An Indicator-based Method for Bus Routing Adjustment

摘要： Increasing the ridership of bus transit through bus routing adjustment is one of the main tasks of transit agencies. A new method to characterize and classify bus routes according to their coverage, transfer and overlap level in meeting the needs of public transit planning is described. Geographic transit network and land use data are used to calculate seven indicators for each bus route: residential area coverage, non-residential area coverage, land use mix, transfer index to/from bus, overlap index with bus, transfer index to/from metro and overlap index with metro. Hierarchical clustering analysis is used to indicate where the largest potential scope exists for adjusting the bus transit system and hence can be used to guide transit planners. The method was applied in Nanjing, China aiming to identify improvable bus routes. Six bus route clusters were generated using hierarchical clustering. The profiles of each cluster are analyzed and corresponding strategies for bus routing adjustment are proposed. ANOVA test shows there is significant difference at the route level ridership among these clusters, which verifies the reasonability of the method.

引用：