PROPOSED INTEGRATED BICYCLE FEEDER MODE SERVICE ANALYSIS FOR BUS RAPID TRANSIT SYSTEM- A MULTINOMIAL LOGIT MODEL APPROACH

Abstract

Public transit plays a vital role in economic development for access to the commuters/travelers to the city centers of metropolitan cities of developing countries. Accessibility of public transit system is a prime factor faced by developing countries due to the lack of feeder services. Therefore, an attempt to improve the feeder services (with different modes i.e. as walking, bicycle, mini bus) is major importance. The present research focuses on new innovative ideas of bicycle as feeder mode with its three services i.e. Exclusive Bicycle Lane, Bicycle operation in mixed traffic with park & ride facility and Bicycle Sharing Service for Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) corridor of Ahmedabad city. The multinomial logit model was applied to develop the models. The findings from the study revealed that as income increases the preference to BMT-PR service increases over BSS and EBL service for their commuting purpose. The observations of age distribution shows with increase in age, the choice of EBL service over BSS and decrease BMT-PR service over BSS. Gender wise distribution indicated that preference to EBL service as well as BMT-PR service are higher among male groups compared with female groups. The observation of the study revealed that with increase in travel time, the respondents are more preferring BSS service over both EBL service and BMT-PR service. Same as travel distance increases will be more preference of BSS over EBL service and BMT-PR service by commuters. The output of this research can be extremely useful to increase ridership of public transit by integrating feeder service.