• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.123-133
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• 2007

This study analyzed whether a transit network with hierarchy is efficient or not, and if transit network hierarchy has cost efficiency, then which condition guarantees the efficiency of the transit network hierarchy. The authors modeled the total cost of the transit network and suggested the conditions in which the transit network hierarchy has cost efficiency through comparing the cost of the transit network with and without hierarchy. The efficiency of transit network hierarchy is guaranteed when the travel cost savings induced by using a higher hierarchy transit network is larger than the increasing non-travel cost, which is the sum of access cost, waiting cost, and operating cost, induced by the introduction of a higher hierarchy transit network. This result is consistent with common sense and with the concept of cost and benefit analysis. If a passenger traveling within the area divided by a higher hierarchy transit network uses only a lower hierarchy transit network and the passenger traveling out of the area divided by the higher hierarchy transit network uses both lower and higher hierarchy transit networks, the travel demand using the higher hierarchy transit network is inversely proportional to the square of the line spacing. This means that the transit network becomes more efficient and small increases of travel demand guarantee the efficiency of the transit network hierarchy as the connectivity of the network becomes higher. This result shows that transit networks have economies of aggregation. This study is the first analytical research on transit network hierarchy and is expected to be a basis for numerical research. However, numerical research should complement this study, since analytical research has some limitations for considering a real network.