[sustran] Re: integration of public transport thoughts

[Naziaty Yaacob]

Dear Paul,

Automatic integration, as I see it is the availability of having a low
cost transfer to immediately go where you want to go. When I think of
it, I am appalled that once when I was in Penang in the early 70s,
getting around was so cheap by trishaws. The trishaw puller is respected
[now, they are regarded as drug addicts..]. It was an alternative mode
of transport for me to ply from my house at Island Park to Convent Green
Lane. Quite some distance away. It was cheap and accessible. [As you
know I am a crutch user]. 
There was a personalised service where trishaw was concerned. The
trishaw puller had a regular clientele and he was proud of his trishaw.
But now, the trishaws are only relegated to the inner city area of
Georgetown. The suburbs like Island Park, Island Glades are too
dangerous for trishaws to ply. Even in the Inner City, its too dangerous
as recently when I ride from Armenian Street to KOMTAR, the trishaw man
would rather ply against the traffic flow, rather than follow the one
way system traffic. 

Just my 2 cents worth of thoughts.

	-----Original Message-----
	From:	SUSTRAN Resource Centre [SMTP:sustran at po.jaring.my]
	Sent:	Friday, May 19, 2000 1:41 PM
	To:	sustran-discuss at jca.ax.apc.org
	Cc:	p.mees at architecture.unimelb.edu.au;
felix at central.murdoch.edu.au; robertc at uclink4.berkeley.edu
	Subject:	[sustran] integration of public transport
thoughts

	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