Effects of Taichung bus policy on ridership according to structural change analysis

摘要

Since 2001, the Taichung City Government has launched several policies to stimulate public transit ridership. Based on this successful experience of reforming the urban bus system, the aims of this study are to analyze the structural change in bus ridership time series over a period of more than a decade. The major objectives are to determine effective policies and explore critical factors. According to monthly ridership from 2001 to 2014, five regimes of bus ridership and three effective bus policies were defined. Important elements of successful policies include complete bus network, high frequency of buses and mileage subsidy. These policies have brought high growth to once very low bus ridership in Taichung City. This type of research process helped to provide an understanding of actual outcomes of past policies, as well as to obtain key factors, which can be used to continue to formulate or adjust public transportation policies. The results of this study may serve not only as a reference for formulating bus strategy in Taichung City, but also for providing direction in the development of public bus service in similar-sized cities.