Author(s)

S Lee & J Park

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to quantitatively measure the inconvenience associated with bus transfer both in terms of both money and time terms and to draw policy implications from the estimation. In Korea, most city buses are run by the private sector and one of the most salient characteristics of the Korean city bus system is the prevalence of winding bus routes, which could stem from patronage maximizing behavior of private bus companies and also from the anti-transfer lobby of local residents. In this paper, we provide the monetary values of travel and waiting time as well as that of having to make a transfer. In order to estimate the subjective disutility of transferring in a single trip, we employ the stated preference methodology in gathering discrete choice data. The estimated transfer inconvenience for commuters turns out to be 105 Korean Won, which is equivalent to 21.1 minutes of travel time or 13.7 minutes of waiting time. This implies that transfer inconvenience might be larger than expected. Commuters would prefer winding bus routes to straight routes with a transfer as long as the prolonged travel time is not excessive i.e., more than 21.1 minutes in case of commuters in Mokpo city. Thus for transit planners, our analysis suggests that only excessively winding routes need to be redesigned since not having to make a transfer might be as important as the reduced travel time for some bus passengers. 1 Introduction Bus transfer is generally recognized as a nuisance or inconvenience to the passengers and is also recognized as a major factor affecting the service performance of a public transport system. Therefore considerations made for transfer are very important in designing a public transport system as a whole, as well as in indi-

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