Valuing Convenience in Public Transport
The experience of transport systems users, in terms of comfort, reliability, safety
and above all convenience, is critical in determining demand for transport services,
at least when there is a choice of alternative ways to travel. Convenience is one
of the strongest attractions of the private car for passenger transport. For users
of public transport, convenience is also clearly important but not always clearly
defined and not often measured in designing transport systems or monitoring their
operating performance. In many situations, an increase in public transport convenience
reduces the unit costs of travel (euros/dollars per hour or cents per minute) and
so provides benefits equivalent to an increase in travel speed.
This report focuses on convenience and its importance to the user experience. It reviews
operational definitions of convenience, evidence for the willingness of users to pay
for convenience and the use of indicators to assess and improve the convenience of
public transport, with a view to making it more effective and more competitive.
Published on December 24, 2014Also available in: French
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