Improving Method of Deficit Routes on Urban Buses Based on Smart Card Data in Taichung City

Since 1980, citizens have a negative impression on bus system in Taichung city. The local government introduced strategies to improve the service quality of bus system. The bus reform starting from 2000 have successfully increased the bus ridership from 0.4 million per month in 2000 to 10 million per month in 2014. The successful bus reform in Taichung City is a great example for other similar cities. Although the use rate the ridership of urban bus are remarkably, 80 percent routes belongs to the deficit routes. Huge deficit of bus routes would give a great financial pressure for government. The object of research aims to build up a structural analysis on improvement of deficit bus routes and propose a new improvement method in order to reduce the serious deficit. Thus, using the smart card data to find out the worst routes and giving a revised direction is fundamental. The improved routes and service status can effectively decrease the subsidies required and provide more acceptable bus service.