Impacts of the intermodal distribution of travelers on transportation system performance: Analysis of an urban corridor

The economic boom since 1980's accelerated urban transport motorization in Chinese cities. Policies encouraging private car use led to less travel by bicycle and public transit, which further increased modal shift toward private cars. This vicious circle resulted in continuous increase of transportation problems. This dissertation explores efficiency of urban passenger transportation, including travel costs for users, system capacity, environmental and energy consumption impacts. Performance characteristics of individual modes are studied and compared. Then, based on modeling travel in an urban corridor of a multilane avenue with a given width, several different cross-sectional designs and mode combinations are studied to accommodate demand of a given number of travelers under various intermodal distributions. The analysis shows that auto disincentive measures are effective in reducing car use and improving the entire system performance. Impacts of providing high performance bus service are mixed. It is more effective in protected bus traffic conditions than in mixed operation of buses with automobiles. This study also quantifies impacts of several other bus performance improvements on the system performance, including provision of real-time information at bus stops and shortening bus stop dwell times. In addition, by examining current transportation policies and measures against bicycle but favoring private car and their consequences in urban transportation in China, the study confirms the important role of bicycle as a mainstream transportation mode on transportation system performance. Transportation systems with bicycle, a cheap travel mode with medium transportation capacity, are cost and energy efficient and environmentally friendly. The dissertation therefore addresses importance of the introduction of policies that will influence a desirable distribution of travel among modes---modal split. Policies favoring of public transport and bicycles while discouraging private car use is found to have a major impact on mobility and transportation system performance. Although the analyses are conducted on the model of an urban corridor in Chinese cities, the results in fact can also be applied to the entire transportation networks and other countries with similar problems.