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Making Transit Work Insight from Western Europe, Canada, and the United States -- Special Report 257 (2001) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix: Local Bus Transit Service Design and Quality in Western Europe
Pages 161-166

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From page 161...
... BUS OPERATING PRACTICES IN WESTERN EUROPE As in the United States, Western European bus operations consist largely of the routine task of boarding and alighting customers at stops along prescribect routes at regular time intervals. However, there are considerable ctifferences between the United States and Western Europe in the details of service execution.
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From page 162...
... Other Schecluling Practices Practiced sporadically in the United States, timed-transfer systems are common in Western European cities. These systems enable convenient transfers between vehicles at major transfer centers because schedules are pulsed at easy-to-remember intervals that are bases!
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From page 163...
... Transit operators also publish separate night service route maps, and in some cities, such as Osnabruck, Germany, vehicles are specially marked for this service. Fare Collection anct Structure Bus fare collection in Western Europe is almost always handled off the bus The idea is to increase boarding speeds at each stop.
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From page 164...
... This is perhaps best demonstrated by the integration of taxi service and transit operations in many Western European cities. In the United States, taxis are usually viewed as competitors with transit.
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From page 165...
... Traffic-Signal Priority ant! Automatic Vehicle Location Traffic-signal priority schemes, which give approaching transit vehicles preference over other vehicles in traffic, are slowly being introduced in the United States, even as they have become commonplace in Western Europe.
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From page 166...
... disabled riders, a motivation for use of low-floor equipment in Western Europe has been to recluce bus dwell times by hastening passenger entry and exiting. The prevalence of offboard fare collection allows boarding and alighting through all doors; therefore, the low floors, coupled with wider doors, enable the rapid interchange of passengers at stops.
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Key Terms

  • western europe
  • fare collection
  • european cities
  • bus stops
  • transit service

  • transit operators
  • bus transit
  • american transit
  • european transit
  • european bus

  • vehicle location
  • customer information
  • route maps
  • transit fare
  • bus operating

  • operating practices
  • transit vehicles
  • european urban
  • regularly scheduled
  • service innovations

  • major bus
  • stored value
  • transport operators
  • scheduled transit
  • automatic vehicle

  • common center
  • unique fare
  • structure bus
  • underground railway
  • zurich transit


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