Public Transportation

Advanced Public Transportation Sytems; A Taxonomy, Commercial Availability And Deployment, Phase II

Khattak, Asad
Et. al.
1997

This study explores the development and availability of Advanced Public Transportation Systems (APTS) technologies. The study refines a taxonomy of transit technologies and uses it to explore the availability of new technologies and their impacts in transit agencies. THe taxonomy is based on defining the features, functions and performance characteristics of transit technologies. Based on the taxonomy, three surveys of technology suppliers were conducted. Questions were related to technology features, functions, performance, implementation, and impacts.0

Lane Assist Systems for Bus Rapid Transit, Volume II: Needs and Requirements

Zhang, Wei-Bin
Shladover, Steven
Cooper, Douglas
Chang, Joanne
Miller, Mark
Chan, Ching-Yao
Bu, Fanping
2007

This report defines the transit service needs that can be met by use of lane assistance systems and the requirements that these systems must meet in order to be useful and safe. The work is based on review of the existing literature and research on the subject of lane assistance, combined with case studies of several transit properties that could potentially benefit from use of lane assist systems. The project team has conducted workshops involving participation by a broad mix of people representing the transit properties in order to learn about the needs that they perceive, as well as...

Establishing Infrastructure Requirements for Bus Rapid Transportation Operations in Dedicated Bus Lanes

Monismith, Carl L., P.E.
Weissman, Shmuel L., PhD
Popescu, Lorina
Santero, Nicholas J.
2008

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) has the potential to improve mass transit service and contribute to reduced traffic congestion in urban areas. To achieve this improvement in service BRT will require the use of dedicated bus lanes together with lane assist and precision docking (LA/PD) to accelerate the passenger boarding process. Using this approach, BRT lanes can be reduced somewhat in width. However, such a reduction will result in increased channelization of traffic which in turn can lead to a more rapid development of pavement distress. With today’s improved pavement engineering technology, it...

Institutional Aspects of Bus Rapid Transit Operation

Miller, Mark A
Buckley, Stephen M.
2001

This report presents the findings of its investigation of institutional aspects of bus rapid transit (BRT) through both a macroscopic examination, a survey of members of the U.S. Bus Rapid Transit Consortium and several Canadian transit properties, and a more focused site-specific examination of three California BRT systems. The macroscopic examination resulted from a literature review, project team brainstorming meetings, and input from the Federal Transit Administration. Several dozen issues were identified and were grouped into nine categories that formed the basis of the survey:...

Smart Parking Pilot on the Coaster Commuter Rail Line in San Diego, California

Rodier, Caroline
Shaheen, Susan A.
Blake, Tagan
2010

Public transit authorities increasingly are harnessing advances in sensor, payment, and enforcement technologies to operate parking facilities more efficiently. In the short term, these innovations promise to enhance customer parking experiences, increase the effective supply of existing parking with minimal investment, and increase ridership and overall revenue. Over the longer term, these systems could further expand ridership by generating revenue to add parking capacity and improve access. This report describes the Smart Parking Pilot Project on the COASTER commuter rail line in San...

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Toolbox: Assessing Person Throughput to Measure Transportation Impacts for BRT Projects

Koling, Adam
Zhang, Wei-Bin
Zhou, Kun
Meng, Huadong
2018

This report studied person throughput as an impact metric for proposed BRT routes under Caltrans jurisdiction, given the agency’s specific interest in preserving or improving the performance of particular state-owned corridors. It also introduces a simple spreadsheet tool to estimate a BRT project’s traffic impact and show how improved bus service can boost corridor performance. Representatives of Caltrans D4, D7, and D11 were interviewed after tentative development of the tool, expressed support of a transition towards person throughput, and offered feedback on how the tool might best...

Advanced Information Techniques And Paratransit Services To Enhance Mobility Of Elderly And Disabled Travelers

Chen, Wan-Hui
Klaver, Kelley
Uwaine, Rochelle
Jovanis, Paul P.
1998

This study focused on determining whether advanced transportation services and information systems could enhance the mobility of disabled and elderly travelers in their use of transit, paratransit, or advanced paratransit services. The advanced proposed systems included regular paratransit and two advanced paratransit systems (real-time paratransit and real-time ridesharing) and five transportation information systems: computer, television, operator-assisted telephone, automated telephone, and personal information systems.

Development of BRT Architecture: A System Engineering Approach

Hickman, Mark
Tan, Chin-Woo
Lau, Peter
Zhang, Wei-Bin
2006

This report discusses the development of system architecture for Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) applications for Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems. In the course of the development of system architecture, it is critical to take a system engineering approach in the development of BRT architecture to assess BRT service needs (or features), the functional realization of these service needs and the means of technological implementation. Motivated by the National ITS architecture, the BRT architecture has a hierarchy of three layers: application, physical, and logical. The application...

Travlnfo Field Operational Test Evaluation: Target Study Final Results

Koo, Ronald
Yim, Youngbin
2000

This paper presents the final results of the Target Study conducted for the evaluation of the Travinfo Field Operational Test. Four waves of telephone surveys were conducted in 1997 and 1998 among commuters shortly after major incidents on a selected corridor. The case study corridor is a 16 mile segment of US 101 serving major cities between San Francisco and San Jose.The commuter surveys were aimed at an understanding of travel behavior when major incidents occur. The results of the surveys suggest that traveler behavior is not greatly affected by individual incidents causing delays of...

Evaluation Methodologies for ITS Applications

Gillen, David
Li, Jianling
1999

California’s Transportation Plan [CTP] was designed to set the course for the future of transportation in California.’ At the heart of the plan are three comprehensive policies; promoting the economic vitality of California by assuring mobility and access for people, goods, services and information, provide safe, convenient and reliable transportation and, provide environmental protection and energy efficiency. The Caltrans Strategic Plan in keeping with the CTP creates a vision of a balanced, integrated multimodal transportation network to move people, goods, services and information...