DIFFERENCES IN TRAVEL BEHAVIOR AND DEMAND POTENTIAL OF TRAM AND BUS BASED NEIGHBOURHOODS. EVIDENCE FROM A CLUSTER ANALYSIS

摘要

One of the most contentious issues in public transport planning is whether passengers reactdifferently to rail-based public transport and bus-based public transport. A key part of theproblem is that it is very difficult to compare the two modes all other things being held equal.Specifically, rail-based modes are often built in higher density environments which have higherlatent public transport demand and bus routes very rarely offer the same service qualities (travelspeed, service frequency) as rail service.In this paper an approach is presented that accounts for these evaluated methodical shortcomingsby applying a cluster analysis of public transport services as a basis for further comparison. Thisprovides the opportunity to compare bus and rail under similar conditions. This paper describesthe cluster analysis evaluation comparing bus and rail transport in Zurich and Berne. Theresearch considered several different public transport qualities in terms of travel times, frequencyand number of lines distinguished between bus and tram serving a stop. Results showed thatwhere equivalent service qualities are provided there is no significant higher effect in tram-basedclusters compared to bus-based clusters. Nevertheless it revealed that demand potential (definedas numbers of residents and jobs) differs between clusters.