Assessing Integration of Bus Networks with Non-Motorised Access and Egress Modalities

Assessing Integration of Bus Networks with Non-Motorised Access and Egress Modalities Case Study: Bus Network Integration with Access and Egress Modalities in Amstelland-Meerlanden Master Thesis MSc Transport, Infrastructure and Logistics Delft University of Technology Judith Caroline Brand Assessing Integration of Bus Networks with Non-Motorised Access and Egress Modalities Case Study: Bus Network Integration with Access and Egress Modalities in Amstelland-Meerlanden Judith Caroline Brand In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Transport, Infrastructure and Logistics To be defended on Friday the 28th of August 2015, 15hr00, Lecture Room E Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology i ii Master Thesis Name Judith Caroline Brand Student number 1359835 Email [email protected] Programme MSc. Transport, Infrastructure and Logistics Specialisation Design Thesis Committee Chair Prof. Dr. ir. S. P. Hoogendoorn Delft University of Technology Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences Department of Transport and Planning Supervisors Dr. J.A. Annema Delft University of Technology Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management Department of Transport and Logistics Dr. ir. N. van Oort Delft University of Technology Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences Department of Transport and Planning External Supervisor Ing. B.S.C. Schalkwijk, MSc Stadsregio Amsterdam Department of Public Transport An electronic version of this document is available at http://repository.tudelft.nl iii iv You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go… ― Dr. Seuss, Oh, The Places You'll Go! v vi Preface Finally, it is done, and it feels good! While typing these final pages of my thesis, I can gratefully say that my years as a student are over. What a journey it was! Although these past years have not always been easy, they have helped me to achieve what am today: wiser, older, but most importantly, ready for a new start in a new country! Just like I was ready six months ago, for the final chapter of my studies, my ‘pièce de résistance’, my master thesis. People who went before me already warned me: it would be difficult, it would cause screams, frustration and anger, but it would all be worth it in the end. And before I started, I would always think they were wrong, that I would be fine. And I was, to be honest, up until the last month before handing in my green-light report. The stress kicked in, the doubts flooded my mind, and my emigration plans did not help bringing down the worries. But having passed the ‘point-of-no-return’, by achieving ‘green’ during the green light meeting, I can now agree with the advice of my friends: it did cause screams, I was angry at times (mostly at myself, although a slow laptop does not help…), and I had sleepless nights just thinking about how to process my thoughts to paper. Well, here I am, grateful that it is over, acknowledging that it was difficult but worth it, and yes, I can actually say that I am proud of my achievements. So, when you read this thesis, please remember the amount of blood, sweat, tears and litres of tea that were needed to create my ‘Magnum Opus’. So let me start of my ‘Thanks’ by thanking you, the reader of this thesis, for expressing interest in my research that took me a little over six months to complete. So here it goes, my thanks to everyone who contributed to this thesis in one way or another. I would like to start with my thesis committee, Serge Hoogendoorn, Jan Anne Annema, Niels van Oort and Bart Schalkwijk. Serge, thank you for your advice and thank you so much for allowing me to take some extra time when other matters were more important. Jan Anne, thanks for the good and constructive advice about my writing. I found it difficult to translate my thoughts to paper, and our meetings have helped me to translate these in such a way you, and now others, will hopefully understand what I intended to say. Niels, thank you for introducing me to Stadsregio Amsterdam, without that initial meeting in December, I would not be where I am now. Thank you for the great input and advice you gave me before and during my research. And finally, I’d like to thank Bart. Our weekly meetings really contributed to this thesis. Thank you for helping me determine not only the scientific side of issues addressed in this research, but also the political and practical considerations that needed to be taken into account. I really appreciate you reading everything I send you, and you helping me during the course of this research. I would like to thank everyone from Stadsregio Amsterdam who has proven to be helpful in the past couple of months. Thank you to everyone who was willing to answer my questions, both at random as well as in interviews. Many thanks as well to the external experts that have made time in their busy schedules to talk to me. Thanks to my mom and dad, for giving me the brains and the determination to finish this project, for allowing me to take my time during my studies and for supporting me financially, but more importantly supporting me morally. Thank you to my sister Lianne, for the much needed days where I could relieve my stress. A great thanks to all my other family members and my friends, who did not always fully understood the struggles but supported me with their texts, cards, and whose small talk helped me focus on other things than writing. I’d like to thank my future employer for offering me a job. It goes without saying that having something exiting to look forward to, helps tremendously, although procrastination was never an option as the result of the tight schedule (which I’m thankful for, really, and I am not at all jealous of my friends going on vacation during their research). vii I would like to thank the developers of Excel for my daily portion of 10 minutes of panic and frustration. No fear of the blue screen of death, but the dreaded ‘Excel ran out of resources while attempting to calculate one or more formulas’ really gave me that extra shot of adrenaline that I so desperately needed. I’d like to thank Bonnie, for facing the final month of our thesis battle together. Keeping each other on track, with great determination, sometimes a little less focus, and in the end nothing more to talk about other than our thesis (really, when you see each other every day, and your day consists of 8 hours of writing, your life gets really boring, which leaves nothing to talk about). Now that we are both graduating proves how well this worked. A thank you to Maartje, for our evening walks, though not as frequent as we promised each other in the beginning (oh the dreaded weather in the Netherlands). Thank you for proof reading my thesis. Also a major thank you to Elisabeth, Dieke and Liselot, for proof reading this thesis, and correcting my English mistakes (although not all made unintentionally, as I think the difference between ‘addition’ and ‘addiction’ is small when your thesis is all you can think about, and has thus become an addiction in itself). Right, I think with the end of this preface, we can all agree that writing in the quantitative sense of the word is not my biggest problem. The attentive reader might already have noticed the quote of Dr. Seuss. I can recommend everyone that is about to embark on the adventure of thesis writing and graduation, to read the book ‘The places you’ll go’. Although written for children, I think anyone that is about to start a new adventure, be it graduation, or, in my case now that I’ve finished my thesis, a move abroad, can relate to this masterpiece. With that, I’d like to finish this preface with some other wise words from the same book, as by finishing my life as a student, I’ll start my life as a Dutchie in the UK. You're off the Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So.... get on your way! Judith Caroline Brand Delft, the Netherlands, August 2015 viii Summary Introduction Demand for transportation is subject to change influenced by technological, spatial, societal and demographic aspects. The political environment, together with financial and spatial constraints limit the possibilities to address transport issues arising from growing demand through the construction of new infrastructure. Upgrading of existing services and improving integration over the entire trip chain are two options that can address these transport issues. However, there is a lack of (scientific) insights in the influence of service upgrades on the performance of the bus system, and a lack of (scientific) knowledge into the characteristics of the transport system that influence transport network integration. Hence, to be able to assess and improve integration in bus networks, insight is needed in: The differences in performance and effects between conventional and high quality bus services The causes and effects of network integration in Bus-NMT transport systems; The assessment of the performance of the entire transport chain as the result of transport network integration, considering the interaction of the transport network with its environment. To be able to address these issues, a framework, with which transport network integration can be assessed, has to be developed, leading to the research question: What are the main characteristics of the transport system and its environment that influence transport network integration, how do these characteristics relate to differences between conventional bus systems and high quality bus systems, and how can these characteristics be assessed using a framework? Transport Network Integration To be able to develop the assessment framework, insight is needed in the different concepts of integration and the elements and characteristics of the transport system.

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