Year: 2018
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: In the past few years, technological changes have made it possible for bus passengers to learn about the expected arrival time when waiting for buses or even before arrival at the stop. In London, live bus arrival information is provided by Countdown signs at over 2500 bus stops. The bus arrival information is also available through Smartphone or tablet apps, the internet and SMS. Though these services are widely used, their impacts on passengers’ perceived waiting time and passengers’ behaviour remain unclear. The objective of this study is to assess how having real-time bus arrival information impacts on both passenger behaviour and how they value their waiting time at the bus stop. To address these research questions, this study is based on a survey containing a stated preference discrete choice experiment, which is supplemented with some qualitative research questions. 1690 completed interviews were achieved. Respondents were either recruited from bus users at bus stops who were invited to participate in an online or telephone survey, or from bus users supplied by TfL from their Oyster user database who were directed to the online survey. Discrete choice models were estimated and the resulting model coefficients quantify how different forms of real-time information impact on respondents’ value of bus waiting time and how the values varied by different sub-groups of population. This study provides up-to-date, London-specific waiting time relative values (multiplier to the in-vehicle time) and provides critical implications in current appraisal of schemes on public transport services investment.
Source: Transportation research procedia
Authors: Hui Lu, Peter Burge, Chris Heywood, Rob Sheldon, Peter Lee, Kate Barber, Alex Phillips
Institutions: RAND Europe, Transport for London
Language: English
Subfield: Transportation
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2892460332