This thesis compares German transit systems to the transit system of Atlanta, Georgia. Different performance measures are used to assess the difference in the respective rail and bus systems. The results show that the German transit systems are overall more successful and efficient than the system in Atlanta.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 82-84).

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

Thesis (M. S.)--Architecture, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 82-84). Also available in print.

Thesis (M.E.T.)--University of Canterbury, 2006. / Typescript (photocopy). "June 2006." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 189-192). Also available via the World Wide Web.

It is observed that transit riders are responding to service changes while transit planning is responding to ridership changes, or that transit patronage and service supply are highly interrelated. It is also noticed that transit riders transfer from route to route, the introduction of new service may draw some riders from the existing routes, which implies transit patronage on a route is also affected by other parallel and intersecting routes. An analytic tool is needed to examine these complex relationships in the transit system. This study has developed a quantitative model by incorporating these interactions into a simultaneous system. The simultaneity of transit demand, supply and the interrelationship of inter-route effects are addressed in a three-equation simultaneous model: a demand equation, a supply equation and an equation for competing routes. These equations are estimated simultaneously using the three-stage-least-squares estimation method. The model is estimated at the route-segment level by the time of a day, and by the inbound and outbound directions. Data from Portland, Oregon metropolitan area are used as an extended case study. The socioeconomic and demographic data are allocated to an one-quarter-mile distance service area around a transit route by utilizing the technique of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The data allocation significantly reduces the measurement error. Inter-route relationships are also identified using GIS. The estimation results show that a service change on a route increases the transit patronage on that route, but it also decreases the ridership on its competing routes, so the net effect of that service improvement is smaller than the ridership increase on the subject route. A conventional single equation model under-estimates the ridership responses on the subject route, and over-estimates the net patronage response. This study is the first research to discuss the net effects of a service change at the route level. The model can be implemented for system-level policy analysis and route-level service and land use planning. It is especially useful for "what-if" scenario analysis at the route level to simulate the ridership impacts of service and land use changes.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil Engineering, 1979. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ENGINEERING. / Bibliography: leaf 76. / by Daniel Olivier Bursaux. / M.S.

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning