R4TLI - 2020

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Browsing R4TLI - 2020 by Author "Dilini, KP"

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    item: Conference-Abstract
    Analysis of vehicle ownership attributes in Western Province, Sri Lanka
    (Sri Lanka Society of Transport and Logistics, 2020-11) Dilini, KP; Amalan, TP; Kumarage, AS; Gunaruwan, TL
    Vehicle ownership affects the ability of available road transport infrastructure to bear transport demand that is distributed across vehicle categories without causing traffic congestion and delay. This paper develops a mathematical model to predict motor vehicle ownership based on household characteristics. The model is tested using household visit surveys in the Western Province of Sri Lanka (CoMTrans study, 2014). The Province has the country’s highest population density (1,600/km2) and road density (0.9 km/km2) as well as a motor vehicle ownership of 206 vehicles per 1,000 people. The modelling is aggregated by the vehicle categories of motorcycles, three-wheelers, vans, and cars (including jeep, and pickup). The motor vehicle fleet is made up of 51% motorcycles, 20.2% three-wheelers, 6.7% vans, and 17.7% cars, apart from commercial vehicles. The purchasing cost of motor vehicles in Sri Lanka varies sharply due to different taxes imposed on importation. Binary Logistics Regression is developed in this study for six different scenarios to investigate the effect of five different socioeconomic factors on ownership of different vehicles in a household ranging from the least to the most expensive vehicle category. After removing households with missing values, the resulting estimation sample consisted of 35,850 households. It was found that the decision to own a private vehicle depends on the attributes of household size, average monthly household income, percentage of workers per household, percentage of school and kindergarten children per household, and the percentage of males in a household. Based on this analysis, middle- and low-income households demonstrate a preference for motorcycle and three-wheeler ownership, while high income households show a greater likelihood of car ownership. Furthermore, results confirmed that income had a positive effect on motor vehicle ownership and the type of vehicle they own; more so than any other socioeconomic variable. Households with more members prefer to own a van than a car. The number of members in a household is also seen to have a positive impact on both the type as well as number of vehicles. It is also found that the ownership of vehicles in a household increases when the percentage of males in a household increases: upon comparison of coefficients, this was observed to be strongest in the case of the ownership of motorcycle and three-wheeler and for vans. It was also found that owning a van is influenced by the number of school and kindergarten students in a household. Results show that the percentage of workers in a household has less influence on car ownership compared to motorcycle ownership: households tend to have more than one motorcycle when there have more workers. Finally, the analysis of household motor vehicle ownership could be refined using further variables such as the demand for public transportation, the number of drivers in a household and their ages, perception of the quality transportation services, and land use attributes.
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    item: Conference-Abstract
    Electronic card system to reduce queue length for tickets in Kollupitiya railway station
    (Sri Lanka Society of Transport and Logistics, 2020-11) Kandamby, DA; Karunarathna, S; Navodya, SY; Madhavika, K; Geevinda, YS; Jayasuriya, MD; Wijayarathna, RP; Fahim, RM; Dilini, KP; Gunaruwan, TL
    The public transportation sector influences the economy of a country directly and indirectly. Railway transportation is widely used in Sri Lanka, which is used daily by 18% of the total population. This paper is based on a case study of the queue length for tickets at the Kollupitiya railway station. The purpose of this paper is to develop and provide effective solutions to prevent long queues at ticket counters in railway stations in Sri Lanka by providing reliable and affordable service to the customers. The analysis is based on an online survey of 94 commuters which was done over six consecutive days in April 2020, which included four working days and two days of the weekend. All commuters were using the Kollupitiya railway station during evening peak hours and 96% were passengers between the ages of 18 and 30 years. Problems faced by these commuters were identified through a descriptive analysis with results showing that people spend around 9.6 minutes in the queue at the ticket counter. Usage of a season ticket is the only prevailing solution and was used by 44.7% of young passengers, but was not a satisfactory remedy since 45.8% of passengers were not regular users. Generalized cost theory and flow rate theory were used to mathematically derive solutions to determine optimum waiting time at ticket counters. Factors including travel time, travel cost, waiting time, and the number of people in the queue at the time of arrival were considered in the analysis. Time is taken as a proxy for the level of service of rail transportation and the solutions were derived to reduce the waiting time in the queue. Accordingly, three cost-effective solutions were identified to mitigate the formation of long queues. Among them, the implementation of an electronic card system was found to be the most optimal solution as it reduced waiting time as well as the cost of operating ticket counters. Since the rail transportation service acts as a monopoly in Sri Lanka, the whole system should be implemented, operated, and managed totally by the government. A cost-benefit analysis was done using details given in a proposed project by the Ministry of Finance Sri Lanka in 2019 as its reference. The analysis indicated that the government has the ability to recoup the money invested within a payback period of 0.88 years. Hence, there is a need to introduce an efficient and effective ticketing system to ensure the sustainability of the rail transportation in Sri Lanka. If successful, this system can be extended to apply to the bus transport system in Sri Lanka.