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Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Application of Smart Card fare payment data to bus network planning in London, UK

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

This research contributes to an emerging body of literature on the application of smart card data to public transportation planning. It also addresses interchange planning, a key component of public transportation network planning that has lately received renewed interest as evidenced by planning literature on integrated and intermodal networks. The research objective of assessing the potential application of smart card data to bus network planning is met, first, by a review of existing data systems and the bus network planning approach at Transport for London (TfL). Then, three potential interchange combinations: bus-to underground, Underground-to-bus, and bus-to-bus are examined to gain an understanding of interchange behavior in London and to formulate recommendations for elapsed time thresholds to identify interchanges between journey stages for each passenger on the TfL network. Other TfL data are compared with the results of linking journey stages into complete journeys based on these elapsed time thresholds. Finally, the complete journey data are applied to bus network planning case studies that illustrate the value of new contextual and quantitative information that would be available to network planners using smart card data without necessitating additional data from other sources such as Automated Vehicle Locators or Automated Passenger Counters.

Degree

thesis:*
Department dc:contributor.department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning.
Grantor dc:publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Year dc:date.issued
2008

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Seaborn, Catherine Whitney
Advisor dc:contributor.advisor
  • Nigel H.M. Wilson.

Subjects

dc:subject × 2

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.
Language dc:language.iso
eng

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Handle dc:identifier.uri
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/44370
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/44370

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
MIT
Base URL
dspace.mit.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Seaborn, Catherine Whitney. Application of Smart Card fare payment data to bus network planning in London, UK. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/44370