Public Transportation

Smart Parking Linked to Transit: Lessons Learned from Field Test in San Francisco Bay Area of California

Shaheen, Susan A.
Kemmerer, Charlene
2008

Rising demand for parking at suburban transit stations, such as the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) District in California, necessitates strategies to manage traveler demand. To better manage parking supply, researchers implemented a smart parking field test at the Rockridge BART station from 2004 to 2006 to evaluate the effects of smart parking technologies (changeable message signs (CMSs), Internet reservations and billing, mobile phone and personal digital assistant communications, and a wireless parking lot counting system) on transit ridership and response to service pricing....

Planning Workshop - Seminar Series

Argote-Cabanero, Juan
Camel, Madonna
Hernandez, Maribel
2016

The University of California Center on Economic Competitiveness in Transportation (UCCONNECT) together with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) organized four seminars in areas of interest to the Division of Transportation Planning (DOTP). UCCONNECT and DOTP collaborated to identify topics and speakers within the consortium who could present their latest research findings on the selected areas. Each session in the series consisted of a 1-2 hour presentation followed by a Q&A discussion moderated by an expert in the field. The title of the first event in the...

Heightening Walking above its Pedestrian Status: Walking and Travel Behavior in California

Blumenberg, Evelyn
2016

People walk a lot—to walk pets, to exercise and recreate, and to access public transit and local shops. Walk trips begin and end almost every journey, even trips made by automobile. Data from the current California Household Travel Survey (CHTS) show that walking occurs more than trips by both transit and bicycle, making it the second most common travel mode in California. Yet outside of select case studies in specific metropolitan areas, we know very little about walking behavior in California. An improved understanding of the determinants of walking will aid efforts to reduce driving and...

Moving Towards A More Sustainable California: Exploring Livability, Accessibility, and Prosperity

Shaheen, Susan
Finson, Rachel
Bhattacharyya, Abhinav
Jaffee, Mark
2016

The Transportation Sustainability Research Center at UC Berkeley conducted a series of tasks to assist the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) with an understanding of prosperity, accessibility, and livability metrics. Research findings were collected through a combination of literature reviews and expert interviews. Researchers found that prosperity, accessibility, and livability metrics all involve a component of cooperation with partner jurisdictions. A flexible approach that accounts for local and corridor considerations and evolves over time is emphasized. The white...

Potential Greenhouse Gas Emission Reductions from Optimizing Urban Transit Networks

Madanat, Samer
Horvath, Arpad
Mao, Chao
Cheng, Han
2016

Public transit systems with efficient designs and operating plans can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions relative to low-occupancy transportation modes, but many current transit systems have not been designed to reduce environmental impacts. This motivates the study of the benefits of design and operational approaches for reducing the environmental impacts of transit systems. For example, transit agencies may replace level-of-service (LOS) by vehicle miles traveled (VMT) as a criterion in evaluating design and operational changes. Previous studies have demonstrated in an idealized...

Coordinating Transit Transfers in Real Time

Daganzo, Carlos
Anderson, Paul
2016

Transfers are a major source of travel time variability for transit passengers. Coordinating transfers between transit routes in real time can reduce passenger waiting times and travel time variability, but these benefits need to be contrasted with the delays to on-board and downstream passengers, as well as the potential for bus bunching created by holding buses for transfers. We developed a dynamic holding strategy for transfer coordination based on control theory. We then obtained the optimal control strategy, where maximum holding time is a function of real-time estimates of bus...

Public Transportation and Industrial Location Patterns in California

Chatman, Daniel
Xu, Ruoying
Park, Janice
Le, Kim
2016

Public transit investments are a large and growing share of all transportation investments in the state of California, and such critical investments should be evaluated partly on their economic benefits. Taking such benefits into account could alter investment, service, and service restructuring decisions taken by transit agencies in the state. The relationship of public transportation to economic productivity, and spatial patterns of industrial location, is understudied. This project investigated how changes in rail transit service in California metropolitan areas (Los Angeles, the San...

Mission and Mix: A Study of the Changing Tasks and Staffing Requirements the California Department of Transportation

Jones, David W.
Taylor, Brian D.
1987

This study examines the organizational capabilities and staff skills that will be needed to execute the changing mission of the . California Department of Transportation (Caltrans). It is an engineering development study in the sense that it is concerned with the professional know-how that Caltrans will need in the future. It is, at the same time, a strategic planning study in the sense that strategic planning is the art of positioning organizations to both meet and make change.

How to Evaluate and Minimize the Risk of COVID-19 Transmission within Public Transportation Systems

Huang, Yiduo, MSc
Shen, Zuo-Jun, PhD
2022

During the COVID-19 outbreak, serious concerns were raised over the risk of spreading the infection on public transportation systems. As the pandemic recedes it will be important to determine optimal timetable design to minimize the risk of new infections as systems resume full service. In this study, we developed an integrated optimization model for service line reopening plans and timetable design. Our model combines a space-time passenger network flow problem and compartmental epidemiological models for each vehicle and platform in the transit system. The algorithm can help policy...

Renaming and Removal of Harmful Names and Monuments on State Transportation Right of Way

Deakin, Elizabeth, PhD
Munoz, Jasmin
Son, Daisy
2022

The objectives of this study are to formulate policies and practices that can be used to identify place names that have derogatory or racist linkages and provide recommendations on how to rename or remove harmful names and monuments in the California transportation right of way (ROW). This study was requested by the California Department of Transportation and conducted through the University of California, Berkeley Institute of Transportation Studies Technology Transfer Program.