Qu for those doing transport planning

[142094]

Just thinking of ideas for my 3rd year dissertation, what I'm looking at is accessibility to York railway station by public transport, and ways to encourage greater public transport use and lessen the use of private cars. Anyone who has done a transport related degree, what was the title/basis of your dissertation?

 

[bluenoxid]

*Cackles at the 105 page, 25,000 word behemoth*

Mine is well above your level so don't worry and I am required to keep schtum on the topic because of research concerns. Make sure it is manageable and you can get something out of it. Standing there and counting stuff is much easier than interviewing people but never underestimate the power of an online questionnaire.

 

[sprinterguy]

I'll be spending next year on placement, so I won't be starting my dissertation until September 2011, but I've started to put some groundwork together, "putting up the scaffolding" as it were: It seems that my University takes a fairly open approach to dissertation subjects, with just a little prompting towards particular subjects, so we're pretty much left up to our own devices:

I'm planning on working on something based around assessing an effective means to increase the feasibility of light rail operations in the West Midlands (focused around Midland Metro of course), to increase the attractiveness and visibility of the system to potential users and put it more on a par with the Manchester and Sheffield systems. Also how this can be linked into supporting suitable land use policies, such as maintaining and developing a network of local service centres insted of just hauling passengers into and out of the city centre, and integration with other public transport operations.

I've got a soft spot for light rail, so it should be fun! I'm hoping that I'll be able to get my hands on some suitable figures to help me out whilst I'm working with Centro over the next year.

And questionnaires are DEFINITELY a great help to these types of projects.

 

[142094]

A questionnaire will probably be forming a large part of the work, I have about 3 weeks spare time before I start work so hopefully should get a few thousand done at least.

 

[DaveNewcastle]

Just thinking of ideas for my 3rd year dissertation, what I'm looking at is accessibility to York railway station by public transport, and ways to encourage greater public transport use and lessen the use of private cars. Anyone who has done a transport related degree, what was the title/basis of your dissertation?

Only just seen this, sorry.
I don't have experience of a comparable transport study, but some of the key principles apply across markets, and I might be able to help there.
Most studies are either analyses of existing users/consumers current habits(eg how often do you come here, where from, how much do you spend, what would make you come more often?), or the barriers to their use/consumption (eg how easy was your travel, how easy to pay, did you need childcare, did you need better access, did you see signs to any competing supply?).

What makes a truly outstanding analysis is a survey of people who do NOT use/consume the product/service but who could. This involves much more care in selecting interviewees - you need to determine that they really are in the target group, and that there are NO barriers to their use/consumption of the product/service.
Then, you need to probe carefully to find out why don't and wouldn't use the facility/product.

This give a much deeper understanding into the success of new markets or the uptake of new services.
In your example, you wouldn't want to publish results which only showed what would assist people who already use York station and its facilities; you'd want to get at those who currently COULD use it but, for whatever reasons, don't.

Hope that makes sense!

I wonder, will the City's Licensing of taxis come into your analysis?

 

[Mojo]

Like sprinterguy, I am going on placement next year and I hope this will give me some more inspiration and knowledge for something to do, but I am hoping to look at the use of railways in urban environments and how they could provide a low-cost solution to the problems of road vehicles in towns and cities.

 

[142094]

I've been in talk with York Council, they do a simple survey every year so I hope to expand on this. They currently say that around 60% of people get to the station by public transport, but want to get more people on PT. However I think they only interviewed around 300 people, I'm hoping to do at least a couple of thousand.

As you say it will be interesting to see why 40% of people don't use the buses and other things to get to the station. York has some decent bus services and the park and rides seem to do their job well. I might look at other ways to get people using buses more, going on the carrot and stick method. If they don't use them at present with the investment in new buses/park and ride etc, how about using the stick instead to see if this would have a response.

This give a much deeper understanding into the success of new markets or the uptake of new services.
In your example, you wouldn't want to publish results which only showed what would assist people who already use York station and its facilities; you'd want to get at those who currently COULD use it but, for whatever reasons, don't.

That's a very good point, and I'd like to see why more people don't use the railway but think that would take too long and a lot more time doing surveys that I've allowed. But I will be seeing why those 40% chose not to use public transport, which I don't think the council has done. Also fits quite nicely with the fact that with global warming etc, we encourage people to use the trains instead of cars/planes but in many cases as soon as they have left the station then that's that, not much more thought goes into onward travel.
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Like sprinterguy, I am going on placement next year and I hope this will give me some more inspiration and knowledge for something to do, but I am hoping to look at the use of railways in urban environments and how they could provide a low-cost solution to the problems of road vehicles in towns and cities.

Just saw your post after I'd finished mine! That would be an interesting topic, plenty of schemes around that fit the bill. Would be interesting to see the difference between systems such as trams and light rail and their effectiveness, if there is any difference.

 

[DaveNewcastle]

. . I'd like to see why more people don't use the railway but think that would take too long and a lot more time doing surveys that I've allowed. But I will be seeing why those 40% chose not to use public transport, which I don't think the council has done.

Yes, of course it will take longer, but if the survey doesn't allow you to learn anything about people who don't use the service, but who are the potential market if the reasons for not using the service are adjusted, then, sadly, the survey's findings will be sterile.
Even sader, that would put your results exactly where every other survey ends up, maybe being used and maybe not, but it wont have the necessary data to actually improve the take up of the proposed business!

Consider: if you extend existing surveys of current users from a few hundred to a few thousand, and with questions which focus better on the potential for improvement, you'll get some useful info.
If you start a new survey on just a hundred people who NEVER travel by rail, but who COULD, and really understand all of their thinking, perceptions, abilities, fears, habits and preferences, as well as their social and demographic info and their travel needs, then you'll also get some useful info.

Which of these 2 datasets will be most impressive to an investor in new facilities?

 

[Mojo]

Without living in York, I'd say the reason for people using private transport to York station is the fact that they either live too far away from the station to walk or cycle (or would get worn out if they did so), or the fact they do not live near a suburban railway station (if one even exists) to get them there.

 

[142094]

I see what you mean, so what I'll be doing is taking the original survey by the council, adding passengers:

thinking, perceptions, abilities, fears, habits and preferences, as well as their social and demographic info and their travel needs

about public transport to the station, and get some good results. I'm trying to focus on access to York station only, as it is a bit more relevant to some of my modules, rather than rail usage as a whole which could be applied across the country, if you see what I mean.
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Without living in York, I'd say the reason for people using private transport to York station is the fact that they either live too far away from the station to walk or cycle (or would get worn out if they did so), or the fact they do not live near a suburban railway station (if one even exists) to get them there.

York only has one suburban station, if you could call it that, at Poppleton (on the Harrogate line). The ones on the Scarbourough line were closed a few years back. So York is quite interesting as most public transport therefore has to be by bus. We're now seeing a lot more investment in cycling, so this would be good to look at as well.

 

[Mojo]

For the majority of people they would not consider travelling by bus as it is a completely inappropriate mode of transport, so I think unless people are willing to walk or cycle then public transport usage won't improve by that much to a city centre station, although they have limited scope for suburban stations in less well-off areas.

 

[142094]

York has quite a lot of congestion in the centre, due to some of the streets being pedestrianised and a lot of people trying to get into or through the centre from the ring road. Quite a lot of money has been spent on the bus services and infrastructure but still there is gridlock every weekday. Of course this isn't helped by the various roadworks that seem to start one after another.