published_or_final_version / abstract / Transport Policy and Planning / Master / Master of Arts in Transport Policy and Planning

published_or_final_version / abstract / Transport Policy and Planning / Master / Master of Arts in Transport Policy and Planning

published_or_final_version / abstract / Transport Policy and Planning / Master / Master of Arts in Transport Policy and Planning

This study examines policies which provide support to rural bus services and the extent to which these policies meet the accessibility needs of rural communities in Scotland. In recent years, accessibility opportunities have improved for the vast majority of rural people because of increased ownership of the private car.  However, the minority of people who do not have access to a car can face considerable difficulties in accessing all opportunities and may consequently be socially excluded.  The Government wishes to promote modal shift from the car to public transport wherever possible in rural areas.  Policies which provide support to bus services represent a mobility approach to tackling rural accessibility needs. In this study, the methodology used is the ‘Accessibility Policy Assessment Tool’ (APAT), which is used to systematically assess the accessibility impact of policies through a mixed methods approach.  This approach is used to ascertain the ways in which bus support policies could delivery more effective accessibility impacts to rural communities, and is critiqued as part of the study.  The main results of the study were that there are particular characteristics of some policies which enabled them to be more effective at delivering accessibility benefits to some rural communities.  Specifically, those policies which were delivered in a bottom-up fashion allowed local accessibility needs to be better understood and the services put in place could be more responsive to these needs.  In conclusion, it is suggested that bus support policies delivered in a top-down fashion may not effectively be meeting accessibility needs, and thus tackling social exclusion, and that it appeared difficult for urban-delivered policies to meet the accessibility challenges present within rural communities.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--New Jersey Institute of Technology, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 136-140). Also available online via the New Jersey Institute of Technology library website (http://www.library.njit.edu/etd/).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 108-110).

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1984.

The new bus operation mode has been implemented in Macao from 1st August, 2011 onwards. In the new operation mode, Government becomes the operator of all bus routes while bus companies have switched their roles to service providers. The major objective of this new bus operation mode is to enhance bus ridership and minimize the uses of private vehicles. This objective has come to the main aim of this dissertation, which is to investigate whether the new bus operation mode has achieved the Government’s targets by analyzing the impacts on residents’ transportation mode choices after the change of bus operation mode. This study is essential to the Government because it can be a milestone for the Transport Bureau to evaluate the effectiveness of the new bus operation mode so as to arrange the public transportation system to fulfill the needs of the residents. If public transportation is considered as safe, convenient and efficient, local citizens will be more willing to ride on public transportation instead of private vehicles. Questionnaire survey and interview had been applied in this study. There were four main findings from the questionnaire. Firstly, the most influential factors affecting Macao residents to make mode choices are time and distance. Secondly, residents are less satisfied with the new bus operation mode compared to the old bus operation mode in terms of the satisfaction scores ranked by the respondents while significant differences in satisfaction scores towards different bus operators are recorded. Thirdly, the new bus operation mode is not effective for the time being from the perspective of the respondents. Fourthly, nearly none commuters driving their own cars or motorcycles to commute before the new bus operation mode are willing to change to buses after the commencement of the new bus operation mode. In other words, it can be concluded that the new bus operation mode does not increase ridership on buses, especially for commuters who drive their own vehicles to commute. The main reasons for the currently ineffectiveness of new bus operation mode are the high expectations for the new bus operation mode and the negative impacts caused by the increase of bus frequency. In order to change the public belief that the bus services are still not reliable and effective, the Transport Bureau in Macao has to apply measures to rebuild the confidence of bus passengers on bus services and to reduce the travel time on bus journeys. Once these suggested measures are implemented, passengers will be more willing to ride on buses and the targets of the new bus operation mode can be achieved. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

It has been noticed that the government and bus operators in Hong Kong has constantly failed to implement plans to reduce, cancel or re-organize franchised bus routes with low patronage, essentially due to objections from District Councils, no matter how beneficial to the environment and traffic conditions these plans are claimed to be. In view of such phenomenon, this study set off to investigate what really has taken place at the core of the problem, i.e. the consultation process of Route Development Plan (RDP) with District Councils. The theories of community engagement (CE), deemed necessary in all areas of public policy making, have been borrowed to conceptualize such process in this study in terms of adequacy and sufficiency. The objectives of this study are: to review the current CE practice for bus route planning; to investigate the views of the stakeholders, such as the government, bus operators, district councilors and passengers towards such practice; and to suggest improvement to it, if possible. This study has employed both qualitative as well as quantitative methods, i.e. questionnaire surveys for the passengers (114 surveyed) and district councilors (11 replied out of 71 questionnaires sent out); and in-depth interviews for Transport Department (TD) officials, bus operator representatives (from Citybus/ New World First Bus) and district councilors (totally four). Some key findings from the questionnaire surveys include: more than half of the passengers (54%) do not know of the proposed changes to the bus routes they are using; only 1% and 12% of them have expressed their views to the government and district councilors respectively concerning the proposed route change, and none to the bus operators; as for district councilors’ questionnaire survey, most of them (8 out of 11) stated that they have been continually communicating with the government; but still, most of them (8 out of 11) believed that the RDP items would be implemented even without reaching consensus. On the other hand, from the in-depth interviews, some details of the CE process for RDP not previously published are revealed, including; an annual cycle of RDP preparation and consultation; the interaction between TD, bus operators and district councilors, among bus operators, and among district councilors; the various bargaining tactics employed between the stakeholders during the process. Though TD officials see no room of improvements to the existing practice, bus operator representative request for more objective decision-making; whereas district councilors demand for more information to be shared and more communications to be held with TD and the bus operators. In conclusion, the existing CE practice for bus route planning has not been well received by most of its stakeholders. It should be given a higher recognition for its role in a comprehensive bus route planning that not only needs to balance the conflicting claims of community, but also between transport and other social benefits. / published_or_final_version / Transport Policy and Planning / Master / Master of Arts in Transport Policy and Planning

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Transport Policy and Planning / Master / Master of Arts in Transport Policy and Planning