Imperial College London

Richard Anderson

Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Managing Director RTSC
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 6092richard.anderson Website CV

 
 
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Assistant

 

Ms Alexandra Williams +44 (0)20 7594 5995

 
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Location

 

612Skempton BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Trompet:2018:10.1016/j.tra.2017.11.019,
author = {Trompet, M and Anderson, RJ and Graham, DJ},
doi = {10.1016/j.tra.2017.11.019},
journal = {Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice},
pages = {13--23},
title = {Improved understanding of the relative quality of bus public transit using a balanced approach to performance data normalization},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2017.11.019},
volume = {114},
year = {2018}
}

RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB - In order for bus operators and/or their respective authorities to understand where service quality can improve, it is useful to systematically compare performance with organizations displaying similarities in types of services offered, operational characteristics and density of the service area. These similar characteristics enable peer organizations to benchmark performance once their operational data are normalized for differences in scale of operations. The most commonly used normalization factors for the demand side output are passenger boardings and passenger kilometres. For the supply side output these are vehicle kilometres and vehicle hours. Through twelve years of experience in the International Bus Benchmarking Group (IBBG) a better understanding of differences in service characteristics between ‘similar’ peers has been achieved, which highlight a challenge for the interpretation of normalized performance. It became clear that relative performance should often not be concluded from performance indicators normalized in a single dimension. Variety between peers in commercial speed, trip length, vehicle planning capacity, vehicle weight and network efficiency result in the need for a bi-dimensional or balanced approach to data normalization. This paper quantifies the variety within these operational characteristics and provides examples of the interpretation bias this may lead to. A framework is provided for use by bus organization management, policymakers and benchmarking practitioners that suggests applicable combinations of denominators for a balanced normalization process, leading to improved understanding of relative performance.
AU - Trompet,M
AU - Anderson,RJ
AU - Graham,DJ
DO - 10.1016/j.tra.2017.11.019
EP - 23
PY - 2018///
SN - 0965-8564
SP - 13
TI - Improved understanding of the relative quality of bus public transit using a balanced approach to performance data normalization
T2 - Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2017.11.019
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/54594
VL - 114
ER -