Diagnosis of Urban Public Transport in the City of Cáceres

• Published in: Procedia engineering 2016, Vol.161, p.1379-1384
• Main Authors: Jiménez-Espada, Montaña, González-Escobar, Rafael
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: accessibility; passage frequency; public transport; sustainable urban mobility; urban planning
• ISSN: 1877-7058; 1877-7058
• DOI: 10.1016/j.proeng.2016.08.659

The main objective of this study was to analyse the overall performance of the urban public transport franchise in the city of Cáceres, including its degree of use and the profiles of potential users. A further aim was to ascertain the motives for the journeys and the population's level of accessibility to the service, taking into account the city's current sustainable urban mobility plan. The intention is to provide a possible solution to the city's current problems of mobility. The frequent use of private vehicles over public transport for reasons of convenience creates congestion on the main access roads to the city centre, and generates the need for more parking spaces, sources of stress for the citizens and increasing the levels of environmental and noise pollution. The local administration and users’ satisfaction with the quality of their urban public transport service supports the conclusion that a service is being provided that is well adjusted to the particular needs of the city, promoting sustainable mobility and adaptation to the financial resources allocated to providing that service. However, there is room for improvement in its efficacy by implementing public transport lanes on high ADT (Average daily traffic) roads, increasing passage frequencies, encouraging interchanges, providing greater spatial coverage, and instituting traffic light priority systems for public transport.