What role for minibus services in urban areas, in a European market segmentation approach

In many European cities public transport, particularly busses, are unattractive and underused, due to the lack of direct connections, the need of transfers and the loss of time and comfort. Hence, this study aims at developing the business concept of an alternative or complementary type of public transport which enables a quicker and more flexible service and enhances patronage by using comfortable minibuses. First the business environment and the integration of a new service in the urban mobility market are identified. Then, in order to approve this concept, a concrete case study concerning a minibus service between the cities of Lisbon and Oeiras (Portugal) is applied. A mobility survey and focus group interviews are analysed to identify the current supply and demand. Based on a discrete choice model, a factor analysis and further descriptive statistics, the main target group of previous car users with needs of a quick and flexible transport service, particularly during peak hour, is confirmed. Besides, some user groups with a lower value of time and interests in a comfortable and easy accessible minibus service out of peak hour can be identified. Hence, the proposed service combines both types of needs, incorporating short routes, few stops and high frequencies during peak hour and an adapted, flexible service with significantly lower frequencies and the possibilities of additional on-demand service out of peak hour and on the weekends. At the end the potential risks for the operator companies are identified and the technical and operational feasibility of the service are critically discussed in the future urban mobility systems in Europe. However, before the real implementation of the proposed minibus concept, a deeper marketing research should be carried out, examining the expected demand for these types of services and the establishment of partnerships.

Adaptive approaches for the improvement of public transport in Latin American Cities

Regina Witter

Apart from the best-practice cases where public administration has been able to manage the transit service network and implement a strong regulation system, in the majority of Latin American cities public urban transport is supplied by a great number of quasi-artisan operators in an almost deregulated context. The private providers secure an intense but essentially deficient and unbalanced supply. With the growth of the cities and thus, increasing trvel distances, the deficiency of the public transport system becomes more problematic, especially for the lower income groups living on the outskirts. Moreover, the extension of the service, supplied in an increasing number of small vehicles competing on the streets, effects the worsening of traffic congestion and pollution. These problems arise as soon as the public authorities are not able to regulate the transport industry, not to mention to provide an efficient transport system by themselves. The lack of technical skills to plan, regulate and control the services but also weak political motivation are the primary obstacles to solve the poblem. The political and social costs of major regulatory changes often discourage politicans empowered, looking for more vote effective activities and measures. In order to implement an efficient regulation system, a stepwise, adaptive procedure has to be applied, securing over years significant improvements and the maturing of the transport industry.

Elsevier2007

Public Urban Transport, Mobility Patterns and Social Exclusion

Regina Witter

What are the social impacts of a new, less efficient public transport system in a city that is known for its inequality concerning access to daily activities and participation in urban life? More precisely, what are the implications of a re-regulated transport system, if the city has previously gone through a long period of deregulation? Are the changes limited to altered accessibility conditions, or are there further consequences for people's travel competencies, habits and mobility patterns? And what does that mean for the dissolution or manifestation of social inequality and risks of social exclusion? With a specific regard to these interests, this work specifically focuses on the case of Santiago de Chile. There the public transport policy passed from a period of complete de-regulation in the 1970s and 1980s to a period of re-regulation as of the 1990s. During the deregulation period, the services had been characterized by an uncoordinated oversupply of private busses that existed in parallel to the more expensive public metro. In order to suspend the stigmatization of bus-based transport as the 'mode for the poor', the sophisticated 'Transantiago' bus system was implemented in February 2007, which was modelled of the famous BRT system 'Transmilenio' in Bogotá. The Transantiago project included the total re-design of the network system and the private operating companies at one glance. It introduced new vehicles and infrastructures as well as an electronic ticketing system that combined the bus and metro systems in a tariff union. Unfortunately, the ambitious project failed, due to various political, technical and social reasons. Up until today, the acceptance and satisfaction of the inhabitants with Transantiago have been rather low. Being aware of the importance of the technical problems, this study concentrates on the social problems and the related impacts Transantiago has had on people's daily life. The research is done on the basis of three hypotheses that are strongly based on the concept of 'motility', i.e. the potential to be mobile, including the set of factors which enable spatial mobility (access, competencies and appropriation). The hypotheses are tested on the basis of a mixed approach that combines various qualitative methods with an 'ad-hoc' survey of 2000 households in five different areas of the metropolitan Santiago area. The survey results are analysed on the basis of various spatial and statistical procedures, including, among others, structural equation modelling. We first consider the relation between the differences related to mobility and the social differences during the period of deregulation and describe the major mobility patterns and habits developed during that time (hypothesis 1). Then we come to the Transantiago failures and the changes imposed on people's accessibility conditions, travel competencies, preferences and habits (hypothesis 2). Finally we also explore the impact the Transantiago system has had on people's daily life, more precisely on people's daily activities and the activity locations as well as the main travel modes used to reach these locations. Comparing people's current activity patterns and travel patterns with those of the deregulated transport period, we intend to reveal if Transantiago has aggravated or alleviated existing mobility inequalities and related risks of social exclusion (hypothesis 3). The results show that mobility patterns developed during the deregulated period have had a strong negative impact on people's ability to get used to and accept the sophisticated Transantiago system. Particularly people of low income, people of a lower education level, people without access to a private car and people who live in peripheral areas and don't have direct access to the metro were most heavily impacted. Sometimes, older people and women within these groups suffered more than younger adults and men. The initial difficulties have had a negative impact on the current evaluation and image of public transport, and on the other hand they have exacerbated already existing risks of social exclusion and segregation. Especially the more 'vulnerable' inhabitants have adapted their daily activity patterns and travel patterns. They travel less for job-related and leisure-related purposes; they prefer other modes to bus-based public transport and remain often closer to their place of residence than before the Transantiago implementation. Nonetheless, Transantiago has also had some positive impacts such as increased spatial mobility for inhabitants with direct access to the metro, low travel expenditures due to permanent operating subsidies as well as reduced environmental emissions and safety problems. After all, it is hardly possible to definitively determine if the current mobility-related and social inequalities are effectively a consequence of the Transantiago system. It is also unclear if these inequalities have today a more widespread impact than during the deregulated transport period. In general, throughout this study the important influence of income and social status on inhabitants' mobility conditions and travel behaviour is revealed. Alternative concepts related to residential preferences and urban lifestyles turn out to be less pertinent to the explanation of social differences in travel behaviour. This also means that transport policy aimed at equal mobility conditions can only give a contribution to social inclusion. Therefore, additional urban and social measures are needed. This work consists of six parts. Following the introduction (chapter 1), a broad theoretical framework is presented where the different topics of interest are discussed and examples of empirical studies are presented, with a focus on emerging economies (chapter 2): transport regulation and deregulation and recent trends in public transport policy and supply (2.1); the various spatial, social and individual determinants of travel behaviour and mobility patterns and the implications for transport research (2.2); mobility inequality as possible source of social exclusion, which calls for transport policy making with a focus on social equity (2.3). After having presented the research hypotheses and the methodology employed (chapter 3), the case study area of Santiago is introduced. In this context we describe the development from the deregulated transport period up until today with regard to four issues: the spatial and social structure of the city as well as the development of transport policy and people's mobility patterns (chapter 4). Each of the three hypotheses is analysed and evaluated on the basis of the own empiric works (chapter 5). The work concludes with a synthesis as well as some final remarks and implications for the development of transport policy in Santiago and other cities in emerging economies, where comprehensive transport changes are envisaged (chapter 6).

EPFL2012

Coordination of land-use planning and transportation: how much room to manoeuvre?

Christophe Jemelin, Vincent Kaufmann

In many countries of Western Europe, cities are being built around cars and individual houses. This trend is often considered unavoidable by urban and transportation professionals because it is believed to correspond to what the population desires. But is this really the case? The article answers this question from two angles.First, it presents the results of a poll carried out in four cities in France (Paris / Ile-de-France, Lyon, Strasbourg, Aix-en-Provence) among 5,500 people representative of the populations of these cities. The poll showed that not all the inhabitants aspire to automobility and individual housing, but that they are forced by the lack of available transportation to adopt this lifestyle. A lack of large housing spaces to rent or buy at affordable prices pushes many families into the suburbs, where they have no choice but to use a car for almost all their travel needs, even within their own neighbourhoods. The results show that one of the stakes for the durability of public transport is the availability of a varied range of housing in the suburbs located close to the city, where dependence on the automobile is limited.Secondly, the paper presents different examples from Great Britain, Germany, and Switzerland. Each of these countries in its own way has developed urban development models that do without the dualist vision of the historical city built to pedestrian scale and the outer suburban formula constructed to the scale of the car. These examples go against the idea that outer suburban land development is unavoidable.

2003

Public Urban Transport, Mobility Patterns and Social Exclusion

Regina Witter

EPFL2012