Modal Split of Participants

In the survey, the students were asked to mark their transportation choices from their trip origin points (homes or regularly visited places for dormitory residents) to their trip end points (METU Campus-departments of each individual or dormitories for

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METU Campus residents). Both the first choices of mode and the modes used in transfers have been emphasized. It should be remembered that the survey was conducted on December 2014 and on May 2015, after the introduction of the M2 line (Koru-Çayyolu metro) that provides metro access to METU Campus. Consequently, transportation choices of the students in Ankara transport network, including the metro service, the most reliable, the fastest and highest capacity public transport mode, could be investigated easily. Besides, in the very first hand, it has been possible to emphasize the usage share of metro and other public transport choices namely bus and dolmuş. Depending on the shares of modes, it was possible to emphasize and compare different modes in the current situation.

The students were asked to state the first transport mode that they use in their travels between the city and the campus, together with a follow up question on whether they make a transfer in these journeys and what mode they would transfer to.

Consequently, the question revealed their choice of mode(s) from their trip origin (their homes for inner city residents) to their destination (their departments). In here, it is important to indicate that, METU campus (dormitory) residents have also answered this question as their returning back mode choice to the campus from “the most common place they prefer to go regularly”. When the outcomes of this question are evaluated, it is seen that dolmuş is quite dominant in the modal split of METU Campus users (See Table 9). Even though there are many access options including the metro, dolmuş still has the highest share with 41.6% in the first trips of first mode used by the students in METU. However, this outcome should be evaluated together with the follow-up question regarding whether there is a mode they transfer – because it is possible that students use dolmuş at the start of their journeys and then transfer to another mode, such as the metro or the reverse is possible. Only after that kind of assessment it will be possible to deduce a model split from the surveys.

Private car ranks second in the choice of mode for students, although its share is much lower than that of dolmuş only 17.7% in total. At this point, it is important to emphasize again that one of the four urban rail lines directly connects to the main entrance of METU campus, and that there is also a ring system operating between the main entrance and the departments to support the metro in the peak hours, during which most students come to the campus. This service is provided free of charge by the university. Furthermore, as stated before, there is a smart card system in Ankara

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that has been in effect since 2012; and this card provides free transfers to students when transferring between metro and public buses (although not valid on dolmuş and privately operated buses).

As a sub-zone, METU campus is one of the most accessible areas for the municipality in terms of transportation services. However, it seems that these improvements alone are unable to encourage the usage of the metro system or buses, and that a high percentage of students prefer dolmuş. If the private buses (on the third rank) are also considered, private entrepreneurs’ share increases to more than 50% (See Table 7). Since this question is about the first travel mode used starting from the origin, the outcomes may indicate that most students are not in walking distance to the metro to take this mode as the first travel mode; and that in such cases they prefer dolmuş to both EGO Buses and private buses. Besides, 234 of the respondents of this question are METU campus residents and their trips are not commuting trips actually. As most of them travel out of campus for leisure trips their choice could be misleading.

Table 6. First Mode Preferred from the Trip Origin of the Participants (N= 622) Transportation Mode Frequency Valid (%)

Dolmuş (Minibus - Jitney) 259 41.6

Private Car 110 17.7

Private Bus 63 10.1

Metro (Kızılay – Çayyolu Line) 44 7.1

Municipality (EGO) Bus 41 6.6

Walking + Bicycle 40 6.5

Metro (Bilkent – Sincan Line) 23 3.7

Hitchhiking 29 4.7

Private Services 4 0.6

Others (Taxi – Motorcycle - Cablecar) 9 1.5

Total 622 100

Although a high percentage of students choose to use dolmuş at the start of their journey, many users also stated that they use other options, as shown in the above table. As explained above, this may be either because of the lack of dolmuş service in

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the vicinity to their homes or because there is a more convenient option. However, for a better understanding transfer choices should be evaluated in detail, too. It should not be forgotten that, as the second most populated metropolitan city in Turkey, travelling from one location to another location within one public transpot trip is not common in Ankara.

When the transfers from the first trips of the first choices are considered, out of these 622 students, 176 of them are transferring one time, 50 of them are transferring two times and only 4 of them are transferring three times. The results of transfers show that 51 of the 176 students transfer to the metro after the first leg of their journey.

However, still in the second trip of the journey, 54 of the students transfer to the dolmuş after the first leg of their journey. In other words, dolmuş is the most dominant mode both in the first and in the second trips of the participants’ travels.

When high metro accessibility of METU campus is considered, it is an unexpected result. Hitchhiking, which is a travel method used only within the campus, is also high with 32 of 176 students, showing that some students arrive at the entrances of the campus (possibly using the metro or bus services that do not terminate inside the campus) and then hitchhike to their departments. Only after second transfers in the third and fourth trips, dolmuş becomes the third mostly chosen mode by the students.

However, even in the fourth transfers dolmuş becomes the third preference of the students. In total, the share of dolmuş is again not negligible. 50 of 230 total transfers are made by dolmuş in the first choices of students. Although there is poor route integration; and no ticket integration between dolmuş and the conventional public transport network, it would not be wrong to say that, there is still an important percentage of those that transfer to dolmuş (See Table 8).

In the second section of the analyses, with reference to the high share of dolmuş in modal split, inferences of the users about the integration of different transportation options will be evaluated in detail. Especially for dolmuş, it is important to emphasize the integration expectancies of users with such modes as public buses, private buses and the metro. Currently, dolmuş is operating as a mode competing with conventional modes rather than a feeder service to them. Especially, the evaluation of metro and dolmuş comparison was one of the basic research topics for this particular study because, the emphasis of new metro line has not been made yet and the satisfaction level of the new metro line would provide a possible scenario.

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Table 7. Transfers from the Firstly Preferred Mode Mode

5.3.3. Comments of Participants on Possible Public Transport