Study on the Impact of Fare Collection Process with Multiple Fare Media on the Passenger Service Time at Bus Stop

Journal of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, Vol.9, 2011 Study on the Impact of Fare Collection Process with Multiple Fare Media on the Passenger Service Time at Bus Stop Pradeep Kumar SHRESTHA Fumihiko NAKAMURA Former Post Doctoral Researcher Professor Graduate School of Engineering Institute of Urban Innovation Yokohama National University Yokohama National University 79-5 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama 79-5 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama 240-8501, JAPAN 240-8501, JAPAN Tel/Fax:+81-45-339-4031 Tel/Fax: +81-45-339-4033, E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] Toshiyuki OKAMURA Associate Professor Institute of Urban Innovation Yokohama National University 79-5 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama 240-8501, JAPAN Tel/Fax:+81-45-339-4032, E-mail: [email protected] Abstract: Passenger service time mainly depends on numbers of passenger boarding and alighting, and fare collection process. Understanding the impact of fare collection with multiple fare media helps to reduce the variation of passenger service time. This paper has attempted to study the effect of existence of multiple fare media for fare collection purpose on passenger service time. It is natural that the IC card payment and commuting passes consume least time for fare payment processing. However, when bus rider uses exact required coin, its marginal payment time is not significantly different with other fare media. Also, the predecessor’s fare payment process has no significant effect over the follower’s payment process. Thus, multiple fare media can embraces wide variety of users who can select fare media according to their ease and also supports implementation of complex fare policy including fare transfer policy. Key Words: Fare collection process, Fare media, Fare payment model, Passenger service time 1. INTRODUCTION The bus punctuality is the important factor for better performance of bus service and passenger’s satisfaction. Various causes of the bus schedule irregularities are delay due to traffic congestion as bus runs along with mixed traffic, bus dwelling at the bus stop for passenger boarding and/or alighting, and bus stoppage at signalized intersection etc. The greater portion of bus delay is accounted for bus dwelling time which is the time difference between the time bus arrives at the stop and the time bus leaves the stop. 1115 Journal of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, Vol.9, 2011 The bus dwelling time is highly variable component which mainly depends on the passenger service time i.e. numbers of passenger boarding and/or alighting, the type of fare collection processes and fare policies. The effect of the varying bus dwelling time at bus stop can propagate further at next bus stop there by resulting increase/decrease in delay. Furthermore, the situation worsens as bus miss the green light at traffic signal and it need to collect the accumulated passengers over delayed time at next stop. Then, bus can never grasp its scheduled time table along its route. Minimizing fare collection time is a key factor for the improvement of bus services through reduction of bus dwell time at bus stop. Other factors are numbers of door, configuration of bus, bus headways, bus stop spacing etc. The complex fare collection systems not only lengthen dwell time but also affect the passenger ease on the fare payment. Though the off board payment has been popular fare collection system in most Bus Rapid Transit system around the world, on board payment is prevalent fare collection system in most conventional bus systems around the world. It is to be noted that paying to the conductor is still common practice in developing and under developing countries. The fare media and fare collection process directly affect the passenger service. The availability of different fare media eases the wide range of passenger with different knowledge, abilities and purpose of travel as they can select fare media based upon their ease in use. However, the cost of fare collection for bus operator increases for making availability of different types of fare media. Also, it will affect the total time needed for the fare collection process at bus stop. The electronic fare collection system such as magnetic card, IC card, Credit/Debit card etc. has been effective in reducing passenger service time at bus stop subsequently reducing bus dwell time. Recently, Smart Card (IC) based on payment system, has been introduced by most of bus companies in Tokyo, Japan along with the existing methods of payment such as bus card, coins or cash payment and daily commutating passes. The variations in payment time differ for different types of payment methods. This research analyzed the effect of availability of multiple fare media for fare collection on passenger service time at bus stop. Understanding the impact of fare collection with multiple fare media helps to improve the variation of passenger service time which in turn reduces the overall variation in bus dwell time and thus maintains bus punctuality. Thus, the objectives of this research are: To quantify and compare the marginal payment time for each fare media in mixed fare collection process. To develop fare payment models considering multiple fare media 2. LITERATURE REVIEW The previous researches on dwell time include dwell time estimation for different scenarios and the factors affecting dwell time variation. In brief, almost all literature has considered numbers of boarding and alighting passengers as major factor contributing to bus dwell time. Guenthner and Sinha (1983) has determined dwell time per passenger as a function of the passenger boarding and alighting and later they used results to develop a procedure to determine the resulting bus delay and its effect on operating speed, ridership, and ultimately on route performance. Further researches on dwell time tried to reflect the effects of fare collection system, bus type (low floor bus, number of doors and size), effect of standee, special conditions (lift operation for wheel 1116 Journal of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, Vol.9, 2011 chaired passenger, etc) . Guenthner and Hamat (1988) considered the nine different fare type and payment methods, and applied regression analyses to determine independent equations for the boarding and alighting times as a function of the number of passengers at a stop. The advancement in Intelligent Transportation System has offered new enhanced options either in fare collection process or data collection process. Dueker et al. (2004) analyzed bus dwell times that use archived automatic vehicle location (AVL)/automatic passenger counter (APC) data from TriMet reported at the level of individual bus stops. The determinants of dwell time included passenger activities (boarding and alighting), bus schedule adherence, lift operations, low floor bus, passenger friction, time of day, bus route type etc. Similarly, Rajbhandari, et al. (2003) investigated the impact of boarding and alighting passengers, the effect of standees, time of day and service type on dwell time using data collected from an archived database using Automatic Passenger Counter (APC) through regression modeling. The fare media and fare collection process can significantly influence public transport operational efficiency and passenger convenience. From the operator’s perspective the passes are optimal because they reduce the costs of fare collection and the costs of ticket control where as from the passengers’ perspective the more fare types the better since this enables passengers to minimize costs based on their specific travel patterns (Dorbritz et. al. (2009). In developed countries, the bus systems has eliminated the conductors for selling tickets to passengers in buses though developing countries are still practicing this method of fare collection. In most European urban areas off-vehicle ticket sales or self-service ticket control practiced where as in rural areas drivers are responsible for selling tickets (Dorbritz et. al. (2009). In North America, most bus systems generally use pay on boarding either using a farebox or ticket processing unit (TCRP Report 80 (5)). In Japan, most bus systems generally use a driver monitored a complex fare box to accept coin, equipped with smart card reader and magnetic card reader as well as driver monitored bus passes. The TCRP Report 80 (5) identifies two major disadvantages for paying on boarding: first, boarding time is increased and second, drivers can be distracted from their main responsibility, to operate the vehicle safely. Guenthner and Hamat (1988) observed no significant relation between the fare structure and the type of payment on dwell delays. Dorbritz et al. (2009) found that onboard ticket sale processes are relatively long and vary significantly and can impact a public transport line’s travel time and reliability significantly. Also, the fare structures such as general fare payment strategy (flat rate or distance based), pricing levels, and multiple fare media etc add the complexity in terms of both understanding and usage for bus rider, and design of fare collection unit for operator (TCRP Report 80). However, the fare collection process with multiple fare media and their influence on the bus delay has not yet been studied. Hence, the objective of this research was to analyze the process of fare collection with mixed fare media and their impact on total dwelling process. 3. FARE COLLECTION SYSTEM With advancement of technology, wide varieties of fare collection media are available conventional type such as cash, paper ticket, pass card etc. to varieties of automated fare collection types such as Magnetic ticket, Smart card, Debit/Credit card etc. This study was 1117 Journal of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, Vol.9, 2011 conducted in Keio Bus in Tokyo and Kanachou Bus in Fujisawa. The available fare media in these two areas can be classified into IC card (PASMO, SUICA), Magnetic Card (Common bus card), Cash/coin and daily commuter passes.

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