VARIABILITY OF PARATRANSIT TRAVEL TIMES: THE CASE OF KUMASI, GHANA

ABSTRACT

While much has been reported about bus travel times and their variability for formal bus services, little is known about travel time variation for paratransit, the dominant means of transportation in most low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This study quantifies the components of paratransit travel time on a selected route in Kumasi, Ghana. It analyzes the variability of travel times within the day and from day to day. A mobile phone app was employed to conduct a travel time survey onboard paratransit vehicles on the study route. GPS and stop-related data were collected. Various travel time variability measures and heat map was used for within day and day-to-day variability analysis in both directions of the study section. About 16% of travel time in the study section was spent dwelling (boarding and alighting). The variation in travel times across the day was comparatively higher than those of formal bus services and fluctuated across the day with no distinct pattern within any given time period. Both early and late trips contributed to this variation across the day. Fridays had significantly different variability from other weekdays.

KEYWORDS:

• Travel time variability
• trotro
• paratransit
• bus travel time
• public transport

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the Regional Transport Research and Education Centre, Kumasi (TRECK), of the Department of Civil Engineering, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi (KNUST), Ghana, whose grant funded the research. The authors wish to thank Mrs. Theresa Adjaidoo of the Department of Computer Science, KNUST, who modified the data collection app (Trands) that was used in the data collection. We also acknowledge the efforts of Randolph Wilson of the Department of Transport, Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), who provided information about trotro services and provided initial support for getting enumerators for the data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology .