Calculating the speed of city bus trips: The case of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Calculating the speed of city bus trips: The case of Ljubljana, Slovenia

Summary/Abstract: In promoting the use of public transport, an understanding of the passengers’ perspective on the provided service plays an important role. A series of factors influence people’s selection of transport mode, among which the competitiveness of travel time, or travel speed, is vital. Thanks to the widespread use of electronic payment systems, data collected through user validation can be used to calculate this speed. Thus, the actual trips made can be used to estimate their speed. This study focused on the Ljubljana bus system to analyse all trips made on a typical day. The input and output trip data were used to calculate the distance travelled, and the time and speed of the trips. In addition, an estimate was also made of how quickly the distances travelled by bus could have been travelled by bicycle or on foot. The findings showed that the speed of the bus trips analysed depends on the length of the journey: it increases with longer journeys. Bicycles are generally faster for all distances, but they become a less acceptable choice for longer distances. With regard to distances shorter than 2 km, in terms of speed, walking is competitive on only a few routes. The analyses performed using the data collected through the electronic service payment system provided useful insight into the efficiency of the public transport system from the passenger perspective, which in the future may prove useful in planning system improvements.

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