IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transa/v40y2006i10p918-935.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Merging bus routes in Hong Kong's central business district: Analysis and models

Author

Listed:
  • Hwe, Siu Kei
  • Cheung, Raymond K.
  • Wan, Yat-wah

Abstract

A significant portion of the 200,000 people working in Hong Kong's central business district (CBD) relies on buses as their primary means of transport. During peak hours, nearly a thousand double-decker buses pour into a tiny area of 150Â ha. This causes traffic congestion and air pollution. Moreover, given that the flow is uni-directional (into the CBD in the morning and out of the CBD in the afternoon), the occupancy of buses in the CBD is actually low. In this paper, we propose to reduce traffic congestion and to increase bus occupancy by merging bus routes. We describe the peculiar situation of the CBD in Hong Kong and explain the necessary conditions for the possible success of merging routes. Our analysis shows that merging will lead to an overall benefit for all parties, including government, bus operators, and passengers. The actual merging decisions, which routes to merge and at what frequencies buses should run, are determined by a mathematical model. The model also shows quantitatively the benefits of merging routes and the impacts of other factors. The procedure that we follow and the model that we adopt can be applied to other CBD.

Suggested Citation

  • Hwe, Siu Kei & Cheung, Raymond K. & Wan, Yat-wah, 2006. "Merging bus routes in Hong Kong's central business district: Analysis and models," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 40(10), pages 918-935, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:40:y:2006:i:10:p:918-935
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965-8564(06)00040-1
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ian Parry, 2001. "Are Gasoline Taxes in Britain Too High?," Challenge, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(4), pages 67-81.
    2. Keeney,Ralph L. & Raiffa,Howard, 1993. "Decisions with Multiple Objectives," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521438834, April.
    3. Lucio Martins, Carlos & Vaz Pato, Margarida, 1998. "Search strategies for the feeder bus network design problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 106(2-3), pages 425-440, April.
    4. El-Hifnawi, M. B., 2002. "Cross-town bus routes as a solution for decentralized travel: a cost-benefit analysis for Monterrey, Mexico," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 127-144, February.
    5. World Bank, 2002. "Cities on the Move : A World Bank Urban Transport Strategy Review," World Bank Publications, The World Bank, number 15232.
    6. Gomez-Limon, Jose A. & Arriaza, Manuel & Riesgo, Laura, 2003. "An MCDM analysis of agricultural risk aversion," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 151(3), pages 569-585, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:40:y:2006:i:10:p:918-935. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Dana Niculescu). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/547/description#description .

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.