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The Perception of Bus Rapid Transit: A Passenger Survey From Beijing Southern Axis BRT Line 1
The Perception of Bus Rapid Transit: A Passenger Survey From Beijing Southern Axis BRT Line 1
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Taotao Deng
Shanghai University of Finance and Economics
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To cite this article: Taotao Deng & John D. Nelson (2012): The perception of Bus Rapid Transit: a
passenger survey from Beijing Southern Axis BRT Line 1, Transportation Planning and Technology,
35:2, 201-219
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Transportation Planning and Technology
Vol. 35, No. 2, March 2012, 201219
Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) has emerged as a cost-effective transport system for
urban mobility. As a relatively new form of Mass Transit, its ability to provide a
high-quality transport service and potential to stimulate land development
remain largely unexplored. This study intends to investigate the public attitude
towards BRT services, as well as respondents’ perception of living near BRT
stations, using the Beijing Southern Axis BRT system as a case study. A data-set
of responses to 525 questionnaires were assembled and analysed using a
combination of statistical techniques. The results show that BRT has gained
great popularity among passengers, and brought about a positive impact on the
attractiveness of residential property. The data identify that the majority of
passengers are work-related commuters and use BRT more than once a day. The
captive users have a higher satisfaction than choice users with respect to
reliability, comfort & cleanliness and overall satisfaction with the BRT service.
It is argued that the BRT has significantly improved the attractiveness of
residential property along the BRT corridor.
Keywords: Bus Rapid Transit (BRT); perception; property attractiveness; Beijing
1. Introduction
For many years rail-based transport systems, such as Metro and Light Rail Transit
(LRT), have been the preferred public transport improvement options of planners
and policy-makers alike. However, the high capital cost and subsequent high
operating cost associated with these modes have limited its development in many
budget-constrained cities. Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) presents a cost-effective and
flexible alternative for high-performance transit services which has increasingly
gained interest from policy-makers. A typical BRT system combines exclusive
busway, technologically-advanced vehicles, upgraded stations, rapid fare collection,
advanced Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) technologies and a flexible service
plan. Case studies summarised by Levinson et al. (2003) and Wright and Hook
(2007) have demonstrated that BRT can be a very cost-effective way of providing a
high-quality, high-performance transport service. Mass Transit generally has a strong
potential to influence travel behaviour and promote property development by
generating significant accessibility benefits. There has been much previous research
focusing on the influence of rail transit (Metro and LRT) on travel behaviour change
and land development. However, there has been less attention to specifically
capturing the passengers’ attitude towards BRT and the assessment of the likely
impacts of BRT on the local property market.
To address this important information gap, the objectives of the study presented
in this article are to answer the following questions, using the Beijing Southern Axis
BRT system as a case study:
300 Automobiles
Cars
250
200
150
100
50
0
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Year
Figure 1. Growth trend of registered vehicles, automobiles and cars in Beijing (19782007).
Source: Beijing Statistical Yearbook, 20002008.
Transportation Planning and Technology 203
3. Methodology
Since passengers are users and direct beneficiaries of a BRT service, the extent of
their satisfaction represents a critical indicator of evaluation. Only a high-quality
transport system can attract new passengers and improve the experience of existing
passengers, and possibly stimulate land development. To gain insight into the public
attitude to the BRT services in Beijing and to explore the perception of living near
BRT stations, a questionnaire was designed and conducted in August 2009.
1. Advanced vehicle
2. Enhanced station
3. Off-board fare collection
4. Screen door system
5. Exclusive busway
6. Barrier
7. Overpass
Part I concerns respondents’ travel behaviour and attitude toward the BRT
service. Respondents were asked to indicate their trip characteristics, such as
trip purpose and trip frequency, and rate the service of the BRT based on a
five-point scale of satisfaction, ranging from ‘very dissatisfied’ to ‘very
satisfied’.
Part II investigates respondents’ perception of living near BRT stations.
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Respondents who live near a BRT station (defined as close enough to walk to
the station) were asked about their place of residence, such as when they moved
there and how far away it is from a station.
In Part III respondents were asked to provide demographic information,
including gender, age-range, education, occupation, personal income and
whether they have a car alternative.
Figure 3. The route and stations of Beijing Southern Axis BRT Line 1.
Source: based on the map from http://map.sogou.com/
Prior to data collection, a pilot survey was carried out to test the effectiveness of
the questionnaire. Questionnaires were distributed on 23 July 2009. A total of 25
passengers were randomly chosen to pilot the questionnaire. The questionnaire was
refined and finalised based on the feedback from passengers and consultation with
transport professionals.
4. Data analysis
A total of 600 questionnaires were distributed and 525 were valid for further
analysis. The remaining 62 questionnaires contained either partial information or
were not useable. The effective response rate for the survey was 87.5%. The high
rate of usable questionnaires was due to pre-survey planning, careful survey
procedure and passengers’ active participation. The collected data were system-
atically coded and arranged using SPSS. The data analysis was conducted in two
stages. Firstly, the descriptive statistics method was used to analyse the travel-
related characteristics between captive users (N 65) and choice users (N 460).
Secondly, results from respondents who lived near BRT stations (N 228) were
206 T. Deng and J.D. Nelson
Captive users are referred to as those who do not have a car alternative for their
journey.
Choice users are referred to as those who use BRT even though they have a car
alternative.
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According to the survey, 65 of the 525 sample passengers (12.4%) said they had a car
alternative for the journey, but they still chose to use the BRT. The respondent profile
is summarised in Table 1.
The following conclusions may be drawn from Table 1.
4.1.1. Gender
Taken as a whole, there were more male respondents (54.1%) than female
respondents (45.9%). The malefemale ratio of respondents (1.18) is slightly higher
than the male-female ratio of Beijing population (1.03) in 2008. One possible reason
is that in developing countries the head of household is generally male and travels
more. Surprisingly, the malefemale ratio of choice users is merely 0.667, suggesting
that female choice users are more likely to use BRT.
Social-economic characteristics N% N% N%
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207
¥ 6000¥ 7999 23 4.4 11 2.4 12 18.5
¥ 8000 or more 5 1.0 3 0.7 2 3.1
Note: ¥ (RMB) is the currency used in the China. US$1000 ¥ 6350 (October 2011).
Source: this study.
208 T. Deng and J.D. Nelson
4.1.4. Occupation
Taken as a whole, respondents were found to come from a variety of social
backgrounds. Not surprisingly, company staff (37.3%) and self-employed (16.4%)
were the main divisions of occupation for respondents. Company staff accounted for
an even higher level of choice users (49.2%). One possible reason is that many people
take BRT to access the companies locating in the downtown or near the BRT
corridor. Due to the reduced impact of traffic congestion encountered by BRT
during the rush hour, BRT is of great interest to company staff.
(£180) and ¥3999 (£360), suggesting that BRT is a popular transport mode for the
working class; 36.0% of passengers sampled earned less than ¥2000. This is expected
since, as noted earlier, students accounted for 14.7% of respondents. Not surpris-
ingly, personal monthly income in China is much lower than that in developed
countries. However, it is assumed that the real monthly income is slightly higher than
that reported in the survey. One possible reason is that the reimbursement and
bonuses are sometimes not calculated in the personal monthly income by some
people. As for choice users, they generally received a higher income.
Other 1
Unable to drive 17
Car unavailable 9
0 10 20 30 40
Number of respondents
western cities. The evidence that car users are willing to use the BRT system suggests
that a high-quality bus-based rapid transit can attract modal shift.
Those respondents with a car alternative were further asked to state the main
purpose of choosing the BRT service rather than using their own car (Figure 4). Of
these, 34 respondents, more than half (52.3%), believed that BRT was more
convenient than car for their trip, suggesting that BRT is a competitive alternative
to the private car. Seventeen passengers (26.2%) said they could not drive the car for
some reason and nine passengers (13.8%) stated the car was unavailable for their trip
on that day. It is interesting to note that four respondents (6.2%) were concerned
about the negative impact of car on the environment and therefore would like to use
public transport. Although this figure is very small, it provides evidence on the
environmental awareness, and suggests that environmental impact is an emerging
factor of concern in China.
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4.2.2. How passengers previously undertake their journey before the operation of BRT
Figure 6 presents the respondents’ previous modes of travel prior to the introduction
of the BRT system. As illustrated, public transport systems (Bus/Metro/LRT),
walking and cycling were the main modes used. Travel by bus accounted for the
largest proportion (75.4%) of the total passengers surveyed. This is mainly because
many conventional bus lines in the south-centre traffic corridor were cancelled or
210 T. Deng and J.D. Nelson
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Figure 5. A comparison of trip purpose for captive users (N 460) and choice users
(N65).
Source: this study.
shortened, after the opening of BRT Line 1. In total, 6.1% of current users have
changed their mode of travel from car (1.9%) or taxi (4.2%) to BRT service. It is
worth noting that 7.2% of trips on the BRT Line 1 were new trips, which were highly
likely to have been generated by the BRT. BRT’s ability to attract new trips was also
observed at other locations including the Brisbane South East Busway (Rathwell and
Schijns 2002), Adelaide North East Busway (Currie 2006), Las Vegas MAX system,
Boston MBTA, Berkeley AC Transit BRT system (Peak et al. 2005) and Los Angeles
Bus, 75.4%
Figure 6. Previous transport mode used to take the same journey (N 525).
Source: this study.
Transportation Planning and Technology 211
Orange Line (Callaghan and Vincent 2007). Peak et al. (2005) indicated that the rail-
like characteristics of BRT could provide a high level of service and significantly
improve public transport satisfaction and popularity.
few choice users (merely 3.1%) parked the car and then used the BRT. It appears that
the concept of ‘park and ride’ (P&R) is still underdeveloped in China. This P&R
figure is much lower than the survey of Los Angeles Orange Line, where it was
observed that 13% of all riders arrived at the station via car (Callaghan and Vincent
2007). One possible reason is that the car ownership in China is much lower than in
North America. More importantly, the lack of proper P&R facilities discourages
people to switch from car use.
Figure 7. Transport mode used to access BRT by captive users (N 460) and choice users
(N65).
Source: this study.
212 T. Deng and J.D. Nelson
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Figure 8. Comparison of trip frequency for captive users (N460) and choice users
(N65).
Source: this study.
owners, who always use BRT to travel to work everyday. It is interesting to note that
respondents who used BRT 1 time/day only account for 10.7% of the total sampled
passengers. One possible explanation is that people usually use the same transport
mode for a return trip.
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
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10%
very satisfied
satisfied
0% neutral
dissatisfied
very dissatisfied
Table 2. Comparison of the mean satisfaction score of BRT service for captive users and
choice users.
These results suggest that captive users do have a higher satisfaction than choice
users on reliability, comfort & cleanliness and overall satisfaction of BRT service,
showing that those with a car alternative have a higher expectation of BRT than
choice users.
Table 3. Key characteristics of the local residents’ profile: all respondents within the walking
distance from a BRT station.
Project Development
BRT Feasibility Construction Trial Full
Proposal Study Phrase Operation Operation
Year
March 2003 April 2003 Early 2004 December 2004 December 2005
residents, merely 7.0% of the sample. Clearly, after extending the BRT corridor to
16.5 km in December 2005, residential properties near BRT stations became more
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50% 46.1%
45%
40%
35.1%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10% 7.5% 7.0%
4.4%
5%
0%
Before 2003 2003 2004 2005 After 2005
30%
25.9% 27.2%
25%
20%
17.5%
15.4%
15% 14.0%
10%
5%
0%
<100m 100m-199m 200m-499m 500m-999m 1000m or more
Figure 12. Distance from respondents’ residence to the nearest BRT station (N 228).
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stations, comprising as follows: those who lived less than 100 m (15.4%), between 100
and 199 m (27.2%), and from 200 to 499 m (25.9%). A further 17.5% lived between
500 and 999 m distance to the BRT. It is worth noting that 14.0% of respondents
travelled over 1000 m to take the BRT service, among whom 68.8% used BRT at least
1 time/day, 50% took a bus and 31.2% walked to a BRT station. It can be concluded
that as a major transport improvement project in the Beijing southern area which
connects with the Metro network, the BRT Line 1 has greatly improved accessibility
for communities and produced a large attractiveness distance.
No opinion,
No 1.3%
preference,
20.2%
Yes,
49.5%
No,
29.0%
indicated in Figure 13, most people (49.5%) were interested in living along the BRT
corridor. This information is in accord with the finding from a survey of real estate
agents which revealed that BRT was fundamental to many customers‘ interest in the
apartments in areas local to the BRT system (Deng and Nelson 2010). In this survey
only 29.0% of respondents (N 297) did not show interest in housing near a BRT
station. There are mainly five reasons for this lack of interest: (1) some respondents
were visiting Beijing and would not buy or rent any house in Beijing; (2) some people
get heavily subsidised accommodation from their work unit; (3) some people worked
in a place which was distant from the BRT corridor; (4) some people could not afford
housing near the BRT corridor; and (5) some respondents paid more attention to
other public resources, such as high-quality schools and attractive scenery.
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BRT station has gained a relatively faster increase than those not served by the
BRT system. The capitalisation effect mostly occurs after the full operation of BRT,
and is more evident over time and particularly observed in areas which lack
alternative mobility opportunities.
As a relatively new rapid transit mode, the full impact of BRT remains largely
unexplored. The main attraction of BRT to policy-makers is that it could be a
cost-effective approach to moving a large number of people. It is increasingly
accepted that in common with other forms of Mass Transit systems, a full-
featured BRT has the potential to offer more benefits. From the survey of Beijing
BRT Line 1, it can be concluded that this BRT system has successfully taken
advantage of the characteristics of rail systems in a cost-efficient way. It is rapidly
becoming a viable option for transport improvement which could significantly
improve the service level of public transport and enhance attractiveness of local
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property.
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge support from the China Scholarship Council, which provided a
Ph.D. candidate research grant. The authors also acknowledge the financial support from the
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) in conducting the fieldwork. The authors
wish to thank Professor Bill Neill, Dr Jillian Anable and Mr. Brian Masson from the
University of Aberdeen for their comments on the questionnaires.
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