EFFECTS OF LEVEL OF BUS SERVICE ON PASSENGER DEMAND

In order to improve the bus service, exclusive bus lanes, bus priority signals, bus bays, and a bus location system have been combined into a key route bus system. This system started a service for the first time in 1982 on the toko line, then in 1985 on the shin-dekicho line, both in nagoya. Owing to the exclusive bus lanes and bus priority signals, the key route buses were faster in speed than ever and arrived almost on schedule. Thus, passengers of these buses have increased in number. There were also some examples that have changed their travel modes from cars to key route buses. In this paper, the effects of key route bus system on passenger demand are summarized briefly at the outset. Then, the effects of the bus service level on the bus passenger demand are analyzed using the data collected on the toko line. Disaggregate models predicting the mode choice are obtained and time and cost elasticities are calculated. It was found that the service level in the line-haul (in-vehicle time and line-haul cost) has a greater effect than the access time or cost. (Author/TRRL)