[sustran] integration of public transport thoughts

[SUSTRAN Resource Centre]

Dear sustran-discussers

I am finalising a paper for a conference. I am keen to get some feedback on
one paragraph which deals with some ideas on public transport integration
that I have been mulling over (inspired in part by writings by Paul Mees,
Felix Laube and Rob Cervero).
 
Here is the paragraph: (keep in mind that the paper is about low-income and
middle-income cities, not rich ones)

"Improved integration of public transport, where there is coordination in
the planning and scheduling of all operators' routes to maximise the
potential for easy transfers and allow random destinations to be served,
also offers great benefits at relatively low cost (Laube, 1995). This is
especially so for cities where public transport has already withered to
some extent. Integration appears to be much more important in cities where
the level of public transport service is low than in cities where public
transport is popular and plentiful (Mees, 2000). In cities with a very
dense network of routes with high frequency services we could say that
there is "automatic integration" even without formalised, regulated
integration. In this situation, passengers can usually transfer from
service to service without great delay (although there will be a price
penalty). Such "automatic integration" has long been the situation in many
low-income cities, such as in the inner areas of Metro Manila where the
network of jeepney and bus routes is very dense and the frequency of
service on most routes is very high. However, in cities like the Klang
Valley or (to a lesser extent) Bangkok the network of services has become
rather sparse with low frequencies on most bus routes. This makes
transferring from one service to another very unattractive so that only
"captive" riders will do so. And in middle-income Asian cities with cheap
motorcycles easily available, there are very few captive riders. In this
context, more formal integration of the public transport system has become
vital."

I am hoping to develop these ideas further into a fully-fledged paper and
would appreciate feedback and suggestions of relevant references. In
particular, I would like feedback on this idea of "automatic integration"
and on the notion that integration was not so vital in the past but has
become a pressing need in such cities as Kuala Lumpur where the public
transport network has become sparse and infrequent and where there is now
fierce competition from private modes.
 
Paul


A. Rahman Paul BARTER
SUSTRAN Resource Centre
Information services for the Sustainable Transport Action Network
for Asia and the Pacific (the SUSTRAN Network)
sustran at po.jaring.my,  http://www.malaysiakini.com/sustran