BUS PRIORITY AND MODAL SPLIT

To maintain an acceptable level of mobility in our cities many potential and actual car users must use public transport. Therefore it must be axiomatic that a main aim of the provision of bus priorities is to make public transport more attractive to car users. How well bus priorities achieve this objective is examined in this article. The behavioural or generalised cost of a journey is used to understand the choice of mode of travel. This cost relates the actual cost of travel with the time taken on the journey and then these in turn are related to the income of the traveller. The 'cost' of making a journey is then expressed in compatible units, which are [equivalent minutes[. If a typical commuter journey-to-work is examined using this method it is found that the 'cost' for bus travel always exceeds that for car travel. Priorities for buses in the form of exemptions at traffic signals will reduce this cost by, at best, fourteen per cent. This, however, is unlikely to influence car users to use public transport and other measures would be necessary. /TRRL/

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/00410683
• Corporate Authors:

  Printerhall Limited

  29 Newmart Street
  London W1P 3PE,   England 
• Authors:
  • Lesley, LJS
• Publication Date: 1975-3

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 127-129
• Serial:
  • Traffic Engineering & Control
  • Volume: 16
  • Issue Number: 3
  • Publisher: Hemming Group, Limited
  • ISSN: 0041-0683
  • Serial URL: http://www.tecmagazine.com/

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Alternatives analysis; Bus priority; Buses; Costs; Decision making; Income; Modal split; Motor vehicles; Ownership; Population; Public transit; Traffic signal preemption; Traffic signals; Travel; Travel time; Trip length; Urban areas; Work trips
• Uncontrolled Terms: Use
• ITRD Terms: 1272: Bus; 224: Cost; 2248: Decision process; 256: Income; 698: Journey; 697: Journey time; 621: Journey to work; 675: Modal split; 335: Population; 648: Priority (traffic); 313: Urban area; 9084: Use; 315: Vehicle ownership
• Subject Areas: Finance; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; Society; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00129522
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport and Road Research Laboratory (TRRL)
• Files: ITRD, TRIS
• Created Date: Apr 7 1981 12:00AM