

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bus transit; Buses; Conferences; Data collection; Economic efficiency; Evaluation and assessment; Interviewing; Methodology; Passenger counting; Ridership; Sampling; Statistical sampling; Statistics; Tariffs; Traffic surveys; Transportation; Travel demand; Travel time; Trip length; Vehicle miles of travel; Vehicle occupants
• Identifier Terms: Urban Mass Transportation Act
• Uncontrolled Terms: Efficiency
• Geographic Terms: Los Angeles (California); United States
• Old TRIS Terms: Bus services; Umta section 15
• ITRD Terms: 8525: Conference; 8623: Data acquisition; 5911: Efficiency; 9020: Evaluation (assessment); 9147: Interview; 697: Journey time; 9102: Method; 6553: Sample (stat); 6555: Statistics; 241: Tariff; 676: Traffic survey; 1155: Transport; 8122: USA; 292: Vehicle mile; 1715: Vehicle occupant
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Planning and Forecasting; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00455358
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Institute for Road Safety Research, SWOV
• Files: ITRD, TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 31 1986 12:00AM