Passengers’ activities during short trips on the London Underground

Abstract

The present study considers underground passengers and investigates the ways in which they spend their time during a trip of average length or shorter. Using a structured procedure that had been refined after a preliminary study, more than 1,700 passengers were observed in London. The results showed that even when the length of travel is very short (2–6 stops), underground passengers engage in several occupations, especially those involving the use of mobile Information and Communication Technologies. These occupations depend on the specific spatial and temporal conditions of the travel, as well as on gender and age. These results should be useful in designing travel services that enhance passengers’ experiences; they also suggest a criterion for comparing trips using different transportation modes (i.e., looking at the time point during the trip at which the ratio of active versus passive occupations changes)

Smart Devices and Travel Time Use by Bus Passengers in Vancouver, Canada

“…For waiting, we observe the entire duration because of its relatively short period of time. Another issue is that our observations do not record trip duration, as did Russell et al (2011) and Gamberini et al (2012).…”

“…The same study also found that as travel time increases, more passengers choose to read newspapers, browse the web using a smart device, or sleep. A study of passengers on the London Underground found that longer trips led passengers to engage in more active uses of time while shorter trips showed a higher rate of idling (Gamberini et al 2012). Time of day or day of the week also affected activity engagement of train or bus passengers (Bissell 2012).…”

“…Time of day or day of the week also affected activity engagement of train or bus passengers (Bissell 2012). Passengers on the London Underground were found to have increased levels of smart devices usage on weekday mornings when they were presumed to be commuting to work or traveling alone (Gamberini et al 2012).…”

“…Among the five studies using passive observations, three record duration (Ohmori and Harata 2008;Timmermans and Van der Waerden 2010; Van der Waerden, Timmermans, and van Neerven 2009) and two record only occurrences (Gamberini et al 2012;Russell et al 2011). Recording activity duration offers richer information on the time use but sacrifices sample size.…”

“…Presumably, the results are from trips longer than four minutes and occurred from the beginning to the end of a trip. In contrast, Gamberini et al (2012) used the first six stops, a period normally lasting for 15 minutes, as the observation time window. Although they observed 1,733 passengers, only 700 completed their trip within the first six stops.…”