EMBARQ India The World Resources Institute www.embarqindia.org

Table of Contents .................................................................................................. 2

Introduction ......................................................................................................... 3

Field based surveys ............................................................................................... 5 Bus occupancy surveys .................................................................................................................................. 5

Occupancy levels ................................................................................................................................................... 5 Survey template .................................................................................................................................................... 7 Stop selection and design ................................................................................................................................. 8 Stop Selection ......................................................................................................................................................... 9

Boarding alighting surveys ........................................................................................................................ 10 Recording data .................................................................................................................................................... 10 Survey template .................................................................................................................................................. 11 Team Size: ............................................................................................................................................................ 12 Selection of Buses ............................................................................................................................................ 13

Passenger interviews ................................................................................................................................... 15 Survey design ....................................................................................................................................................... 15 Sample size selection ........................................................................................................................................ 18 Sampling methods ............................................................................................................................................. 18 Questionnaire Design ....................................................................................................................................... 19

Technology based surveys ................................................................................... 20 ETM Data Analysis......................................................................................................................................... 20 GPS Data Analysis .......................................................................................................................................... 21

Appendix: Sample passenger survey format ........................................................ 26

Public transport companies are in general concerned with the travel patterns, travel behaviour, ways to increase ridership etc. Surveys – both field based and technology based surveys can be administered to gain more understanding of these issues.

Field based surveys include observational surveys and passenger interviews. Observational surveys are conducted to understand the behaviour of subjects without any specific response from the subjects. They are merely observed as they perform the normal activities. Examples of observational surveys include traffic counts (boarding and alighting counts, vehicle counts etc), transport inventory surveys etc. Observational surveys can be used to corroborate the results of passenger surveys. For example, traffic counts can be used to validate the results of an Origin-Destination survey. While observational surveys measure the system as it currently exists; many times it is necessary to understand the changes in travel behaviour due to changes in the operating systems. In such cases it is necessary to conduct passenger surveys. Passenger surveys have been the main stay of many successful public transport agencies especially on-board and intercept surveys1. Demographic and socio-economic surveys, perception surveys, attitude surveys etc are some examples of passenger surveys. Surveys can serve many purposes:

They might describe existing conditions. Example –occupancy surveys

They might seek to establish causal explanations of conditions at any

given time. Example – passenger surveys

1 Schaller, Bruce (2005), TCRP Synthesis 63: On-board and intercept transit survey techniques, Transportation Research Board

Boarding alighting surveys

Bus occupancy surveys

Passenger opinion surveys

Mystery traveler surveys

Vehicle quality audits

Field Global Positioning System (GPS)

Electronic Ticketing Machine (ETM)

Smart Cards

Transponders

Technology

They might be used to predict future

conditions. Example – travel demand models

They might be used to measure the effects of changes. Example – before

and after surveys

The choice of survey method is dependent on the purpose for which it is being carried out. With the increase in the use of technology, data can be automatically obtained by transit agencies through the use of these technologies. Electronic Ticketing Machines (ETM’s) which are gaining popularity can be used to obtain temporal or spatial variation in ridership, information about type of passenger (student, pass user, senior citizen) etc. Similarly, Global Positioning Systems (GPS), smart cards, transponders etc can also be used to obtain information about transit and passenger characteristics. This report discusses in brief both field based as well as technology based survey techniques. In addition examples of the type of analysis that can be performed using this data is also discussed.

Occupancy surveys measure the number of persons in every vehicle passing by a point. Vehicle occupancy surveys are used for a variety of applications; traffic engineers use vehicle occupancy data to calculate person delays and also in transport modelling, transit planners use vehicle occupancy data to identify routes that need service expansion2, etc. Bus occupancy surveys are very helpful in identifying sections of high demand corridors and corridor throughput. Another important advantage of BOS is that it can be used for service optimization; BOS allows us to determine the number of buses required on the corridor or along sections of the corridor and thus allow operators to serve demand. Bus occupancy surveys can be conducted in three ways:

Roadside observer – a person is standing by the roadside and monitors

every bus and the occupancy in each bus

Moving observer – the observer travels in another vehicle to calculate

occupancy in every bus traveling in that section

Video surveillance – a video camera mounted along the roadside records

the movement of vehicles which can then be used to calculate the

occupancy of buses.

When standing at a location, the buses passes by quite swiftly and hence it would not be possible to count the exact number of passengers in the bus. For this reason, the relative levels of occupancy on the bus are noted. Empty, half-full, full, standing and crowded are the five levels of occupancy that need to be noted (for urban buses). They correspond to:

2 Lehman centre for transportation research (2005), Vehicle occupancy data collection methods

EMPTY – less than 10 passengers

HALF FULL – 10 to 30 passengers

FULL – up to 5 standing passengers

STANDING – 5 to 20 standing passengers

CROWDED – more than 20 standing passengers

BOS usually measures the occupancy of all buses crossing a location. A sample BOS survey template is shown in the figure below. The observer will note down the time the bus passes him/her, the bus number, vehicle registration and the occupancy status (tick the appropriate one).

Date: Enumerator Name:

Route:

Bus Stop: Direction: CBD-> Suburb / Suburb -> CBD

Shift: 6am - 2pm / 2pm - 10 pm

Empty Half - Full Full Standing Crowded

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Sl# Time Bus Number Vehicle Registration #

Occupancy Status

BOS should ideally be conducted on as many stops along the route as possible. However, manpower limitations for the surveys restrict the number of stops which can be covered by the survey.

Team Design

The team size is determined by the number of stops to be surveyed and the hours of operation and the number of directions being surveyed. The hours of operation determine the number of shifts required.

Case study: Bus occupancy survey in NWKRTC to compare NWKRTC and the Bendre Nagara Sarige In order to evaluate the performance of NWKRTC’s intercity bus service (between Hubli and Dharwad), a set of surveys including a BOS survey was conducted in October 2012. Between the two cities, in addition to NWKRTC, a private operator called Bendre Nagara Sarige operates as well. When conducting the BOS, the occupancy was noted for both NWKRTC and Bendre Nagara Sarige. The graph below compares the occupancy between Bendre Nagara Sarige and NWKRTC. It is clear that the majority of the buses operated by Bendre Nagara Sarige are running to capacity (Only 24% of buses with less empty or half full passengers) as opposed to NWKRTC, where a large proportion of buses are either half full or empty (48%). A simple conclusion from this is that NWKRTC is providing excess supply along the section that has been measured.

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NWKRTC bus occupancy Bendre bus occupancy

Empty Half full Full Standing Crowded

Consider for example that buses have to be surveyed at four locations for 16 hours and in both directions. The total number of surveyors required is 16.

As mentioned earlier, the survey requires 4 persons per stop, therefore depending on the workforce available, the number of stops is to be decided. The stops should be selected so as to approximately form equal sections along the route. The illustration below demonstrates the spatial selection of stops based on the number of surveyors available.

Alternately in the surveyors available are limited but more locations need to be surveyed, the survey can be split into multiple days. For example three identified stops can be surveys on three consecutive weekdays. As long as the survey days

Number of locations

Number of directions

Number of shifts

Number of surveyors

4 locations

2 directions

2 shifts 16

surveyors

chosen are similar (weekdays), this method can produce fairly accurate results and is an acceptable compromise.

Boarding alighting surveys measure the number of persons getting on and off of a bus at each bus stop. This is an on-board survey which requires the observer to be seated within the bus; one observer for each door in the bus. The observer records the number of passengers that have boarded and alighted at each stop along with the time of arrival at each stop. This survey can be used for:

Determining the load profile of a trip

Identifying the main activity centers along the route on which the bus

plies.

In order to record data, it is recommended that the surveyors seat themselves on the seat right behind the door. This gives them a clear view of the boarding and alighting passengers.

Monday

Stop 1

Tuesday

Stop 2

Wednesday

Stop 3

Additional Instructions to surveyors 1. Synchronize Watches – At the start of the day, make sure watches of all

team members are showing the same time. When the shift changes, new

team members should match watches to leaving team members

2. When starting a new sheet, make sure to fill out header information first

3. Recording is for all buses on all routes!

4. It might be a good idea to have a spare surveyor to fill in for people who

might need to take breaks

5.

Date: Enumerator Name :

Team: A / B / C / D

Trip Number:

Door: FRONT / BACK

Shift

Route:

Bus Registration #

Stop# Stop Name Time Boarding

Passengers Alighting

Passengers

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5

The number of surveyors required for boarding alighting surveys depends upon the number of buses that need to be surveyed, the number of doors in the bus (one per bus) and the span of operation (span divided by 8 hours gives the total

Case study: Boarding Alighting Surveys for NWKRTC conducted in Hubli Dharwad The intercity bus services between Hubli and Dharwad were evaluated to identify passenger loading patterns on the route. Boarding and alighting surveys were done at different time of the day to determine passenger loading variation through the day and for identifying peak sections. The different trips correspond to trips starting from Dharwad towards Hubli starting at 10:52, 08:55, 15:00 and 17:15 respectively. The passenger loading pattern for peak hours and non-peak hours can be distinguished and difference in passenger volumes boarding the buses at different times of the day. Also peak demand sections like Unkal cross to Old Bus Station (OBS) can be easily identified. A similar analysis can be done by using ETM data for the individual trips; this is discussed later in the report.

number of shifts). It is recommended that the entire span of operation be surveyed so that both peak and off peak durations are monitored.

Consider for example that 2 buses are being surveyed and the buses have 2 doors each. If the span of operation is 16 hours, then the total number of surveyors required is 8

At least two buses need to be surveyed in each shift, implying that at least four teams per route per day are required to complete the survey. The survey should cover both directions of the route and hence the selection of the buses to survey is important. Two teams team A and team B working in tandem in each shift can select one of the options presented below.

Option 1

Both teams can start simultaneously from the opposite ends of the route, thus ensuring that both directions on the route are covered. For a given route OR (origin) to DE (destination), the two teams can start the first shift simultaneously.

Team A starts from the Origin O

Team B starts from the Destination D

Number of doors on bus

Number of buses

Number of shifts

Total number

of surveyors

2 doors/bus

2 buses 2 shifts 8

surveyors

Option 2

In the second option, if starting from the destination is not possible for a team B, another method can be adopted. For such a case the second team B can start from OR 1 hour after team A has started from OR. The delay time can also be taken equal to the travel time on the route. For example, if we assume the travel time for a route to be 1 hour, the following strategy can be used Each team starts 1 hour apart

Team A starts from Origin(O) at 6am

Team B starts from Origin(O) at 7am

Additional Instructions to surveyors 1. Do not Switch Seats – This will make it confusing to analyze data

2. Synchronize Watches – At the start of the day, make sure watches of all team

members are showing the same time. When the shift changes, new team

members should match watches to leaving team members

3. When starting a new sheet, make sure to fill out header information first

4. Similar to bus occupancy surveys, it might be a good idea to have a spare

surveyor to fill in for people who might need to take breaks

5.

The end user of the bus service is the commuter and understanding the view of the passenger is an important input to improving service quality in any transit system. For the purpose of understanding travel behaviour and user preferences, passenger interviews or opinion surveys are conducted. These surveys can be conducted by various means:

On-board surveys

Intercept surveys

Telephone surveys

Web-based surveys

Mail surveys

However on-board and intercept surveys are preferred over other methods primarily because of its ability to reach the targeted population and the quality of responses. The surveys can be custom created to cover a variety of topics including customer travel patterns, travel behaviour, demographic characteristics, customer satisfaction and other attitudes, reasons for using transit and ways to attract increased ridership. Care has to be taken while interpreting the responses since it is highly subjective and the quality of information is dependent on a number of factors including the attitude of the interviewer and the respondent.

There is no set format to designing the interview. Passenger interviews must be objectively designed. The outputs of the interviews act as inputs for further analysis and planning exercise for the agency. The responses can be used in the following applications to improve service.

Route planning

Long-range planning

Schedule planning

Modeling

Changes in existing system elements

As mentioned earlier, the survey format depends primarily on the nature of evaluation of the service intended by the transport authority. However, the most frequent enquiries are made to determine the travel pattern and behaviour which include questions about origin and destination (OD survey) and the activities producing the trip or trip purpose. The travel pattern of passenger is an important input for route and schedule planning for authorities. Other reasons for conducting passenger surveys may include assessing customer satisfaction levels of the levels of service provided of frequency and adequacy of buses on a particular route. In addition user opinions about intangible attributes of the service like cleanliness, comfort, design, route information and aesthetics can also be covered. Mode shift surveys and stated preference surveys (willingness to shift) can determine the volumes and reasons for commuter’s choice of a

particular mode. The results can be used to make the bus system more attractive to such users so that they prefer the bus system over other modes and can in turn lead to increase in ridership. The table below summarizes the reasons for the transport authority to conduct passenger surveys and the corresponding questions to be included in the survey format. Some of the most common questions in a passenger interview include:

Leg wise OD details(both access and egress)

Travel time involved in each leg of journey

Waiting time at bus stop if any

Purpose of the trip

Age of respondent

Occupation of respondent

Case study: Passenger Interviews for determining mode shift in Gulbarga for NEKRTC The introduction of the new bus service ‘Nruptunga’ in November 12 provided commuters in the city of Gulbarga an additional option for mobility. The revived services started by the NEKRTC had seen a steep rise in ridership in the first month of realization. To capture the travel behavior of passengers and to understand the mode from which they shifted to the new service, a passenger survey was conducted. This survey can be used by the organization to understand the potential for public transport. The complete survey format is presented in the appendix. The survey was structured to find out the new public transit riders that were attracted by the improvements in service levels and augmentation of the brand new fleet. The surveys were conducted on-board with a healthy proportion of 45% female respondents. Some of the results of the survey are presented in the study. The figure below shows the trip purpose for the interviewed passengers.

The figure shows the mode used by the interviewed passenger’s pre implementation of the augmented fleet by the NEKRTC (earlier fleet size-17 buses, post augmentation- 50 buses). The interviews revealed that 57% of the current users were existing users, but the bus system had facilitated 43% users to shift from other modes. The predominant mode that has been captured was the auto rickshaw users which comprised 35% of the total current users. In addition, some bicyclists now used the bus for trips initially completed by cycle.

Home 37%

School 21%

Work/ Related

15%

Shopping /Market

9%

Social Visit 7%

Other 11%

Walk 1%

bicycle 6%

auto 35%

bus 57%

car 0%

2-wheeler 1%

The sample size selection process does not have any particular framework to compute the exact sample size for any survey. However the sample size selected should be in accordance with the study population. The study population can be defined as the specific population which needs to be covered by the survey. For example a general customer satisfaction on agency communications would define all bus users as the study population. However, if a survey on waiting time and frequency on a particular route is undertaken, the commuters of the particular route constitute the study population. The second factor restricting the sample size is the availability of manpower to conduct the surveys. Therefore the sample size should try to cover maximum number of respondents in the available resources to get more accurate results from the survey.

A number of scientific sampling methods can be employed for selecting the respondents for the survey. The most commonly used methods have been briefly explained below. Simple Random Sampling: In this method, every commuter has an equal chance of being chosen as a respondent. No set parameters are selected for choosing the respondents; thereby selections are made in a completely random manner. However in surveys, interviews are bound to be biased in choosing the respondents and secondly the method lacks the ability to reflect the actual composition of the study population. Systematic Sampling: The method relies on arranging the target population according to some ordering scheme and then selecting elements at regular intervals through that ordered list. It involves a random start and selecting the ‘n’th element from the start point. For an on-board survey, this could imply selecting every 4th boarding to be chosen as a respondent. The method is highly efficient and is applied in a number of fields. Stratified Sampling: It involves breaking up the sample into different strata or layers and independently selecting samples in each stratum randomly. The classification of strata can be in terms of sex, age of commuters or service strata (routes, type of service). In cases where the composition of the study population is known the selection of sample using this technique is highly recommended for obtaining accurate results. However, in many situations application of such techniques is not practical, and the usual method adopted unconsciously is termed as ‘convenience based sampling’ or opportunity sampling. Without any specific sampling technique applied (or even if simple random sampling is applied) there is a high probability that the surveyors will be attracted by people who are friendly and/or are similar to the surveyor. The surveyors should be asked to try and have an equal sample of men and women of all age groups.

The format of the survey should be very focused to the useful information extracted from the exercise. The questionnaire should be therefore short and to the point. The reason for conducting interviews and corresponding questions to be included in the structure have been presented earlier in figure . If the survey design is very long, the respondents tend to get impatient and hesitant in answering questions which lead to inaccurate results. Questions pertaining to privacy of passenger should be avoided. Also some questions make the passenger hesitant (Name, income etc) and should not be included unless absolutely necessary. The format should be such that the average time spent for each interview does not exceed 10 minutes. The questions should be clear and objectively presented, so the respondent is presented with a limited but exhaustive number of options to choose the answer from. Open ended questions should be avoided as far as possible. Intangible aspects should be captured by asking the passenger to rate the parameter on a scale of 1 to 5, wherein the former could correspond to very bad and latter to very good. Similarly opinions could be captured by rating them from strongly disagree to strongly agree

Additional Instructions to surveyors 1. Try to have an equal sample of Men, Women and Students

2. Do not stay on the same bus the whole day; Switch buses after 2-3

stops

3. Try to complete survey within 10 minutes; passengers often get

impatient otherwise

4. Interview passengers travelling in both directions

ETM data which records the sale of each ticket is a very useful tool for analysis. ETM data generally provides the following information:

Route number

Trip number

Number of passengers

Origin (Stage or stop)

Destination (Stage or stop)

Time stamp of ticket sold

ETM machines record the sale of each ticket and some machines can also note down the number of pass passengers as well. This data can be used in a variety of applications. As an example, ETM data can be used to identify the high activity bus stops. The figure below shows the boarding and alighting at each bus stop along the route. The high intensity stops have been marked in the figure. This analysis can be used by public transport agencies to create skip-stop services. These high activity stops can become stops for such a skip-stop service.

Similarly ETM data can be used to identify alternate service patterns. The figure below shows the distances travelled by passengers over a week. It is quite obvious that the most travelled distance is 21-23 kilometre (the full route length). This case might be ideal to have non-stop services between the two ends as well as a local service that stops at intermediate stops.

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Bus Stop BOARDING-UP ALIGTING-UP

ETM data can also be used to identify high demand sections and operate short-turn routes. The figure below shows the load profile of a bus trip. The box drawn in the figure shows the high demand section. In order to improve the service quality, the frequency of this section can be improved by operating a short-turn.

ETM data can be very useful for service analysis. But it is important to remember that in many ETM only stages are coded and not stops that information is not available for each stop. Some ETM machines do not record pass uses, if the percentage of pass users is very high the data will not be representative. In such cases, field surveys might be required.

GPS devices mounted on buses, can track them in real time and are often a key source of data which can be used to make a number of useful analyses. The GPS

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provider usually also provides a platform to do standard analysis and generate common reports that summarize the runs e.g. daily over-speeding report, daily on-time performance report etc. But the real utility of the GPS data lies in the use of the raw data generated by the machine which can be used to perform a variety of analysis to get a better picture of the operational characteristics. The key data outputs from a GPS device are spatial positioning and time at location. Monitoring Schedule Adherence: The GPS data can be used to compare the scheduled bus runs to the actual trips made by the bus. Usually such an analysis reveals the sections at which the buses fail to adhere to the schedule. Similarly, it can pinpoint the periods of the day when the schedules needs to be adjusted so as to better reflect the on-road conditions. The variation in the arrivals of the buses at a particular location can also be determined. Measuring Travel Times: Most public transit agencies use a constant travel time for the entire day to arrive at a schedule for the route. In reality there is a marked difference in travel times during the peak and non-peak hours of the day. The GPS data can also tell if the buses are stopping at the specified B/A locations (bus-stops and terminals). Also, some stops with high boarding and alighting add to delays and hence dwell time at such stops can be measured and incorporated in the schedules. However, one the simplest analysis that can be performed using GPS data is to estimate average travel time of buses at different sections of the route at different times of the service. GPS Data is very useful to find the causes and solutions to questions like:

a. Is the service starting and ending at the scheduled time?

b. Are the buses reaching and stopping at the designated locations at the

specified time?

c. To what extent the buses are able to follow the schedules?

d. What are the locations and periods where buses fail to adhere to the

schedules?

e. What is the variation in peak/off-peak in travel times?

f. What is the In-city/Out-city speed pattern?

The solutions to all these issues can go a long way in preparation of an improved schedule that is able to provide a far improved level of service to the passengers. When used as a part of an ITS framework, the GPS data feed can be used to provide real-time running information to the passengers.

Case study: GPS data analysis Bhubaneshwar It can be observed that although bus schedule is evenly planned through the day, poor adherence to schedules between 8 to 10 AM and between 8:30 and 10 PM has been recorded. This translates to unreliable headways along the route and may lead to high waiting time for passengers especially during peak hours. Therefore for improving the service levels along the route, it is necessary to reschedule the buses taking into account the increased travel time during peak hours.

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Schedule Adherence Route 405

Actual Scheduled

Bus#: OR-02-BH-9277

The above picture compares the scheduled and actual arrival patterns clearly showing high deviation from schedules. The new schedules, shown below, were prepared considering the variation in travel times at different location at different times and they proved to be more reliable and easier to follow.

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Difference Scheduled Actual

Bus Arrivals at Palaspalli in the UP Direction (Route

Bus Sequence

Time

The gaps in the above diagram represent the ‘missed’ bus stops either due to deviation from route or stopping far from the designated location.

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UP Direction Buses - Route 405

Enumerator Name: Date:

Time:

Route: Survey Number:

Subject Details

Sex: Male Female Trip Details

Type: Home School Work/Work Related Shopping/Market

Leisure/Recreation Social Visit Other

Frequency: ‘One Time Trip’ ‘Few times a month’ ‘Few times a week’

‘Daily’ ‘More than once a day’ Earlier Mode of Travel for trip: Walk Bicycle Auto Bus

Car 2-wheeler

Earlier Frequency by bus: ‘One Time Trip’ ‘Few times a month’ ‘Few times a week’

‘Daily’ ‘More than once a day’ Other Trip Details

Method of Payment: Cash If Cash, what was the amount? ____ Pass If Pass, what type? Daily Weekly Monthly Annual Student Senior

Bus Experience Ratings

Please rate the following aspects of Bus Travel on a scale of 1-5 (1-Worst, 5-Best) Comfort

1 2 3 4 5 N/A

Bus Frequency

1 2 3 4 5 N/A

Cleanliness

1 2 3 4 5 N/A

Origin Destination

1. Where are you coming from?

Home Work or Work Related Place School/College Shopping/Market Leisure/Recreational Social Visit

2. Where is this located? (street address, or nearest street intersection, or nearest street, or landmark)

3. At which bus stop did you get on the bus? ____________________________________

4. How did you get from the

beginning destination to the bus stop you used to board this bus? Walk Bicycle Auto Taxi 2-wheeler Car Bus

1. At which bus stop will you get off

the bus? _____________________________________

2. How will you get from the bus stop to your final destination? Walk Bicycle Auto Taxi 2-wheeler Car Bus

3. What type of place is your final

destination? Home Work or Work Related Place School/College Shopping/Market Leisure/Recreational Social Visit

4. Where is this located? (street

address, or nearest street intersection, or nearest street, or landmark)

Bus Punctuality

1 2 3 4 5 N/A

Ease of Transfers

1 2 3 4 5 N/A

Travel Time 1 2 3 4 5 N/A

Information System 1 2 3 4 5 N/A

Safety 1 2 3 4 5 N/A

Overall Quality of buses 1 2 3 4 5 N/A