The Application of Hierarchical Cluster Analysis in the Evaluation of Urban Public Transportation

This paper uses the method of Hierarchical Cluster Analysis to research the development status of public transportation of 31 cities in China. The cities are divided into 8 kinds of groups. It will be useful for the transverse compare among the enterprises of transit. 1.Introduction In order to accurately orient the development status of urban public transportation, make cities know their own levels of transit and determine the direction of struggle henceforth, at last impel them to strengthen the management, raise working efficient, and realize the aim of reducing cost and achieving better benefit, it is necessary to compare transversely among cities. However, there are problems about comparable cities, evaluation indexes, and criteria. Because of the great disparities of the urban economic and society, it is useful to research the choice of comparable cities. Therefore, this paper clusters thirty-one big cities of China into eight groups using HCA (Hierarchical Cluster Analysis). 2. Hierarchical cluster analysis Cluster analysis is a classification method that study cluster of cases (or variables) in multifactor statistical analysis. This procedure attempts to identify relatively homogeneous groups of cases based on selected characteristics. HCA, one kind of method of cluster analysis, is applied widely. Any analysis of IDoctor, Transportation College of Jilin University, Changchun, 130025, Jilin, P.R.China.