Evaluation of urban public transportation efficiency in Kutahya, Turkey

In this study, the public transport system in the city of Kutahya and its current transportation problems were firstly mentioned. Then, the transit quality of service in Kutahya was evaluated from various aspects such as transit availability, comfort and convenience. For this purpose, at first, transit availability was examined in terms of service frequency, hours of service and service coverage. Secondly, the comfort and convenience provided by the transit system in Kutahya was studied. For this reason, the overall crowding levels within the vehicles, headway adherence, and transit-automobile travel time were considered. In order to carry out most of these analyses, the procedures in Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Report 100 were followed. However, determining the level of service of public transport in terms of transit-automobile travel time by comparing the public transport travel times with automobile travel times constituted the essence of this study. In order to accomplish this aim, the feature of “driving directions” in Google Maps was used in terms of being a reference to automobile usage. So, the travel times on all the bus transit lines in Kutahya were compared with private car travel times determined by Google Maps for the same routes. By founding the difference between the public transport and car travel times, the public transport service level in terms of transit-automobile travel time was evaluated. Finally, several recommendations for increasing public transport usage were given.