Transportation Management and Its Efect on the Economy of Iran

1
Transportation Management and Its Efect on the Economy of
Iran:
Hamidreza Ansari Joveini
MSc in Civil Enginering, Islamic Azad University, Langroud Branch
[email protected]
Rahman Ansari Jubani
MA in Management, Islamic Azad University, Langroud Branch
[email protected]
Abstract:
Study of the curent situation of the urban bus systems of Iran shows diferent kinds of
obstacles and problems, including organizational and instiutional structure, manpower
structure, equipment structure and financial structure. This article with the tile of “Transportation Management and Its Efect on the Economy of Iran” is prepared for the
beter identifcation ofthe public transportation system’s problemsin Iran and provides some
solutions to increase the system’s eficiency. One of the main economic – social activites is
transportation which has a special positon in the modern societies. On the other hand, a
signifcant proportion of the urban pasenger transportation in Iran is undertaken by the bus
systems which are managed under the supervision of municipalites. As encouraging people
to use the public transportation is very important, designing a system which has the minimum
financial, organizational and manpower problems has a high priority. In other words, the
general conditon of the bus system must be designed so that not only mets the pasengers’
neds properly, but also has the required eficiency in terms of financing costs, combination
of manpower,and combination of transportation flets and the equipment structure.
Keywords:Bus system, transportation management, public transportation vehicles.2
Introduction:
In this article, while presenting an image of eficiency indices of the urban bus system such
as financial structure, manpower structure, equipment structure and the combination of
transportation flets, and some quality indices, we study and compare diferent bus systems.
In this regard, urban bus systems of Iran are divided into 3 categories of les than 50, 50 to
10 and more than 10 active buses in each bus system. This category leads to the
comparison of cites with similar bus systems. In this article, while studying the indices
relating to the aforementioned structures, an apropriate index is developed. Among cites of
Iran, 48 cites have bus systems which cover a population more than 25 milion people. It is
worth mentioning that in the category of cites with bus systems, Tehran city is not placed in
the category because it has a special conditon (administrative and politcal center, etc.) Also,
it must be explained that Rasht city is placed in the average category (50 to 10 buses).
Curently, the urban bus system of Iran has many problems, including financing costs, the
low share of operating revenue relative to the total revenue and the high level of the
government subsidies. The high dependence of bus systems on thegovernment subsidies is
another problem which is resulted from their failure in making more operating revenue.
However, granting subsidies is among the government’s policies to faciltate citzens’
transportation (citzens who have low incomes and are not able to have personal cars), there
is stil an imbalance betwen the country’s revenues and the bus system’sexpenses. In order
to achieve this goal, the existing problems and insuficiencies must be identified,strategies
must be provided and apropriate criteria must be developed and introduced. Basicaly, a
research must have specifed determinant objectives which without hem it is not posible to
conduct a research. Acording to the isues mentioned and the signifcance of basic and
strategic objectives, this research is conducted as folows. The main objective of the research
is to develop apropriate indices for financial, manpower and equipment structures in the
urban bus systems of Iran. The strategic objective of the research includes: developing
apropriate indices of the financial structure in terms of the combination of revenues and
expenses, the subsides ratio in the total revenue and expenses, the coverage of revenue
sources relative to the total expenses, and the ratio of the coverage of operating and non- operating revenues to the total expenses. Although other countries’ indices are a god basis
for observing the conditon of the country’s urban bus system among similar countries, but3
they canot be an apropriate criterion for us, because the existing economic, social and
cultural diferences make it imposible, and it is clear that isues such as people’s culture and
income level, and the urban structure lead to these diferences. The strategic research
hypothesis and question is that whether indices and criteria of the eficiency of Iran’s bus
system are in an apropriate conditon in the present situation or not. Therefore, the strategic
questions in the research project include: Are financial, manpower and equipment indices in
an apropriate situation and how is the status of external indices of the system? Acording to
the above question, this question is posed: What are apropriate indices of diferent structures
of the urban bus system in Iran? This question is the basic question of the present research.
Research Methodology:
The research proces is as folows:
1- Exploratory studies on the preparation of indices of the bus system’s eficiency and its
documents.
2- Data extraction, proces and clasifcation. 3- Information analysis and the explanation of the curent situation of urban bus systems. 4- Developing apropriate indices of the urban bus system.
5- Developing strategies and sugestions. The lack of required theoretical sources of apropriate indices and determination of these
sources for the urban bus system is the most important problem of the present study. For
obtaining the mentioned information, Plan and Budget Organization’s libraries, Tehran
University, Department of Transportation of Sharif University of Technology, Amirkabir
University of Technology, Tehran Transportation and Trafic Comprehensive Research
Company, and ShahidBeheshti University were studied and only the bok “JanesUrban
Transport System” included some required information. For obtaining the apropriate
indices, first urban bus systems of Iran are clasifedin thre groups based on the number of
active buses and in each group, first he curent situation is studied and then, an apropriate
index is developed. The population of the areas under the coverage of bus systems in
diferent cites of the country (except Tehran) ranges from 83,00 people for
MasjedSoleyman to 2,157,00 people for Mashad. As the number of buses used in the urban
bus system results from the ned of each city and the number of active buses in each city4
indicates the population of that city, instead of using the population of each city in the
clasifcation of the thre groups and developing apropriate indices, the number of active
buses was used and the apropriate indices were separately determined for each of the thre
groups.
Findings:
Acording to the number of buses used in bus systems of diferent cites and the number of
active buses of the public transportation flet, the number of existing active buses (47 bus
systems except Tehran bus system) was studied and clasifed in thre groups as folows:
1- Bus systems with les than 50 active buses, 2- bus systems with 51 to 10 active buses,
and 3- bus systems with more than 10 active buses.
Table 1: Thre categories of urban bus systems of Iran
Group Name of City Number Percent
1 Maragheh – Khoy – Khomeini Shahr – Kashan – Najaf
Abad – Ilam – Bushehr – Shahrekord – Bojnourd – Birjand
– Sabzevar – Neishabor – Abadan – Khoramshahr – Dezful – MasjedSoleiman – Semnan – Zabul – Kurdistan – Borojerd – Amol – Babol – Sari – Qaemshahr – Gorgan – Bandar Abas – Malayer
27 57.4
2 Ardabil – Islamshahr – Qazvin – Zanjan – Zahedan – Rasht – Tehran – Arak – Hamadan – Yazd
10 21.3
3 Tabriz – Urmia – Isfahan – Qom – Karaj – Mashad – Ahvaz – Shiraz – Kerman – Kermanshah
10 21.3
Total ————————– 47 10
Table 2: Clasifcation of the second group of the urban bus system of Iran acording to the population size and
the number of active buses
Name of City Population (1,00 people) The Number of Active
Buses
The Number of Active
Buses + (the Number of
Minibuses divided by 2)
Ardabil 30 70 15
Islamshahr 240 53 240
Qazvin 29 73 143
Zanjan 281 63 635
Zahedan 420 81 101
Rasht 374 80 8
khoramabad 27 61 68
Arak 378 67 13
Hamadan 406 82 93
Yazd 306 78 81
Buses of a bus system ned money for the maintenance management system which must be
suplied by the revenues made, and as the number of active buses is very important in
making revenues in the bus system, considering the number of active buses and total buses is
signifcantly important in terms of the method of providing services and the method of
making revenues. In the second group, 5, 3 and 2 bus systems are 90%, 72-85% and 58-63%, respectively. The average ratio of active buses to the total buses is 82.2% and their average
lifetime is 4.8 years which are in a god situation, and among the second group buses, only
Hamadan and Yazd buses have an average lifetime of over 7 years (i.e. those bus systems
among the second group which have the les ratio of active buses to the total buses) which
shows a direct relationship betwen the ratio of active buses to the total buses with an average
lifetime. Acording to the apropriate conditon of the second group buses (both in terms of
high ratio of active buses to the total buses and the low level of buses’ lifetime), the value of
85 to 90% can be an apropriate criterion for the mentioned index in the second group. As the
mentioned ratio in the curent situation is 90% and more in 5 bus systems and is close to this
percent in thre bus systems, the value of 85 to 90% is logical for the mentioned ratio, and
Hamadan and Yazd bus systems must atempt to achieve the sugested criterion which
requires the lower level of average lifetime of buses in these bus systems. The average ratio
of active buses to the total buses was 78.6% for 106 bus systems in 250 cites of the world
which their information was available and this ratio was 81.7% for the triple bus systems of
Iran. Therefore, the urban bus systems in Iran have a beter conditon compared to the urban
bus systems in other cites of the world. Regarding the average lifetime of buses, it must be
mentioned that “as a bus is the fixed property of a bus system and the anual depreciation
percent is usualy considered for fixed properties, by asuming 15 to 20% anual depreciation
rate for a bus, its useful life is on average 7 years which is introduced as an apropriate
index”. The clasifcation of urban buses in this regard does not make any diference. So, for
urban buses of Iran with 15% anual depreciation rate, the average lifetime of 7 years is
introduced as an apropriate index. The high level of bus lifetime leads to the increase of6
maintenance expenses and also has environmental consequences, including air polution and
noise polution which are harmful for citzens and some measures must be taken in this
regard. In the second group bus systems, the minimum average bus lifetime is related to
Ardabil and Islamshahr bus systems with 3.1 years and the maximum one is related to
Hamadan bus system with 7.3 years. In this group, 20% of bus systems (2 bus systems) have
an average bus lifetime of more than 7 years and others (80%) les than 7 years. The average
bus lifetime in the second group is 4.8 years which has the minimum value among the thre
groups. The average bus lifetimes for Ahmedabad (India), Kolkata and other 26 cites in other
countries are 1.3, 4.4 and 6.5 years, respectively which show that he situation of urban bus
systems of Iran (without considering Tehran bus systems) is apropriate and favorable
compared to urban bus systems of other countries. In terms of the urban population size, for
each active bus, the number of required buses in a city must have a direct relationship with
the population and the amount of travel demand so that he thre-groupclasifcation of urban
bus systems of the country confirms it (table 2).
In the second groupof bus systems with the urban population of 3,31,00 people and 105
total active buses, for each 2,96 people, there is one bus. The maximum urban population
for each active bus is related to Zanjan bus system with 4,460 people and the minimum one is
related to Islamshahr bus system with 1,00 people for each active bus. From al bus systems
in the second group, only the urban population of Islamshahr bus system is les than 250,00
people and others are more than 250,00 people in which 9, 6 and 3 cites have the
population of more than 250,00, more than 30,00 and 250,00 – 30,00 peoples,
respectively. In this group, the urban population rate is les than 3,00 people for each active
bus in thre bus systems and is more than 3,00 people in other bus systems (7 bus systems).
The mentioned average ratio for the total urban bus systems of Iran (47 bus systems) is 2,426
people and the global average is 3,74 people. The reason of high value of the ratio in 104
cites of the world can be the presence of other public transportation systems such as metro,
tramway and urban train and alike, while in Iran, among diferent public transportation
systems, only bus is used. The mentioned indices for some Asian cites are as folows:
Yokohama 3,524 people, Ankara 3,33 people, Karachi 23,30 people, Singapore 1,104
people, Ahmedabad 5,55 people, Hong Kong 13,960 people.
As curently, the urban bus system is the main public pasenger vehicle in the cites of Iran
and there are no other public transportation systems such as metro, tramway and urban train7
in the country, bus is the only public transportation vehicle which transports a large volume
of pasengers in cites. As most bus pasengers in our country are people without personal
cars or with low incomes, it is sugested that by ading the number of active buses in the
triple bus systems of the country, the index rates in the first, second and third groups decrease
to 3,00, 2,50 and 1,50 people, respectively. For determining the average daily pasenger
transportation per bus, this ratio must be calculated through the total number of daily
pasenger transportationin an urban bus system divided by the total active civilan and
supervisory buses plus the half number of active civilan and supervisory minibuses. In the
second group of bus systems, the maximum index rate is related to Rasht bus system with
1,51 people and the minimum rate is related to Islamshahr with 750 people. In the total bus
systems in the second group, thre bus systems (30%), six bus systems (60%) and only Rasht
bus system (10%) transported les than 1,00, 1,44 – 1,148 and more than 1,50 (1,151)
pasengers, respectively by one bus per day. The average index rate for the second group of
bus systems is 1,171 people per day. The main index for the total urban bus systems of Iran is
1,030 people and its average is 637 people. In other words, buses in the total bus systems of
Iran transport pasengers 1.6 times more than other countries’buses which show the lack of
buses in our country’s bus system. The average daily pasenger transportation per bus can be
one of the indices of the travel convenience. In other words, the high rate of this index
indicates the more presure and crowd of pasengers and therefore, the ratio of seated
pasengers to stod-up pasengers increases and consequently, pasengers wil be
uncomfortable. Acording to the mentioned cases, in this regard, the urban bus system of Iran
has an inapropriate conditon compared to urban bus systems of other countries in the world.
As the low rate of the mentioned index shows the high number of active buses in a city and
also, the high number of active buses can afect the policy of encouraging people to use
public transportation vehicles which leads to the reduction of environmental polution, especialy in large cites, it is sugested to decrease the mentioned index which sems to be
logical. But, acording to the financial status of the urban bus systems of the Iran which
canot purchase many buses in order to decrease the daily pasenger transportation per bus to
the minimum value, the average daily pasenger transportation is 90 to 1,10 people per
active bus that sems to be apropriate and therefore, this value is sugested as an optimal
index. Regarding the average distance betwen bus stations, it is worth mentioning that based
on the studies conducted, the average distance betwen bus stations in interurban lines of 47
cites with bus systems (except Tehran) is 562 meters and in the second group of bus systems,
it is 678 meters. The average distance betwen stations in interurban lines of 63 urban bus8
systems in other countries is 385 meters, the distance betwen stations is les than 40
metersin 65% of cites, and it is 40 to 80 metersin 35% of the cites. Therefore, the average
distance betwen stations is not more than 80 meters among diferent bus systems in the
world which are under study, while this distance is more than the previously mentioned value
in 6.4% of Iran’s bus systems and only in 25% of bus systems of the country, it is les than
40 meters. Acording to the long distance betwen stations in most cites which have bus
systems, it is sugested to place stations in a proper distance from each other. Two points
must be considered regarding the distance betwen stations: The high distance betwen
stations leads to the increase of waitng time of pasengers in the bus stations and the low
distance betwen stations leads to the decrease of the bus sped in the interurban lines, both
of which are inconsistent with the convenience of traveling by bus because the short waitng
time in stations and spending a limited time to arive to the destination are characteristics of
the travel’s convenience. The average distance betwen stations in some cites of the Asian
countries is as folows:
Kawasaki 380 meters, Istanbul 40 meters, New Delhi 50 meters, andHiroshima 350 meters.
Table 3: Indices of the urban bus systems of Iran (the second group)
Row Name of City Percent of
active buses
to the total
buses
The average
bus and
minibus
lifetime
(year)
The city
population
for each
active bus
The average
daily
pasenger
transportation
per bus
(people)
The average
distance
betwen
stations
(meter)
1 Ardabil 90 3.1 2870 1304 412
2 Islamshahr 10 3.1 100 750 2750
3 Qazvin 90 3.4 2090 1203 473
4 Zanjan 85 3.4 460 144 579
5 Zahedan 90 5 4158 91 402
6 Rasht 78 6.6 4250 151 40
7 Khoramabad 74 4.4 4073 941 279
8 Arak 94 3.2 345 1212 567
9 Hamadan 58 7.3 4365 1290 58
10 Yazd 63 7.2 378 148 325
Average —– 82.2 4.8 396 171 6789
The average bus sped is an index of quality performance which can be considered in the
evaluation of the system’s performance. The average bus sped is the distancetraveled by a
bus in 1hour from the origin to the destination. One of the reasons of the signifcance of using
personal cars and taxies inside cites is the sped and the limited time of transportation by
vehicles. Acording to the studies conducted, the average bus sped in Iran’s bus systems is
15.2 kph. As this sped in a city is a function of diferent factors, including the demand rate
of travel in that city, the average distance betwen stations, urban trafic management
systems and networks, etc., the mentioned index is calculated without considering the triple
clasifcation of urban bus systems. Only in 3% of cites in other countries, the average bus
sped is les than 10 kph and in 26% of them, it is more than 20 kph. While in 87% of cites
with bus systems in Iran, it is les than 20 kph and only in aproximately 13% of cites, it is
more than 20 kph (table 4). The average bus sped in regular bus lines of the bus systems in
127 cites in the world is 17.7 kph and in other cites of Asian countries, it is as folows:
Bangkok 18 kph, Istanbul 13.5 kph, Lahore 17 kph, Ahmedabad 12 kph, and Kagoshima 15
kph.
Acording to the signifcance of the increase of sped which can afect he improvement of
bus systems’ performance and the increase of the number of pasengers, it is sugested that
this isue is paid atention in bus systems with the average bus sped of les than 15 kph. The
sped of at least 15 kph is sugested as an apropriate criterion for the urban bus systems of
Iran. Table 4: The average bus sped in cites with bus systems in Iran (the second group)
Row Name of City The Average Bus Sped
per Hour (kilometer)
1 Ardabil 16.8
2 Islamshahr 26.4
3 Qazvin 13.5
4 Zanjan 12
5 Zahedan 10
6 Rasht 18
7 Khoramabad 8
8 Arak 13.4
9 Hamadan 12.5
10 Yazd 1310
Regarding the average waitng time of pasengers in the bus stations, the most important
problems relating to the mentioned index in urban bus systems in Iran are as folows:
1- The crowd of pasengers and long waitng time in bus stations, due to the lack of a
schedule for the activity and frequency of bus movements.
2- The lack of apropriate distribution of buses relative to the pasengers transportation
demand in diferent lines.
For solving these problems, it is sugested:
1- For the flet movement in lines and their entry into the stations, a schedule must be
designed and implemented so that pasengers can go to stations based on the
schedule.
2- Buses must be alocated based on the pasengers transportation demand in diferent
lines.
In aditon, the ratio of stod-up pasengers to seated pasengers can be estimated through
studying the index of “the average pasenger’s transportation per bus”. In other words, the
high rate of the index of the average pasengers’ transportation per bus indicates more
presure and crowd of pasengers, and consequently, pasengers wil be inconvenient and the
low rate of the index of the average pasengers’ transportation per bus indicates the low ratio
of stod-up pasengers to seated pasengers. Therefore, in this regard, urban bus systems in
Iran have an inapropriate conditon compared to bus systems of other countries. The average
daily transportation per bus for al urban bus systems in Iran is 1,030 people for each bus and
its global average is 637 people. Therefore, it is sugested that by ading the number of
active buses in al urban bus system of Iran which leads to the decrease of daily pasenger
transportation per bus, the ratio of stod-up pasengers to seated pasengers is reduced.
Discusion and Conclusion:
The study of the curent situation of financial, manpower, equipment and qualitative
structures of bus systems in Iran indicates that indices under study do not have an apropriate
situation. The inapropriate situation of indices under study led to the decrease of the
system’s eficiency. Although bus is the only public transportation vehicle in the cites under
study in Iran, it has a low level of performance and many shortcomings in terms of equipment
and facilties. The number of buses in bus systems of Iran is low compared to the population1
size of cites and the average daily pasenger transportation per bus is an index similar to
other cites in the world. Therefore, pasengers canot ravel conveniently. The long waitng
time in stations and the low average of bus sped are some of the problems of bus systems in
Iran. Therefore, considering apropriate (sugested) criteria, it must be atempted to solve the
problems of urban bus systems in Iran (table 5).
Table 5: Financial, equipment and qualitative structures’ indices for urban bus systems in Iran (sugested)
Row Index The average
curent situation
of the second
group
The average
curent situation
in Iran
Global average The sugested
criterion for the
second group
1 The ratio of
active buses to
total buses
82.2 81.7 78.6 85-90
2 The average bus
and minibus
lifetime in bus
systems (year)
4.8 5.7 6.5 7
3 Urban
population for
each bus
(people)
296 2426 374 250
4 The average
daily pasenger
transportation
per bus (people)
171 1030 637 90-10
5 The average
distance
betwen
stations (meter)
678 562 385 *
6 The average bus
sped
(kilometer)
14.4 15.2 17.7 15 (at least)
* based on the study of the special conditon of each city12
Acknowledgements:
The authors acknowledge the eforts of respectful experts and managing director of Rasht and
Suburbs Bus Transport Organization who helped them prepare and organize the research. It is
hoped that heir atempts are helpful in achieving the mentioned goals.
References:
1- Khosravi (207), “Public Transportation Flet”, Rasht Municipality Journal, No. 14.
2- Tanzadeh (209), “Trafic Enginering”, IliyaPrinting and Publishing Company, First
Editon, Tehran.