Main Article Content
Abstract
Public transit systems provide mobility for a large percentage of urban residents very cost-effectively and with minimum negative impact on the environment. ln spite of their vital and indispensable services; however , The majority of transit systems worldwide suffer from financial neglect and are forced to rely heavily on government subsidies for survival. In response to the rapidly shrinking funds and subsidy levels transit managements have to focus attention on ways to improve service operations. The management of public transit systems in Saudi Arabia is no exception to this trend. This study is aimed at evaluating the service performance of a sample of regular (fixed-route, fixed schedule) bus transit routes in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Utilizing a microcomputer-based program, the bus transit service operational measures of fare, headway, vehicle size and routing were analyzed. To account for the socio-economic and cultural differences of transit ridership in Riyadh, time/cost elasticities of demand as well as walk time and bus travel time parameters of the model were calibrated. Evaluation of the impact of changes in service operational measures suggested that no change in operational variables could improve the very low productivity of one of the sample study routes. A cost-reduction strategy which includes the use of smaller vehicles and less-frequent service runs should improve the low productivity of this route. Findings also indicated that a small increase in fare would pay for the total operation and maintenance costs of the other routes. The authors, however, do not recommend an increase in fare for a variety of reasons; the low income level of the captive riderships, the enormous financial resources of the country , and the multi-dimentional role of transit systems in providing urban mobility with minimum negative impacts on the environment.