A Review and Prospect of Urban Public Transit Level-of-Service Research

This paper systematically sorts out the development of the concept of service level of the transportation system, and analyzes the connotation of service level from focusing on road design to the expansion of multi-mode and operation fields. This paper proposes that the components of public transportation service level are divided into two parts: efficiency and comfort. It is mainly related to the design of transportation products and the subjective feelings of travelers. This paper reviewed and commented on the evaluation and grading research on the service level of public transportation system. These evaluation methods corresponded to the constituent elements of service level, and were divided into objective evaluation based on transportation efficiency and subjective evaluation based on feeling survey and analysis. Due to differences in national conditions, the existing relevant service level classifications issued by the American Transportation Research Council may not be universal. Afterwards, the research and practice of public transport service level in my country are reviewed, and it is pointed out that the existing norms in our country do not clearly define the connotation of public transport service level, and there is no systematic classification applicable to our country. This paper analyzes the difficulties in improving the service level from the perspectives that the formation of public transport service level is global, the evaluation factors are complex, there are many links involved in passenger travel, and government support and investment are required. Finally, three areas worthy of further research in the future are pointed out: the connotation and evaluation of public transportation service level based on the whole travel chain; the measurement method of public transportation system service level considering the uneven distribution of service quality; the satisfaction survey focusing on passenger perception differentiation and service level assessment methods based on modern information technology. And put forward suggestions for promoting the construction strategy of public transport operation quality and efficiency with service level as the starting point.