Comfort and convenience in Public Transport
Comfort and convenience in Public Transport
TRB in 2013 write that the 2 main service factors are availability and comfort and convenience. In this article we will cover the comfort and convenience.
Some of the more important factors that affect transit comfort and convenience are the following:
- Passenger loads aboard transit vehicles. It is more uncomfortable to stand for long periods of time and the time spent standing may not be able to be used for more productive or relaxing purposes, such as reading.
- The kinds of passenger amenities provided at transit stops.
- The reliability of transit service. Are passengers assured of getting to their destinations at the promised time or must they allow extra time for frequently irregular service?
- Door-to-door travel times, by themselves, and in relation to other modes.
- The out-of-pocket cost of using transit, relative to other modes.
- Passengers’ perceptions of safety and security at transit stops, on board vehicles, and walking to and from transit stops.
- Whether transfers are required to complete a trip.
- The appearance and comfort of transit facilities.
These factors can be summarized as:
- How long is the walk? Can one walk safely along and across the streets leading to and from transit stops? Is there a functional and continuous accessible path to the stop, and is the stop accessible?
- Is the service reliable?
- How long is the wait? Is shelter available at the stop while waiting?
- Are there security concerns—walking, waiting, or riding?
- How comfortable is the trip? Will one have to stand? Are there an adequate number of securement spaces? Are the vehicles and transit facilities clean?
- How much will the trip cost?
- How many transfers are required?
- How long will the trip take in total? How long relative to other modes?
Unlike the first decision—whether transit is an option for the trip—the questions listed above are not necessarily all-or-nothing. People have their own personal values that they apply to a given question, and each person will weigh the answers to these questions differently. Regular transit users familiar with the service may perceive transit service more favorably than non-users. In the end, the choice to use transit will depend on the availability of other modes and how the quality of transit service compares with that of competing modes.
Passenger Loads
Transit is less attractive when passengers must stand for long periods of time, especially when transit vehicles are highly crowded. When passengers must stand, it becomes difficult for them to use their travel time productively, which eliminates a potential advantage of transit over the private automobile. Most transit agencies assess the degree of passenger crowding on a transit vehicle based on the occupancy of the vehicle relative to the number of seats, expressed as a load factor. In general, transit provides load factors at or below 1.0. Inner-city rail service may approach 2.0 or even more.
Measuring loading by the number of passengers per unit vehicle length is often more appropriate for rail capacity calculations than using a load factor.
Reliability
Reliability affects the amount of time passengers must wait at a transit stop for a transit vehicle to arrive, as well as the consistency of a passenger’s arrival time at a destination from day to day. Reliability also affects a passenger’s total trip time.
Reliability encompasses both on-time performance and the regularity of headways between successive transit vehicles.
Reliability is influenced by a number of factors, some under the control of transit operators and some not. These factors include:
- Traffic conditions (for on-street, mixed-traffic operations), including traffic congestion, traffic signal delays, parking maneuvers, incidents, etc.;
- Factors affecting the reliability of transit service.
- Road construction and track maintenance, which create delays and may force a detour from the normal route;
- Vehicle and maintenance quality, which influence the probability that a vehicle will break down while in service;
- Vehicle and staff availability, reflecting whether there are sufficient vehicles available to operate the scheduled trips (some vehicles will be undergoing maintenance and others may be out-of-service for various reasons) and whether sufficient operators are available on a given day to operate those vehicles;
- Transit preferential treatments, such as exclusive bus lanes or conditional traffic signal priority that operates only when a bus is behind schedule, that at least partially offset traffic effects on transit operations;
- Schedule achievability, reflecting whether the route can be operated under usual traffic conditions and passenger loads, with sufficient layover time provided for operators and sufficient recovery time to allow most trips to depart on time even when they arrived at the end of the route late;
- Evenness of passenger demand, both between successive vehicles and from day to day for a given vehicle and run;
- Differences in operator driving skills, route familiarity, and adherence to the schedule—particularly in terms of early (“hot”) running;
- Wheelchair lift and ramp usage, including the frequency of deployment and the amount of time required to secure wheelchairs;
- Route length and the number of stops, which increase a vehicle’s exposure to events that may delay it—delays occurring earlier along a route result in longer overall trip times than similar delays occurring later along a route; and
- Operations control strategies used to react to reliability problems as they develop, thus minimizing the impact of the problems.
Travel time
A longer trip by transit than by automobile may be seen by passengers as being less convenient; this may be mitigated somewhat if the on-board transit time can be used productively where the in-car time would not be.
Total trip time includes the travel time from one’s origin to a transit stop, waiting time for a transit vehicle, travel time on-board a vehicle, travel time from a transit stop to one’s destination, and any time required for transfers between routes during the trip. The importance of each of these factors varies from person to person. Some persons will view the trip as an opportunity for exercise during the walk to transit and for catching up on reading or work while aboard a vehicle. Other persons will compare the overall door-to-door travel time of a trip by transit with the time for the same trip by private automobile.
Transfers
Requiring transfers can make service more efficient for operators, but can be less convenient for passengers, depending on the circumstances, since is well when the new route that the passengers transfer to offers a net time savings or service frequency improvements. Usually, transfers adds to a passenger’s total trip time and raise the possibility that a missed connection will occur, which would increase the length of a passenger’s trip by the amount of one headway. Transfers also increase the complexity of a transit trip to first-time passengers.
Passengers perceive the passage of time differently for each portion of their trip. In average, walk time is 2,2 x in-vehicle time, wait time is 2,1 x in-vhicle time and transfer time is 2.5 x in-vehicle time.
Some studies have also identified a transfer penalty in addition to the higher importance of transfer time relative to in-vehicle time. Reported transfer penalties are typically in the range of 12 to 17 minutes.
Safety and Security
Safety includes the potential for being involved in a crash, as well as slips and falls while negotiating stairs or other elements of the transit system. Security covers both the real and perceived chance of being the victim of a crime while using transit. It also covers irritants, such as encountering unruly passengers on a regular basis or having to listen to someone else’s radio/phone.
Cost
Potential passengers weigh the cost and value of using transit versus the out-of-pocket costs and value of using other modes. Out-of-pocket transit costs consist of the cost of the fare for each trip or the cost of a monthly pass (and possibly the cost of parking at a station), while out-of-pocket automobile costs include road and bridge tolls and parking charges. Other automobile costs, such as fuel, maintenance, insurance, taxes, and the cost of buying an automobile generally do not occur for individual trips and thus usually do not enter into a person’s consideration for a particular trip.
Appearance and Comfort
Having clean, attractive transit stops, stations, and vehicles improves transit’s image, even among non-riders. On the other hand, a dirty or vandalized shelter or vehicle can raise questions in the minds of non-users about the comfort and quality of transit service, and about other aspects of the service, such as maintenance, that may not be as obvious.
Passengers are also interested in personal comfort while using transit, including
- Appropriate climate control for local conditions, such as heating in the winter and air conditioning in the summer;
- Seat comfort, including seat size, amount of padding, and leg room; and
- Ride comfort, including the severity of acceleration and braking, vehicle sway, odors, and vehicle noise. Ride comfort is particularly important for older passengers and persons with disabilities.
- And amenities as benches, shelters, lighting, trash receptacles, Telephones or vending facilities.
Transportation Research Board (TRB), 2013. Transit Capacity and Quality Service Manual, Third Edition. (TCQSM).
