IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/vtiwps/2021_009.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Optimal frequency of public transport in a small city: examination of a simple method

Author

Listed:
  • Asplund, Disa

    (Swedish National Road & Transport Research Institute (VTI))

Abstract

This study identifies the welfare optimal frequency of a scheduled public transport service from a methodological perspective, exploring what methods are more suitable for the case of bus services in a small city. The study examines how well various versions of the square-root rule, including established and newly proposed versions, estimate the optimal bus frequencies in the case city of Uppsala, versus estimates generated by a more comprehensive partial equilibrium model. The results indicate that extending the square-root rule by including transfer time, as proposed here, is empirically important. Furthermore, the results indicate that the square-root rule, with this extension, can estimate optimal frequency in Uppsala surprisingly well, and may be suitable for bus lines with two-way demand in the range of 75–200 pax/h.

Suggested Citation

  • Asplund, Disa, 2021. "Optimal frequency of public transport in a small city: examination of a simple method," Working Papers 2021:9, Swedish National Road & Transport Research Institute (VTI).
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:vtiwps:2021_009
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.transportportal.se/vtiswopec/VTI%202021%209.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Asplund, Disa & Pyddoke, Roger, 2020. "Optimal fares and frequencies for bus services in a small city," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    2. G. F. Newell, 1971. "Dispatching Policies for a Transportation Route," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 5(1), pages 91-105, February.
    3. Mohring, Herbert, 1972. "Optimization and Scale Economies in Urban Bus Transportation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 62(4), pages 591-604, September.
    4. Leonardo J. Basso & Hugo E. Silva, 2014. "Efficiency and Substitutability of Transit Subsidies and Other Urban Transport Policies," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 6(4), pages 1-33, November.
    5. Pyddoke, Roger, 2020. "Analysis of daily variation in bus occupancy rates for city-buses in Uppsala and optimal supply," Working Papers 2020:8, Swedish National Road & Transport Research Institute (VTI).
    6. Franz J. M. Salzborn, 1972. "Optimum Bus Scheduling," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 6(2), pages 137-148, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pyddoke, Roger & Lind, Joar, 2024. "Policies for internalizing externalities from car transport in two Swedish cities," Working Papers 2024:2, Swedish National Road & Transport Research Institute (VTI).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Daniel Hörcher & Daniel J. Graham, 2021. "The Gini index of demand imbalances in public transport," Transportation, Springer, vol. 48(5), pages 2521-2544, October.
    2. Yan, Shangyao & Chen, Hao-Lei, 2002. "A scheduling model and a solution algorithm for inter-city bus carriers," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 36(9), pages 805-825, November.
    3. Hörcher, Daniel & Tirachini, Alejandro, 2021. "A review of public transport economics," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 25(C).
    4. Börjesson, Maria & Fung, Chau Man & Proost, Stef & Yan, Zifei, 2018. "Do buses hinder cyclists or is it the other way around? Optimal bus fares, bus stops and cycling tolls," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 326-346.
    5. Bull, Owen & Muñoz, Juan Carlos & Silva, Hugo E., 2021. "The impact of fare-free public transport on travel behavior: Evidence from a randomized controlled trial," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    6. Vigren, Andreas & Pyddoke, Roger, 2020. "The impact on bus ridership of passenger incentive contracts in public transport," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 144-159.
    7. Tirachini, Alejandro & Proost, Stef, 2021. "Transport taxes and subsidies in developing countries: The effect of income inequality aversion," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 25(C).
    8. Hörcher, Daniel & De Borger, Bruno & Graham, Daniel J., 2023. "Subsidised transport services in a fiscal federation: Why local governments may be against decentralised service provision," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 34(C).
    9. Börjesson, Maria & Fung, Chau Man & Proost, Stef & Yan, Zifei, 2017. "Cycling tolls and optimal number of bus stops: the importance of congestion and crowding," Working papers in Transport Economics 2017:10, CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI).
    10. Hörcher, Daniel & Graham, Daniel J., 2018. "Demand imbalances and multi-period public transport supply," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 106-126.
    11. Asplund, Disa & Pyddoke, Roger, 2020. "Optimal fares and frequencies for bus services in a small city," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    12. Huber, Martin & Meier, Jonas & Wallimann, Hannes, 2022. "Business analytics meets artificial intelligence: Assessing the demand effects of discounts on Swiss train tickets," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 22-39.
    13. Jaime Bonet-Morón & Lucas Wilfried Hahn-De-Castro, 2020. "La gestión y operación del Sistema Integrado de Transporte Masivo (SITM) de Cartagena: el rol dual de Transcaribe," Documentos de Trabajo Sobre Economía Regional y Urbana 18105, Banco de la República, Economía Regional.
    14. Larrain, Homero & Muñoz, Juan Carlos & Giesen, Ricardo, 2015. "Generation and design heuristics for zonal express services," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 201-212.
    15. Xuto, Praj & Anderson, Richard J. & Graham, Daniel J. & Hörcher, Daniel, 2021. "Optimal infrastructure reinvestment in urban rail systems: A dynamic supply optimisation approach," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 251-268.
    16. Guillaume Monchambert & Stef Proost, 2019. "How Efficient are Intercity Railway Prices and Frequencies in Europe?: Comparing a Corridor in Belgium and in France," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 53(4), pages 323-32-347.
    17. Maria Börjesson & Chau Man Fung & Stef Proost, 2015. "Should buses still be subsidized in Stockholm?," Working Papers of Department of Economics, Leuven 518627, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Department of Economics, Leuven.
    18. Jara-Díaz, Sergio & Fielbaum, Andrés & Gschwender, Antonio, 2020. "Strategies for transit fleet design considering peak and off-peak periods using the single-line model," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 1-18.
    19. Davis, Lucas W., 2021. "Estimating the price elasticity of demand for subways: Evidence from Mexico," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    20. Pyddoke, Roger & Lindgren, Hanna, 2018. "Outcomes from new contracts with “strong” incentives for increasing ridership in bus transport in Stockholm," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 197-206.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Optimization; Public transport; Service frequency; Square-root rule;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H40 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - General
    • R41 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Transportation: Demand, Supply, and Congestion; Travel Time; Safety and Accidents; Transportation Noise

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hhs:vtiwps:2021_009. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Biblioteket vid VTI or Emil Svensson or Claes Eriksson or Tova Äng (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/tevtise.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.