RT 42 – Peter White – Public Transport Research in the UK

RT 42 – Peter White – Public Transport Research in the UK

Researching Transit – Episode 42

Published: March 2023

Keywords: Public transport, deregulation, privatisation, minibuses, high frequency, teaching, park-and-ride bus

This episode of Researching Transit again comes to you all the way from the United Kingdom, as Prof Graham Currie chats with (Emeritus) Prof Peter White from the University of Westminster. Peter has had a long and varied career in teaching and research at Westminster, having joined the university in 1971, back when it was known as the Polytechnic of Central London. He became a Professor in 1992 and has been Emeritus Professor of Public Transport Systems since 2015. Peter is also the author of Public Transport: its Planning, Management and Operation, which is now in its sixth edition (2017) having first been published in 1976.

Graham and Peter discuss the privatisation and deregulation of much of the UK’s public transport networks. They discuss Peter’s research in this area, including work looking at the use of minibuses to provide higher-frequency services with lower operating costs per vehicle. Graham ad Peter touch on some of the trade-offs involved, how the cost of the driver and whether there is a differentiation between wages for driving large and small buses can impact operational planning, and the importance of frequency in public transport.

Peter has had, and continues to have, an active role in teaching at the university. He and Graham discuss Peter’s current involvement in this area, and how this ties in with his research. Peter also discusses some of the master’s research he has supervised on the societal costs of car miles travelled to reach bus park-and-ride, looking at how longer rural car trips to reach park-and-ride facilities may be preferable to shorter car trips that penetrate into urban centres.

Find out more about Peter and his work at:

Note:  The bus based park and ride research paper mentioned by Peter White (20 mins) was undertaken by Gareth Mills and Peter White;  It is the paper: Gareth Mills, Peter White (2018) “Evaluating the long-term impacts of bus-based park and ride” Research in Transportation Economics, Volume 69, 2018, Pages 536-543.

 

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Music from this episode is from www.purple-planet.com

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  • Date March 26, 2023
  • Tags Podcast