Optimal frequency of public transport in a small city: examination of a simple method

Disa Asplund ()
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Disa Asplund: Swedish National Road & Transport Research Institute (VTI), Postal: Dept. of Transport Economics, P.O. Box 55685, SE-102 15 Stockholm, Sweden

No 2021:9, Working Papers from Swedish National Road & Transport Research Institute (VTI)

Abstract: This study identifies the welfare optimal frequency of a scheduled public transport service from a methodological perspective, exploring what methods are more suitable for the case of bus services in a small city. The study examines how well various versions of the square-root rule, including established and newly proposed versions, estimate the optimal bus frequencies in the case city of Uppsala, versus estimates generated by a more comprehensive partial equilibrium model. The results indicate that extending the square-root rule by including transfer time, as proposed here, is empirically important. Furthermore, the results indicate that the square-root rule, with this extension, can estimate optimal frequency in Uppsala surprisingly well, and may be suitable for bus lines with two-way demand in the range of 75–200 pax/h.

Keywords: Optimization; Public transport; Service frequency; Square-root rule (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H40 R41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 23 pages
Date: 2021-10-25
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-tre and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:vtiwps:2021_009

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