Metro/Tram Decision

[Antonio-John]

According to the UN methodology. This is the definition they use to distinguish low/high capacity transport.

Trams=low Metros=high

The NaPTAN stop data has the following codes for the stop types:

Metros & trams seems to have the same code. Therefore which is the best way to define their capacity type within the data? Currently the TMU, MET, PLU are all defined as high.

[paigeh-fsa]

We could distinguish between area e.g. if MET outside of London e.g. Manchester we could presume this is tram so low capacity and if MET in London we assume underground so high capacity.

[james-westwood]

Note: According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_London_Underground_stations there are 272 underground stations in London. It would be interesting to see if our count of "MET" stops in London correlates to this number. I don't expect an exact match though because some of the underground lines go overground at some points so I am not sure how they will be counted.

[james-westwood]

Capacity of a Manchester tram: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Metrolink#Current_fleet = 206 to 212

Capacity of an example double decker bus (Enviro400) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Dennis_Enviro400 = 64–90 Capacity of another double decker bus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCI_CitiRider = 26 to 99 seated

Seems the trams are > 2x the capacity of a double decker bus. Since many buses are also single decked (I do not know the proportion) this would bring the average capacity of transport in this category down further, and therefore delineating it even further from the tram.

Further research needs to be carried out on the capacities of London Underground trains and overground trains (local and national), to justify our decision here.

[james-westwood]

The capacity of the London underground is hard to establish. According to this analysis, the average, including standing passengers is 970 passengers across all lines.

Just the average seated capacity is 265 according to that analysis too, where as the seated capacity of trams is 60-66.

[james-westwood]

Just an idea, instead of this in the config:

high_cap_buffer: 1000
low_cap_buffer: 500

in the config, maybe we could have the function work with:

train_buffer: 1000
tram_buffer: 500
bus_buffer: 500
underground_buffer: 1000

or even something like

high_cap_buffer: 1000
low_cap_buffer: 500
# Capacity overrides, choose "default", "high" or "low"
train_cap: default
tram_cap: low
underground_cap: high
bus: default

[paigeh-fsa]

Could compare London and Manchester where London has underground and Manchester has tram. Are the stop types different? E.g. does Manchester use PLT and London use MET? And could we differentiate on that basis?

Could we group by LA and by stop type?

[paigeh-fsa]

If we cannot differentiate between tram and metro, this needs to be an assumption in our methodology.

[Antonio-John]

Created a branch for this as have to amend the code slightly to put LA data into stops_df. Will comment the branch name once pushed.

[jwestw]

From the UN methodology:

Low-capacity public transport system, in the context of indicator 11.2.1 includes systems such as buses, trams, and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), which largely run along the street network (including on dedicated lanes or tracks that follow the street network). These low-capacity public transport carriers are smaller in size and require less space for stopping-dropping-picking passengers (compared to high capacity carriers such as metros), meaning their stops can be provided within shorter distances to each other and along majority of the city streets. In countries where informal public transport systems are common, many paratransit services will fall under this category of public transport system. High-capacity public transport system, in the context of indicator 11.2.1 includes systems such as trains, metros and ferries. The carriers in this category of public transport system are large in size and require significantly large terminus infrastructure (eg metro stations) which makes it impossible to provide their stopping-dropping-picking stations (stops) within short distances. Majority of the carriers in this category also operate along dedicated infrastructure (eg metro-lines, waterways) and reach higher speeds than low capacity carriers. Several surveys have indicated that passengers are more likely to walk longer distances to access high-capacity than they would walk to access low-capacity public transport systems.

[jwestw]

This was settled. Trams are low capacity