This report describes the analysis of six index methods which have been developed to highlight areas of need for public transport services. The six methods were applied to three data sets, collected in Strathclyde, Gwent and Hampshire and consisting of population information from communities, enumeration districts and parishes respectively. The communities in each data set were then ranked by their scores from each method and the rankings analysed. These rankings of communities by different index methods were compared in a graphical way and also by calculating rank correlations. A sample of communities from the Strathclyde data set were also studied individually to see how they had been ranked by each index. Analysis of results did not reveal consistent trends in most cases for all three data sets. It was also difficult to predict likely results from the information used and the forms of the techniques. The more complex the index, and the more apparently relevant the information included, the harder such predictions became. Many arbitrary effects were found arising from both the form of the various index methods and from population characteristics within the data sets themselves. (Author/publisher)
Abstract