Average travel time is better than the worst-case time calculated above. In the Direct Service network, everybody’s trip takes 35 minutes. In the Connective network, two-thirds of the market has a 30-minute trip, but one-third of the market (those still served by a direct route) have an even faster trip.
The Connective network is made of more frequent services. Frequency makes connections faster but it also stimulates ridership directly, especially when we consider the needs of people who have to make several trips in a day, or who want to travel spontaneously, and who therefore need to know that service is there whenever they need it.
The Connective network is simpler. A network of three frequent lines is much easier to remember than a network of nine infrequent ones. Marketing frequent lines as a Frequent Network can enhance the ridership benefits of this simplicity.
Most transit networks start out as Direct Service networks with relatively little focus on connections, but as the city grows bigger and more complex, connections become more important. In most cases, though, there’s a transition from a Direct Service network to a Connective one, a transition that often requires severing direct links that people are used to in order to create a connection-based structure of frequent service that is more broadly useful and legible.
以往南區未有鐵路嘅年代,當年單以 Direct Service 已經可以支持頻密網絡(一般所指非繁忙時間10-15分鐘一班以內嘅班次),但係而家南區好明顯已經無法支持 Direct Service ,並進入了減班趕客嘅循環,尤其是72A及75時間其班距比全程行車時間更長,有需要重組路線,目的係重製一個 Connective network,以「一邨一線」方式服務各邨,並將所有相關路線之非繁忙時間班次大幅加密至12分鐘以內,方便乘客轉車,而現時已經在12分鐘一班以內之路線則不作任何修改,以減少對主要乘客之影響。