Sudhanshu Sekhar Das

Two-stage choice-based demand model for rural feeder service to the bus stop

ABSTRACT The paper documents an experience of developing a demand model for alternatives with dissimilar attributes in the context of transportation services. The work is demonstrated with reference to feeder service to the bus stop in rural India, where the attributes and physical levels of hypothetical feeder service and presently used modes, namely bicycle, and motorcycles, are highly dissimilar. A two-stage approach was adopted in which the first stage analysis included the development of an RPL model to obtain the WTP values of hypothetical feeder service. At this stage, only the attributes of various hypothetical feeder services were considered which were similar in nature. In the second stage, the number of variables describing the hypothetical feeder service was reduced judiciously using the knowledge obtained from stage I analysis and demand models were developed for two user groups, namely bicycle users and motorcycle users. The results indicate the need for improvement of qualitative attributes of feeder service, which are often neglected in emerging countries such as India. Although the results presented in the paper are case-specific, the experiences documented in this paper are expected to encourage transportation planners to follow a similar approach while developing demand models involving dissimilar alternatives.

A Simulation-Based Approach for Design of Rural Feeder Service with Fixed-Route Fixed-Schedule Form of Operation

In rural India, people are predominantly from low-income group with negligible private vehicle ownership. Therefore, it has become necessary to design suitable feeder service, as an alternative to walking or bicycling, for providing transportation linkage between village settlements and bus stops. Design of feeder service needs consideration of several aspects such as type of vehicle, selection of route, service frequency, and fare. As feeder service is designed for bus-stop catchments, a key issue is the starting point of the routes to bus stop. Travel behavior analysis is another important consideration as the selection of route, vehicle type, fare, etc., will influence the user cost. For rational estimation of user cost, it is necessary to understand trip maker’s willingness to pay (WTP) with respect to various attributes of rural feeder service. The operational viability is another key aspect required to be considered in the process of designing the feeder service. This chapter considers all the above-mentioned aspects while demonstrating a simulation-based approach for the design of rural feeder service to bus stop with fixed-route fixed-schedule form of operation. A rational approach for design of rural feeder service with due consideration to various aspects and its application to a study area are the two major components of the work.