Measures for Passenger-Transport Performance Evaluation in Urban Areas

Abstract

In urban area mobility, passenger transport plays a fundamental role in meeting the objectives of economic competitiveness, social cohesion, and sustainable growth for neighborhoods, cities, regions, or countries. However, passenger transport modes impose disadvantages to those who use them. These disadvantages can be categorized as (1) disadvantages for passengers, namely, wasting time, money spending, discomfort, and unsafe conditions, and (2) disadvantages for society, such as the existence of urban areas devoted to passenger transport infrastructure, production of noise pollution, and production of water, soil, and air pollution. The objective of this study is to establish an approach toward measuring passenger transport performance from the perspective of its disadvantages. To this end, a quantitative method was developed and tested by using the route of Narita Airport (Tokyo Metropolitan Area, Japan) to the Tokyo Central Station (Tokyo, Japan). The obtained results indicated that public transportation can normally be slow, cheap, safe, with varied levels of discomfort, and with small negative impact on communities. On the other hand, private transportation can be fast and expensive, with the exception of walking and cycling, while all of them are insecure with varied negative impact on communities.