Public Transportation

Institutional Aspects of Bus Rapid Transit – A Macroscopic Examination

Miller, Mark A.
Buckley, Stephen M.
2000

This report investigated the institutional aspects of Bus Rapid Transit through a macroscopic examination of relevant issues ascertained through a literature review, a series of project team brainstorming meetings, and input from members of the Federal Transit Administration’s Bus Rapid Transit staff. The literature review provided insight into the history of Bus Rapid Transit concepts ranging from very early research in the United States in the late 1950s, continuing with dual mode systems and early busways in the 1960s and 1970s, international experiences in Latin America and Canada, and...

Productivity Benefits and Cost Efficiencies from ITS Applications to Public Transit: The Evaluation of AVL

Gillen, David
Chang, Elva
Johnson, Doug
2000

The research reported in this document uses Total Factor Productivity (TFP) techniques, with which we develop measures of productivity performance of public transit systems of varying sizes and locations, and use this baseline to examine the potential contribution of alternative ITS applications. TFP aggregates outputs on the basis of their revenue contribution and inputs on the basis of their relative importance to total costs to calculate the overall firm productivity as a function of these quantities. The focus of this research was how the opportunities for improving efficiency via AVL...

Evaluation of UC Davis Long-Range Transportation, Land-Use, and Housing Plans: Examining the Potential for Innovative Mobility Pilot Projects

Finson, Rachel S.
Shaheen, Susan A.
2001

At present, the City of Davis, surrounding communities, and the UC Davis campus are struggling with many of the same transportation problems that plague larger urban centers including increasing traffic, limited parking, and challenges to effective operation of the public transit system. The campus is expecting to grow by 6,000 students in the next ten years (plus approximately 3,000 faculty and staff) and is developing a Long-Range Development Plan (LRDP) that will serve to guide this growth. This plan will include housing, traffic control, parking, alternative transportation modes, and...

PATH ATMIS State of the Research Annual Report Fiscal Year 1999 / 2000

Tam, Robert
2000

This report summarizes PATH ATMIS research for fiscal year 1999/2000. In each of the brief project descriptions we state the objectives of the project and outline its status and some of its principal results. These descriptions are not intended to be comprehensive or complete, but rather to present a picture of the main thrusts of each of the reported projects. References are provided in the end of the report for more detailed information about particular projects. Taken together, the collection of project descriptions should give the reader an overview of the entire ATMIS research program...

Demand-Responsive Transit Shuttles: Who Will Use Them?

Anspacher, David
Khattak, Asad J.
Yim, Youngbin
2004

Large urban areas often have rail systems that rely on feeder buses to expand their service area. This paper explores the possibility of expanding access to existing rail transit systems through demand-responsive shuttles. The study analyzes the effect of several factors on an individual's willingness to use a door-to-station shuttle service. Using survey data collected in a case study of one urban and one suburban neighborhood (N=800) served by the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit, this paper uses descriptive statistics and ordered logit regression to investigate the influence of...

Daily Activity and Multimodal Travel Planner: Phase 1 Report

Kitamura, Ryuichi
Chen, Cynthia
1998

Travel constitutes an integral part of our daily life. Only by traveling are we able to engage in a variety of activities at different locations. Since the extension of our movement is restricted by the amount of time that is available and the speed with which we can move, it is important that our travel be efficiently organized such that the time resource can be best utilized to engage in activities in an efficient manner. One approach to achieving this is to choose less congested and faster routes. The use of in-vehicle advanced traveler information systems (ATIS) for this purpose has...

A Comparable Systems Analysis Of San Francisco's BART: Lessons For Automated Highway Systems

Hickman, Mark D.
1994

This study examines the lessons to be learned from the experience of the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system, particularly as applied to the growing research on automated highway systems (AHS). The first section of the report briefly motivates the analogy of BART by comparing some of the technical and non-technical performance factors surrounding both AHS and BART. Several pertinent technical and non- technical issues surrounding BART are described in more detail, emphasizing the decision-making that went in to BART's development, testing, and the beginning of revenue...

Evaluating the Impact of ITS on Personalized Public Transit

Dessouky, Maged M.
Aldaihani, Majid
Shah, Rutvij
2002

The focus of this project is to study alternative system architectures and ITS technologies that can improve the efficiency of personalized public transit and demand responsive systems such as paratransit. This report reviews available and emerging ITS technologies that have been deployed or are being considered for this industry. We also conducted a survey of commercially available computer aided dispatching software. We list the numerous features offered by these software packages. Also, included in this report is a statistical analysis of travel patterns of a paratransit provider in Los...

Evaluating the Impact of ITS on Personalized Public Transit

Dessouky, Maged M.
Hall, Randolf W.
Shah, Rutvij
Aldaihani, Majid
2001

The focus of this project is to study alternative system architectures and ITS technologies that can improve the efficiency of personalized public transit and demand responsive systems such as paratransit. This interim report reviews available and emerging ITS technologies that have been deployed or are being considered for this industry. We also conducted a survey of commercially available computer aided dispatching software. We list the numerous features offered by these software packages. Also, included in this interim report is a statistical analysis of travel patterns of a paratransit...

Trav Info Evaluation (Technology Element ) Traveler Information Center (TIC) Study: System Reliability and Communications Interface

Miller, Mark
Loukakos, Dimitri
1998

TravInfo is a Field Operational Test of advanced traveler information systems for the San Francisco Bay Area, sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The project involves a public/private partnership which seeks to compile, integrate and broadly disseminate timely and accurate multi-modal traveler information through commercial products and services. The public sector component centers on the Traveler Information Center (TIC), which collects and integrates both static and dynamic traveler information. The TIC began operations in September 1996 and will operate as an FOT...