ANALYSIS OF SHORT-RANGE TRANSPORTATION POLICIES FOR THE PARIS REGION

The RATP, the Paris regional transit authority, has been conducting a study with the aim of proposing a short term policy program for improving the efficiency of the transportation system in the Ile-de-France region. One of the transportation problems of the area is traffic congestion which, among other things, is very detrimental to bus operations. A small increase in the use of public transport and decrease in the use of private vehicles would potentially result in improved functioning of the system and savings in time, energy and public expenditure. In the study, a set of individual measures to reduce automobile use (parking restrictions, traffic restraint, etc) and increase the use of transit (traffic control with priority to buses, extension of express bus network, etc) were analysed. After analysis of the individual measures, appropriate packages of measures in which the disadvantages of one measure to some groups of travellers are compensated for by advantages obtained from other measures, applied at the same time, were defined and analysed. In this way, recommendations on packages of measures could be made. The analysis methodology used disaggregate choice models for estimation of demand effects together with aggregate level-of-service models for the supply side. (TRRL)