Dissertations/Theses - Department of Urban and Regional Planning

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    Evaluation of premium bus service in Dhaka city
    (Department of Urban and Regional Planning, 1998-10) Das, Samir Kumar; Abdul Quium, Dr. A. S. M.
    The Premium blls Service. a ncwly introduced public transport mode in the transportation system of Dhaka city and operating under the government's newly declared fare structure applicable only to improved bus services, was eval<.mtcdmainly with a view to identify characteristics of the passengers, detennine acceptability of different service attributes. quality of service provided, and economic viability of operation, and to examine overall prospect of the service in Dhaka city. It was found that the users were almost exclusively literate persons, most with private service, business, or commerce, as a profession, using predominantly auto-rickshaw as an alternative to the Premium Bus Service. Acccptability index values calculated for the eight selected service auriblltes namely, fare rate, travel time, waiting time, cleanliness, crowdiness, temperature, crew behaviour, and safety were 0,6844,0.7642,0,6870,0.8181, 1.0000,0.8493,0,8902 and 0.9155, where 0 indicated acceptable to none and I indicated acceptable to all the passcngers. Level of service provided by the Premium Bus Servicc and its competitor BRTC Cily Service was measured by means of a Ievel-of-service or LOS model adapted from Quium and Tanaboriboon (1994). wherein five indicators or pcrformanee measure (PMs), namely, tmvel time, waiting time, load factor, regularity of scrvice and in-vehicle comfort wcre selected for comparison. From the LOS evaluation it was found that the Premium Bus Service was providing scrvices at defined A category of service against the waiting time, load factor and comfort PMs, whereas the corresponding service levels provided by thc BRTC City Service were found to be at B. A and B. respectively. Against the PM regularity of service, both the bus !'ypeswere found to provide services at category C, and for thc rest PM, the travel time, both the bus types were found to provide services at very low levels - the Premium Bus Service at D, and the BRTC City service at F. only. However, service levels against the PMs travcl time and regularity of service involved much scope for improvement through some feasible improvement measures, like adopting bus priority options and proper rescheduling ofthc services, Application ofWaltrs' (1979) "pproach in economic assessment of Premium Bus operation showed that the Premium Bu~was being operated in Dhaka City with an annual operating cost of Tk. 939038.00, a gross profit of Tk. 210272.00, a consumer surplus of Tk. 67186.00, and a producer's surplus Tk. 97587.00 per Bus per year for an assumed economic life of 8 ycars. For a longer economic life of 10 years, the Premium Bus Service was found to be operated with an annual operating cost ofTk. 879646.00, a gross profit of Tk, 269664.00, a consumers' surplus of Tk. 67186.00, and a producer's surplus Tk, 164106.00 per bus per year. Thus, with positive values for both the producer's surplus and the consumer surplus. the Premium Bus Service operation on Utlara-Motijheel route of Dhaka city was found to be economically viable and socially desirable. Finally the overall prospect of Premium Bus Service in the transportation system of Dhaka city was critically examined on different considerations besides acceptability of service attributes, quality of service provided and economic viability of operation. It was found that the Premium Bus Service had vast prospect (provided operation of the service is similarly acceptable and ~iable in other routes) in ameliorating the transportation and traffic situation of Dhaka city, through contribution to reduction in congestion, unreliability, delay and environmental pollution; and providing high quality services at reasonable fares.
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    Modal choice behavior for rickshaw in Dhaka city
    (Department of Urban and Regional Planning, 1997-10) Shamsul Alam Mohammad Aminul Hoque; Abdul Quium, Dr. A. S. M.
    Rickshaws - thc most common fonn of non-motorized transpon, dominate the urban transport system in Dhaka City. Despite their contributions to thc national economy and apparent advantages, they ure often considered as "backward" form of urban transport and Identified for the main cause of present traffic congestion problems because of their unorganized and uncontrolled mode of operation. There is a popular demand that the city's transIt system and physical facilities for the operation of motorized traffic (bus) have to be improved and especially rickshaw operation has to managed and controlled, Towards the development of a balanced transportation system thc role of rickshaw that it can play In urban life has to be defined, and suitable policies have to be fonnulatcd, For developing these management and control pohcles thIS study aims to understand the choice behavior in favor of rickshaw. This is an exploratory type of research. It analyzed the factors like travel cost, safety, !lmc saving ability, accessIbility of the mode, and comfort affecting the modal choice with Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique and also analYl.edthe behavioral pattern of the trip-makcr's and their attitudes towards choice of available modcs. Among the five most important factors, cost was the stronj,'Cstdcdsive factor in mode eholce process, Safety came in the second most important factor. Time saving abihty, accessibility, and comfort came next according to thc importance ofthcir weights. It also showed that personal variables like age, sex, income, family size, and vehicle ownership were wen correlated and of all these, income had been the most prominent factor influencing the weights of AHP. The output ITomAHP showed that the most prcfcrrcd mode was bus WItha value of 0.358. Rickshaw, auto-nckshaw, and tempo came 10 the second, third, and fourth positions with a value of 0.226, 0.212, and 0.204, respectIvely. The Discriminant Analysis has been used to discriminate between the different types of mode choice behavior for the work trip in Dhaka City, especially the rickshaw and ItScompetitors. Five different types of model like rickshaw and auto-rickshaw, rickshaw and bus., rickshaw and tempo, rickshaw and car, rickshaw and walk have been developed. Most influencing variables of these modes were travel distance of the trip, travel cost, travcl time, trip-maker's monthly income, and waiting time to ride a particular mode. Travel distance for the trip was the single most dominating variable among an the models A policy tcstlng was carried out to predict the cfficicncy of the policy of controlhng rickshaw traffic in Dhaka City. In predicting modal shift for Dhaka City, policies, whIch are efficient in saving travel time and cost of the journey, were found to be more effective in attracting rickshaw users to its competitor modes, By reducing cost for auto-rickshaw's trips hy 25 percent will have a modal shift from rickshaw to auto-rickshaw by 11 perccnt Reducing in-vehicle time by 15 minutes there will be a user shift from rickshaw to bus about 9 pcrccnt. Introducing policies for morc number of bu,ws and by reducing their waiting time, many passengers would shIft from rickshaw to bus, Other than short distance trips people are not willmg to travel by rickshaw for long trips. However, the present existence of rickshaw alone cannot make a transport system sustainable. To make it better, rickshaws must be integrated with the other modes so that rickshaws can play their duc functional role.