Bus Patronage Change after Sustainable Bus Reform: A Nested Logit Approach with the Case of Seoul

Abstract

A nested logit model predicting the probabilities of commuters choosing three different modes were constructed to test the effect of the Seoul bus reform. Some empirical findings include the following. First, the Seoul BRT system contributed to increases in the patronage of bus over subway within the BRT catchment area (BCA). Second, commuters working in the BCA are more likely to choose to commute by bus than are people living in the BCA, which indicates that high accessibility to the BRT strongly influences workers who commute to their jobs to ride the bus. Third, percentage changes in the odds of choosing bus over subway were higher than those of choosing bus or subway over automobile for both BCAs, implying that the accessibility to the BRT contributed to inducing commuters to favor bus over subway.

Changes in Space Usage Behaviours after the Implementation of Seoul’s Bus Rapid Transit Project in Jongno Street: A Social Data Analysis

“…In addition, due to an increase in incomes per capita, the number of privately owned vehicles has increased, resulting in frequent occurrences of traffic congestion. To promote the use of public transport, Seoul launched a large-scale bus system reform in July 2004, which changed the privately managed bus operation system to a public cooperative system that comprehensively manages routes, schedules and bus fares (Jun et al, 2015). For example, the city promoted user convenience by introducing a Smart Pay Card that integrated buses and the metro into the distance-based fare system.…”

“…Further, they can reduce the number of cars in the city, which, in turn, reduces CO2 emissions (Combs & Rodríguez, 2014). Various studies have examined the different aspects of BRT implementation, including BRT's ability to increase real estate values (Cervero & Kang, 2011;Rodríguez & Mojica, 2009), measurements of BRT ridership (Deng & Nelson, 2011;Jun et al, 2015;Salon, Wu, & Shewmake, 2014), changes in land use following the establishment of a BRT (Bocarejo S. & Oviedo H., 2012) and issues of BRT-centred urban development (Thomas & Deakin, 2008).…”