Effect of different passenger characteristics and bus types on boarding times at bus-stops

Abstract

Development of the public transport systems has a significant importance for a sustainable transportation. Especially, the importance of the busses are increasing day by day because of the ease of accessibility, comfort, etc. Comfortable, eco and user friendly busses should be preferred to increase the utilization of busses for the disabled and elder passengers and families with child of 0-6 ages. The aim of this study is calculate the boarding time of the elderly passengers, passengers with child (0-6 ages), passengers with strollers and other (typical) passengers in five different cities (İstanbul, Ankara, İzmir, Antalya and Gümüşhane) of Turkey; then examine and suggest solutions for encountered problems of those passengers. According to analyze results, the longest and shortest boarding times were obtained respectively, passengers with strollers and typical passengers. It was also determined from the results that midibuses, multiple stepped and stepless articulated were less effective for boarding operations with respect to stepless single unit and articulated busses. Results showed that passenger characteristics have great importance on boarding time as well as bus types.