Abstract:
Colombo, the Capital of Sri Lanka, being the hub of commercial activities with the Port and
other key business establishments, the vehicle fleet entering the city has increased steadily
over the past decade. As a result the traffic congestion in Colombo has increased now to a
higher level that is too intense within the city limits causing uneasy in travelling and
inconvenience to road users. Further it was revealed that new registrations of the motor
vehicles have been on the significant rise during the recent past and many of them added to
the Colombo traffic fleet. [http://www.sundaytimes.lk/120212/News/nws_18.html] On the
other hand traveling speed has reduced during peak hours and thus travelers wasting time
on the roads, burning more fuel, as the number of vehicles on the roads keep increasing.
Park and Ride is a concept used in developed countries in which the car travelers who enter
the city center (or congestion area) park the cars in the designated peripheral zone and then
reach the destination by using public transport. This model believed to be helpful to reduce
the car traffic flow into the city center, relieve the traffic density and perfect the urban traffic
structure.
“City Liner” was the first Park and Ride operation in Sri Lankan context implemented in
2009. It was proved to be unsuccessful due to various reasons. The operation was then
reviewed and shortcomings were analyzed through a series of research and development
and the idea had emerged with Park and Ride operation integrated with a Mass Rapid
Transit (MRT) system for Colombo city.
The aim of this research paper is to analyze the major causes that contribute to a
sustainable Park and Ride operation with integrated Mass Rapid Transit for the Colombo
metropolitan region. In order to analyze the relationship between the public perceptive
factors and the Park and Ride behavior intent, it is necessary to understand the perception
levels of the related influencing factors of travelers through surveys. The study consists with
distribution of a questionnaire to travelers and the feed-back from them, who travel to the
Colombo city at least once a week. The survey was conducted both online and manual
basis.
The Park & Ride system will operate along with a MRT concept but that would not solely
address the car commuters. Hence over the phone interviews and questionnaires were
focused on all categories of commuters who travel to Colombo. In addition the questionnaire
focused on user preferences, drawbacks issues of existing system and expectations of
proposed system.
In the analysis stage, acceptability of Park and Ride Scheme and expectations on
improvements and characteristics were studied through frequencies, percentages, and other
basic statistical methods to outline a generalized profile of daily travelers to Colombo city
based on daily travelers personal travel behaviour. Meanwhile Chi-square tests were also
performed to obtain a deeper understanding of peoples’ personal background, Traveling
behaviour and Park and Ride acceptability. However, if the assumption of Chi-squared test
was found not to be satisfied the Fisher’s exact test was used.
According to the survey results there were 112 daily travelers out of 136 samples collected.
In general, for all modes of transport, daily travelers were highly concerned about the travel
time to Colombo city. Meanwhile public vehicle users were unhappy with the safety, comfort
and reliability of their service whilst private vehicle users were struggling to find suitable
parking slots in the City.
According to the result of statistical analysis, daily traveler’s income level, vehicle ownership,
age, and education level play a vital role to the acceptability of new Park and Ride Scheme.
But present transport conditions (mode of transport, travel time, travel distance and entering
tome to Colombo city) don’t affect much to the user perception for the Park & Ride. New
scheme must be designed to cater these major factors.
As per the survey results, it is evident that the daily travelers are expecting high assurance
of passenger safety, parking vehicle safety and reliability of service to accept new scheme.
Further, it is revealed that they are much concerned about the cleanness, operating
frequency and availability of cross-city transit but not the seating facilities, terminals/parking
sites facilities and cost of service.
Findings of this research about the user’s perceptions can be helpful to design a successful
and sustainable Park and Ride scheme to the suburb of Colombo city.
Citation:
Liyanagunawardena, G., & Bandara, J.M.S.J. (2015). Park & ride: factors affecting to the public acceptance [Abstract]. In H.R. Pasindu (Ed.), Proceedings of the Transportation Research Forum 2015 (pp. 30-31). Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa. https://uom.lk/sites/default/files/civil/files/TRF%202015_0.pdf