The Paradox of Public Transport Peak Spreading: Universities and Travel Demand Management

ABSTRACT

The characteristics which make public transport attractive and contribute to high public transport use by specific market segments create the paradox in which encouragement of peak spreading of public transport services may lead to lower overall use of public transport. As an example of this potential paradox, the challenges of spreading peak demand for public transport for a large inner city trip generator, the University of Sydney in inner Sydney NSW, Australia are investigated, from both the demand side and supply side. While there is a range of university and government initiatives which would reduce peak use and encourage peak spreading such as class scheduling, provision of student housing, travel planning, and changes to public transport supply and pricing, they may not achieve either a reduction in peak use or a spread of public transport demand to other times of the day. Education users are the most dedicated users of public transport and, for a peak spreading campaign to be successful, finely balanced messages are required to encourage peak public transport users such as students to shift to the off-peak, and for peak car drivers such as staff not to replace these users on peak public transport services.

Key Words:

• peak spreading
• public transport
• travel demand management
• travel planning

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This article is based on a project at the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies funded by the Centre for Transport Planning and Product Development at NSW Department of Transport (formerly NSW Ministry of Transport). We also wish to acknowledge the helpful comments of anonymous reviewers of the article. However, the article and its conclusions are the views of the authors, and not the NSW government.

Notes

¹Journey to Work data (Mode15) from 2006 Census for Travel Zones 239 and 240.

²Of the 4,992 jobs in the 2 travel zones, 87% are in Education and Training industry sector, and jobs in other industry sectors (eg Accommodation and Food Services, Retail Trade) are assumed to be related to the University.

Notes.

¹Modes: Private vehicle = car as driver, car as passenger, truck, motorbike; Public transport = train, bus, ferry, tram; Active transport = walk only, bicycle. Based on Mode15, with coding to priority modes.

²University of Sydney data from Table 1; ³CBD and total Sydney data from Transport Data Centre (2008).

¹Average of three days (Monday-Wednesday) from a single week in September 2008.

²Student exits includes apprentices but excludes international students.

Source: Station exits data from Transport NSW.

¹Boardings on corridor up to Ross St stop on Parramatta Rd.

²Boardings on corridor up to Butlin St stop on City Rd.

³Boardings on corridor from Ross St stop on Parramatta Rd towards City.

⁴Boardings on corridor from Butlin St stop on City Rd towards City.

Source: Compiled by Transport NSW from State Transit Authority data.