Evaluating the Service Quality in Multi-modal Transport Networks

The German Highway Capacity Manual HBS (Handbuch fuer die Bemessung von Strassenverkehrsanlagen, FGSV 2015) like other Highway Capacity Manuals provides a collection of methods for evaluating the Level of Service for single road facilities, i.e. a particular network element like a road segment, a ramp, or an intersection. The Level of Service of single road facilities (LOS) is derived from the volume capacity ratio, the delay time or the traffic density.In addition to the HBS the German guidelines provide a complementary Guideline for Integrated Network Planning RIN (Richtlinien für die integrierte Netzgestaltung, FGSV 2008) which is used for categorising transport networks and for evaluating the service quality in multi-modal networks. Here the LOS refers to entire journeys, i.e. to origin-destination-pairs. The most important indicator for evaluating the service quality of a particular od-pair is the direct speed (= direct distance / journey time). Journey time and the resulting direct speed include not only the in-vehicle time but also access and egress times which can reduce the speed of the entire journey significantly, especially in public transport. Additional indictors evaluation the directness and the travel time ratio of competing modes complement the set of indicators for evaluating the service quality. For each indicator the guideline provides evaluations functions for the service levels A to F which depend on the direct distance between origin and destination. This reflects the fact that speeds typically increase with longer distances while detour factor and travel time ratio decreases.The paper summarizes the approach of the guideline for evaluating the service quality and presents experience with the evaluation scheme collected in various applications covering car and public transport networks. It shows how the evaluation results can be used to recognize shortcomings in the network not only on the level of od-pairs but also to identify critical network elements. Finally the paper explains how the two guidelines HBS and RIN are connected.