The purpose of this study is to understand the operation status of night public transport in big cities and the potential needs of passengers, through a series of questionnaires and traffic surveys. Firstly, this paper analyzed the distribution of night passenger flow in time and space of several representative bus lines in Nanjing. Then the general rule of passenger flow attenuation with time and distance from the city centre is clarified. Secondly, through the network and on-site questionnaire research, the difference between the night trip group and the day trip group was found. Similarly, the frequency of trip during the day time and night time are also significantly different.Finally, the paper studied the purpose of different groups of people traveling at night and the reasons for choosing or not choosing public transport. The results show that passengers’ demand for night bus is significantly higher than expected. And the possibility of choosing a bus is highly correlated with waiting time, walking time and fare.

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