Transport Cost Analysis of City Bus and Private Car Usage in Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Abstract

Researchers worldwide are engaged in the evaluation of the performance of urban travel modes. Economic cost comparison studies are commonly used as instruments to substantiate the most favored mode in urban transport. This paper attempts to provide a comparison of current usage of city buses and cars in the Johor Bahru town of Malaysia. Technical costs, social costs and environmental costs are compared in ensuring accessibility and mobility on one hand and reducing accidents and environmental losses on the other. The study relates to a stretch of 14.5 km of 6-lane divided carriageway road connecting Pontian in the North and Johor Bahru, Malaysia, and Singapore in the South. Traffic data and Transport costs were obtained via primary and secondary sources. When car usage is involved, vehicle operating costs (VOC) was found to be three fold (RM 2.05/ person-km) than the VOC of bus usage (RM 0.7/ person-km). Similarly, social costs, which mainly included the cost of accidents, amounted to 80 times the accident cost associated with buses. Environmental costs were modeled based on speed and total vehicle volumes for CO, NOx, SOx, and PM10 emissions and were expressed as total investment in pollution control. The environmental costs were then calculated in terms of medical costs believed to be caused by the pollution. These pollution costs amounted to 15 times the pollution cost associated with buses. The total transport costs were then obtained to provide comparative evaluation of the study modes. Furthermore, multiple future scenarios were created to provide cost analyses over time periods and modal split cases. In this regard, this paper provided a framework for a cost evaluation approach for an urban area. Results indicated that city buses are more cost-effective than cars, assuming equality in the number of passengers.