Urban transport planning

Definition of study area

The study area for which transport facilities are being planned is first of all defined.
Transportation planning can be done at national level, regional level or at the urban level. For
planning at the urban level, the study area should embrace the whole area containing the
existing and potential continuously build-up areas of the city.
The imaginary line representing the boundary of the study area is termed as the external
cordon. The area inside the external cordon line determines the travel pattern to a large extent
and as such is surveyed in great detail. The land-use pattern and the economic activities are
studied intensively and detailed surveys are conducted in this area to determine the travel
characteristics. On the other hand, the area outside the external cordon line is studied to a
lesser degree of detail.
The selection of the external cordon line for the urban transportation study should be done
carefully with due weightage to the following factors
1. The external cordon line should circumscribe all the areas which are already builtup
and those areas which are considered likely to be developed during the period of
study.
2. The external cordon line should contain all areas of systematic daily life of the people
oriented towards the city centre.
3. The external cordon line should be continuous and uniform in its course so that
movement cross it only once. The line should intersect the roads where it is safe and
convenient to carry out traffic surveys.
4. The external cordon line should be compatible with previous studies of the area.
Zoning
The defined study area is sub-divided into smaller areas called zones, the purpose of such a
subdivision is to
1. Determine where journey begin and end
2. Determine the factors which influence trip generation
3. Establish the main corridors of movement
However, the mass of data collected relates to individual journeys, households and centres of
employment, and in its crude form is difficult to analyse and interpret. To overcome this
problem the area being surveys, is divided in to zones, for the purpose of grouping the data so
as to make it intelligible , easy to analyse, and suitable for the assignment of journeys. Sub
division into groups further helps in geographically associating the origin and destination of
travel.
To ensure that information is collected in sufficient detail to enable meaningful conclusions to
be drawn about trip generation rates, and trip distribution, two main types of traffic zone are
distinguished
1. External zones- that is traffic zones outside the external cordon boundary.
2. Internal zones- that is zones contained within the external cordon. These zones are
further subdivided into central area zones, and non-central area zones.

Coding
A convenient system of coding of the zones will be useful for the study. One such system is
to divide the study area into 9 sectors. The central sectors (CBD) is designated 0, and the
remining eight are designated 1 to 8 in aclockwise manner. The prefiz 9 is reserved for the
external zones. Each sectos is sub-divided into 10 zones bearing number 0-9. Each zone is
sub-divided into 10 sub-zones bearing number 0-9. Thus a system of three digits denotes a
sub-zone. A sub-zone bearing the number 481 belongs to sector 4 and to zone 8 in that sector
and is subzone 1 in that zone.
It would be helpful if the following points are kept in view when dividing the area into zones
1. Land-use is the most important factor in establishing zones for a transportation
survey. It is only when the origin and destination zones reflect properly the land-use
can traffic generated within the zone be predicted, measured and quantified
accurately. The pre-dominan land-use for establishing zones are: residential ,
industrial, commertial, recreational, open space, shopping, etc.
2. The zones should have a homogeneous land-use so as to reflect accurately the
associated trip-making behaviour.
3. Anticipated changes in land-use should be considered when sub-dividing the study
area into zones
4. It would be advantageous if the subdivision follows closely that adopted by other
bodies for data collection. This will facilitate correlation of data
5. The zones should not be too large to cause considerable errors in daa. At the sametime
should not be too small either to cause difficulty in handeling and analysing the data.
As a general guide, a population of 1000-3000 may be optimal for small areas and a
population of 5000-10000 may be opted for a large area. In residential area zones
should accommodate roughly 1000 households.
6. The zones should preferably have regular geometric form for easily determining the
centroid which represents the origin and termination of travel.
7. Sectors should represent the catchment of trips generated on a primary route
8. Zones must be compatible with screen lines and cordon lines
9. Zone boundaries should preferably be water-sheds of trip making
10. Natural or physical barriers such as canals, rivers etc. can form convenient zone
boundaries.
11. Socioeconomic characteristics should be homogeneous.
12. Intrazonal trips should be minimized..
13. Zones should not be created within other zones.
14. The zone system should generate and attract approximately equal trips, households,
population, or area. For example, labor force and employment should be similar.
15. The total number of zones should not be too large.

Types of survey
Travel pattern data
The basic movement for which survey data are required
1. Internal to internal
2. Internal to external

3. External to internal
4. External to external

Internal to Internal
With both the origin and destination inside the area bonded by cordon line
Internal to External
Which originates within the area defined by the external cordon and have a destination
beyond it
External to Internal
With the origin outside the cordon line and the destination inside the cordon line.
External to External
With both the origin and destination outside the cordon line. Depending on the purpose of
this study
The movements are subdivided into
1. Through movements stopping in the town or area defined by the external cordon line.
2. Non stop through movements.
Data related to these different types of movements is collected in a variety of ways. Through
movements and external- internal movements are invariably surveyed at external cordon
lines.
Internal to external movements are surveyed in a in the home inteview study.
Movements occuring within the study area defined by the cordon lines are surveyed in home
interview study.
Following are some of the surveys that are usually carried out.
1. Home interview survey
2. Commercial vehicle surveys
3. Taxi survey
4. Road-side interview survey
5. Post card questionnaire surveys
6. Registration number survey
7. Tag surveys

8. Public transport surveys

Home interview survey
The home interview study is concerned with the collection of basic facts related to presentday movements for all trips on a typical day within the town or urban region defined by
external cordon
Home interview sample size
Travel is the expression of an individuals behaviour, and as such it has the characteristics of
being habitual. As a habit it tends to be repetative and the repetition occures in a definite
pattern. In addition the travel habits of different individuals are similar for work, shopping,
recreation and other kind of trips. It is not necessary to obtain travel information from all
residents of the area under study, for a long period of time. Statistical methods can be used
with confidence for the sampling of movements in urban areas. To ensure that sample is
representative the persons included in it are distributed geographically throughtout the survey
area in the same proportion as the distribution of the total population. Experience has shown
that the dweling units is the most reliable and convenient sampling unit to be used in home
interview survey
The size of the sample to be interviewed depends on the total population of the area under
study. The degree of accuracy required

Home interview- sample selection

The frame from which the sample households are selected can be setup from either the
electoral roll or Valuation list.
The elector roll is compiled annually and includes the list of names and addresses of those
persons who are qualified electors. It doesnt include any address at which all residents are
below 18yrs old.
Valuation list, which is compiled by local authorities, comprise a list of all separately rated
units, including those occupied by persons under 18years. Unless great inconvenience is
experienced in gaining access to valuation list it is recommended that they be used for the
sample selection of households for home interview
Home interview procedure
Once the selection of dwelling units is completed, then the collection of data relating to
internally generated movements can commence. Specially trained field interviewers, under
the close eye of the supervisor, are used for this purpose. They are given the list of addresses
where they have to call on a particular day. Three or four days before the intended day of visit
a letter is sent to the householder explaining the reason for the survey and informing him that
the interviewer will give him a call on particular day.

The information requested by the field interviewer covers basic household characteristics,
and all the journeys made by each member of the household of five years and above in the
previous 24 hrs. This data is recorded in a home interview form.
Basically the information gathered includes the address of the dwelling unit, the size of the
household, and age and sex structure of the occupants, number of working members in a
family, their job and place of work. The number of motor vehicles owned, the household
income, Location of the school.
Often the questions concerning income are omitted because of reluctance of people to answer
reliably for such personal questions. However, an assessment of the household income can be
derived from the analysis of the number of vehicles owned, the type of dwelling occupied,
and the job of each employed member of the household. In some cases additional questions
about whether the property is owner-occupied, rented or leased can be asked.
The information required from each member of the household of five years and above, about
all the journeys made in the previous twenty four hours, which includes the precise address of
the origin and destination, the time of start and finish of the journey, purpose of journey, and
mode of travel.
Up to ten different journey purposes are distinguished, the most significant being to or from
work, school or college. The most significant modes of travel distinguished are car driving ,
motor cycle, rail, bus, taxi and walking.
If the field interviewer cannot make contact with the householder on the appointed day, then
he or she should call back on the following day. If no contact is made on the second visit,
then no further attempt is made to contact the occupants until seven days after the appointed
day.
Expansion factor

Commercial Vehicle Survey

To obtain full information about commercial vehicle trips taking place within the external
cordon it is necessary to take a sample of all the commercial vehicles parked in the area, and
interview the owner or driver responsible for the vehicle. No definite guidance is available
for the size of the sample to be selected. But, it is generally accepted that for a small town a
sample approaching 100% may be necessary, whereas in larger area a sample less than 30%
would be considered satisfactory.
The sample frame from which the vehicles are selected is usually the record of vehicle
exercise licences for the area under consideration. There are several problems associated with
using the sample frame, like vehicle registered in the study area but continuously used
elsewhere presents the problem which is especially associated with fleet operators. Vehicles
recently transferred to new owner outside the study area, or recently scrapped or out of
service vehicle can upset the sample frame.

The vehicle owner or operator might refuse to supply information requested, or the vehicle
selected for interview might not have been used on the day for which travel data is required.
These problems can only be determined at the time of interview, when the appropriate course
of action is to record the situation on the interview forms, so that appropriate adjustments can
be made for these vehicles when the expansion factor is calculated.
The information collected includes
1. Vehicle information including the registration number of the vehicle, name and
address of the firm or owner and the name and address of the depot from which the
vehicle operated on the survey date and the vehicle type.
2. Journey information this relates to one way travel between two essential stops. It
does not include stops or traffic jams, accidents and other delays. Journeys should be
numbered consecutively for each vehicle, beginning with No 1 for the first trip, No 2
for the second and so on, and information about the origin and destination and the
time taken for each trip must be collected. As with the external cordon count exact
addresses for origin and destinations within the study area must be given. In the larger
transportation studies as many as ten commercial journey purposes may be defined,
although it is usual to consider only three main purposes.
1. Firms business
2. To or from home
3. Personal business
Difficulty may sometime be encountered in obtaining exact information about the movements
of a particular vehicle on the survey day, especially when the vehicle has made a number of
different journeys, to overcome this problem log-book are sometimes issued to the drivers of
the appropriate vehicles at the start of the survey day, so that the correct journey information
can be entered as each journey is completed.

Taxi survey
In large towns or cities where taxis are an important element in the public transport system, a
separate survey of taxi movements is usually carried out. The procedure adopted is identical
to that used in the commercial Vehicle survey, although owing to the comparatively limited
size of the sample population the sample size adopted tends to be large.
Road side interview and post card interview (Cordon line surveys)
3 main types of sampling procedures can be adopted

1. Time cluster sampling when during each hour or time interval of the survey a period
of time is selected when all vehicle drivers are interviewed, and a further period of
time when no interviews are carried out. This method allows the interviewers to
alternate interview directions to cover both inward and outward movements
2. Volume cluster sampling the number of vehicles to be interviewed is predetermined,
depending on the sample size adopted. Similarly a predetermined number of vehicles
are allowed to pass without interviewing.
3. Variable rate sampling this method of random sampling was developed by Road
Research Laboratory and is the method normally used at cordon surveys. Interviewers
are employed at a constant rate, and the size of sample selected varies with the
volume of traffic flow. Depending on the characteristics of the stream, sample rates
are calculated for either half-hour or one-hour periods. To reduce bias different
sample rates are usually calculated for different classes of vehicle.
Postcard surveys
Pre-paid business reply postcards, with return address and questionnaire to be filled in by the
road user are distributed at the external cordon survey points. They are usually accompanied
by a request for co-operation, the location of origin and destination, purpose of trips, and type
of vehicle. The time, location and direction of travel are entered on the cards by the staff
operation the survey, as they are distributed to the road users. Questions included on a
postcard survey must be kept very simple and straightforward and this may, in practice, limit
the extent to which this technique can be used to obtain detailed information about individual
stages of a trip or about its context. A much more serious problem associated with postcard
surveys, however, is the low response rates typically achieved when there is reliance on
voluntary mailback. Response rates vary depending on the nature and complexity of the
questions and the type of people being surveyed but rates as low as 30-40 per cent are not
unusual. Low response rates become a problem if they are associated with an unquantified
base, which makes the responding sample unrepresentative of the target population. There is,
for example, some evidence to suggest that response rates may vary with sex, journey
frequency and journey length.
The use of incentives, such as prize draws based on completed questionnaires, may increase
the response rate, but does not eliminate the bias. It may indeed introduce its own bias, due to
the different susceptibility of different types of people to such incentives, and risks
introducing incorrect data by encouraging response by people who are motivated by the
prospect of the prize draw rather than by a desire to cooperate with the survey.
If it is thought that response bias can be overcome or is not likely to be serious, it may be
possible to dispense with the interview site altogether and instead hand out the forms at a
natural stop-line, such as at traffic signals, thus avoiding all disruption to traffic. This latter
procedure is known as a stop-line survey and may be the only feasible method of conducting
questionnaires in congested urban areas. It is important when conducting stop-line surveys to
ensure that the sample of traffic likely to be stopped at the location is properly representative
of the target population- beating in mind factors such as that the phasing of linked traffic
signals may result in an under-representation of some flows among the vehicles stopped at a
given set of lights.

All the roadside interview methods carry an associated road safety hazard to the survey staff
and all due precautions must be taken to minimise the r i s k - such as, for example, the
obligatory wearing of fluorescent jackets and, in the case of stop-line surveys, the
appointment of a member of the team to alert the surveyors to an imminent change in the
traffic signals.
Roadside interview survey
The most efficient way of collecting information about people making a particular journey
will often be to intercept them en route. The classic example is the roadside interview survey
in which motorists are stopped at a screenline or cordon and asked a number of questions
about their current journey. Such surveys can obviously be disruptive to the traffic flow and
are not normally permitted unless there is a convenient layby or a spare lane into which the
interview traffic can be diverted. It is not normally possible to interview every motorist and
so a sampling strategy is defined. If a constant sampling rate (of, say, 1 :n) is required
throughout the survey period then the driver of every nth vehicle will be interviewed or, for
greater efficiency, a cluster of c vehicles will be taken from each group of c x n passing
vehicles. Use of a constant sampling rate is, however, quite inefficient because, in order to
have the fraction small enough to avoid the build-up of queues at peak flow times, the survey
staff will be underemployed at low flow times. The practical solution to this is to take a
cluster of c vehicles out of the stream, interview them, release them and immediately take
another cluster of c vehicles. This procedure produces a variable sampling rate (higher at
times of low flow); however, this can be corrected for by using a continuous count of the total
flow passing the site in each hour as the basis for differential weighting of the interviews in
each hour.
The interview must be kept brief in order to avoid too much disruption to the traffic or too
much annoyance to the motorists. The classic interview comprises only four questions:
Where have you come from? What were you doing there? Where are you going? What will
you do there? Additional questions may be asked about the trip frequency and the upstream
or downstream route. The interviewer will normally also make a visual assessment of vehicle
type and occupancy. Where the vehicle is a freight vehicle additional questions may be asked
about the goods being carried and the vehicle owner/operator.

Licence plate surveys

If none of the above methods of roadside survey are feasible in a given situation then an
alternative means of obtaining a sample of drivers from the flow of traffic may be to use a
licence plate sample survey. This involves recording vehicle licence numbers (manually or by
video) and then sending questionnaires to the registered owners of these vehicles through the
vehicle licensing authorities. This technique is not available in some countries due to privacy
legislation and must, in any event, be used with care. It should not, for example, be relied on
to yield a representative sample of drivers, because the database is likely to refer to vehicle
owners (or registered keepers) rather than drivers. Also, due to the inevitable delays involved
in contacting the drivers, it must be expected that many of the factors surrounding a specific
journey will have been forgotten by drivers by the time they receive the questionnaires.
Public transport user surveys
Just as the roadside interview is the classic means of questioning car users about their current
journeys, so the public transport passenger interview survey is the standard method of
collecting information about public transport journeys. The simplest form of interview
involves surveyors riding on board a sample of public transport vehicles and asking a simple
set of questions of each passenger. The questions will typically include boarding point,
alighting point and fare paid (all of which may sometimes be available from the ticket
without needing to question the passenger) as well as trip origin, trip destination and journey
purpose. Additional questions on trip frequency and access modes may also be asked. Such
surveys are now often undertaken on a regular basis by specialist survey staff equipped with

portable computers to record the answers and perhaps bar code readers to extract ticket
details. ~~ A more extended interview, gathering more detailed data about the tripmakers,
their reasons for making the journey and their attitudes to the service provided, may be
feasible where the journey is relatively long- as in the case of inter-city train journeys and
thus allows time for the survey staff to ask more detailed questions. Self-completion surveys
may be more feasible among public transport users than among car drivers because,
particularly if the journey is relatively long, there may be an immediate opportunity for the
subject to complete the forms and for the survey staff to collect them again before the journey
is over, thus avoiding the problems of low response expected in amailback survey.
INVENTORY OF PUBLIC TRANSPORT FACILITIES
The inventory of public transport facilities should be under taken to identify the deficiencies
in the present system and the extent to which they need to be improved. The inventory
consists of
1. Inventory of street forming the transport network
2. Traffic volume, composition, peak and off-peak
3. Studies on travel time by different modes
4. Inventory of public transport buses
5. Inventory of rail transport facilities
6. Parking inventory
7. Accident data
Inventory of streets forming the road network
An understanding of the extent and quality of the road network is very important to formulate
plans for future. The inventory should cover details such as classification of the street system,
length, cross-sectional dimensions, type and condition of the surface, capacity, intersections,
control device, structures, street furniture etc.
Traffic volume
Data pertaining to traffic volume and its composition will be needed to check on the survey
data collected by the home interview and cordon surveys. The variation of the traffic volume
over different hours of the day, different days of the week and different months of the year is
also needed.
Travel time studies
An estimate of the travel times between different zones by various modes is necessary for
transport planning. Travel times are usually measured for the peak hour condition and non
peak hour conditions.
Inventory of public transport buses
The inventory of public transport buses includes information on the total number of buses,
their capacity, schedules, routes, operating speeds, terminals, number of passengers carried,
economic picture of the public transport system and the fare structure.
Inventory of rail transport facilities
The inventory of rail transport facilities should include the length, capacity, schedules,
operating speeds, stations, number of passengers carried, economic picture of rail transport
undertaking and the fare structure.
Parking inventory
The parking inventory should collect information on the existing on-street and off-street
parking facilities, the parking demand and the utilization of existing facilities. Data on
parking charges and the system used for charging should also be collected.
Accident data
Accident data over the past year will help to understand the nature and extent of the hazards
inherent in the present system and the need to improve the situation.