Public Transportation

Lane Assist Systems for Bus Rapid Transit, Volume I: Technology Assessment

Shladover, Steven E.
Zhang, Wei-Bin
Jamison, Doug
Carey, Graham
Viggiano, Stefano
Angelillo, David
Cunradi, Jim
Sheehan, Brian
Schumacher, Dave
Oropeza, Maurilio
Hardy, Matthew
Kulyk, Walter
Gross, Yehuda
2007

This report documents the information collected by an FTA-led delegation to several European organizations that have had experience in the development and operation of transit lane assist systems based on three different technologies, including (1) optical guidance in Rouen, France, (2) magnetic guidance in Eindhoven, Netherlands and (3) mechanical guidance in Essen, Germany. It includes summaries of the briefings prepared by the European hosts in response to questions from the delegation, the discussions the delegation had with their hosts and observations based on riding the systems in...

Travel Behavior of Immigrant Groups in California

Handy, Susan, PhD
Blumenberg, Evelyn, PhD
Donahue, Moira
Lovejoy, Kristin
Rodier, Caroline, PhD
Shaheen, Susan, PhD
Shiki, Kimiko
Song, Lily
Tal, Gil
2009

California is the destination for over one-quarter of immigrants to the United States, and immigrants now make up over one-quarter of the state’s population, with nearly half of immigrants originating in Mexico. To ensure that transportation systems and services adequately meet the needs of recent immigrants, planners need a firm understanding of the travel behavior of immigrant groups. This paper reports on key findings from a three-phased study: (1) analysis of data on commute travel of California immigrants from the 1980, 1990, and 2000 Censuses; (2) focus groups with recent Mexican...

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Toolbox: BRT Person Throughput-Vehicle Congestion Tradeoffs

Jingquan, Li
Chan, Ching-Yao
Zhou, Kun
Zhang, Wei-Bin
2015

This report documents a research effort to understand the current practice and issues associated with Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) planning and deployment. It reviewed the design options incorporated into existing BRT deployments across California and the nation. The project team interviewed practitioners of California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) Districts and transit agencies to understand the BRT project approval decision-making process, the impacts of BRT implementation and the Measures of Effectiveness (MOEs) for transit and non-transit system performance. The studies revealed...

Fault Tolerant Lateral Control for Transit Buses and Trucks

Suryanarayanan, Shashikanth
Hsiao, Tesheng
Tomizuka, Masayoshi
2004

This report documents the research results of Task Order 4205 (TO4205), Fault Tolerant Lateral Control for Transient Buses and Trucks performed during 2000-2003. In this task order, we studied the procedures for designing real-time lateral control systems for automated vehicles that are not sensitive to failures of the two key components: a set of magnetometers at the front bumper and another set at the rear bumpers. This problem is important because failures related to either front or rear magnetometers may have immediate effect on the stability of the closed loop control system.

Development of Bus Rapid Transit Information Clearinghouse

Miller, Mark A.
Carey, Graham
McNamara, Ian
Zimmerman, Sam
2006

This report documents the development of the bus rapid transit information clearinghouse, which is a web-based informational tool on bus rapid transit systems. It may be accessed at the following website address: http://path.berkeley.edu/informationclearinghouse/. This web-based tool provides users with a comprehensive and organized first-stop way of performing bus rapid transit-related research and investigations. The initial version of the BRT Information Clearinghouse has three primary elements consisting...

Design of a Demand-Responsive Transit System

Li, Yuwei
Wang, Jessica
Chen, Justin
Cassidy, Michael
2007

This research investigates the feasibility of offering demand-responsive transit (DRT) service to the general public in situations of low demand density. The study region is AC Transit District 2 which consists of the cities of Fremont and Newark, California. We developed a methodology to evaluate operating efficiencies of existing bus lines and line segments, and identified areas suitable for DRT service based on year 2001 data. We proposed an alternating strategy of checkpoint DRT service and compared it to other strategies. The report also described the schema for an automated...

Advanced Bus Stops for Bus Rapid Transit

Dahlgren, Joy
Morris, Betsy
2005

The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) is planning a bus rapid transit route on the alignment of its busiest existing route, with 30 stops in each direction. This study was conducted to determine how new technology could best be used to improve these bus stops as well as bus stops on other VTA routes and other bus systems. The study focused on bus passengers’ needs and preferences, available technologies, and the combination of improvements that would be most valued by passengers.Passenger activities at the main bus stop were observed, an on-board passenger survey was...

EDAPTS Test Deployment: System Installation and Technical Review Report

Jia, Xudong
Beasley, Ryan
Gerfen, Jeff
Hockaday, Neil
Chapman, Bruce
2009

The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) embarked on a research program entitled “Efficient Deployment of Advanced Public Transportation Systems” (EDAPTS) in the late 1990’s. The Bronco Express EDAPTS Stage 5 Deployment Demonstrationproject at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona) is an integral part of this program. Its objective is to go through the procurement and deployment process of a low cost Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) solution to determine if the EDAPTS concepts are optimized for...

Development of Performance-Based Specifications for Efficient Deployment of Advanced Public Transportation Systems (EDAPTS)

Gerfen, Jeff, MS
Hockaday, Neil, PhD
Jia, Xudong
2008

Efficient Deployment of Advanced Public Transportation Systems (EDAPTS) Smart Transit System was developed by California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo in a previous research effort from 1997 to 2007. California Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways (PATH) and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) have sponsored follow-on research to develop performance-based specifications for the EDAPTS system. These specifications are intended to facilitate industry adoption and widespread deployment of EDAPTS transit management system. The EDAPTS Performance...

Urban Densities and Transit: A Multi-Dimensional Perspective

Cervero, Robert
Guerra, Erick
2011

This paper investigates the relationship between transit and urban densities in the United States. An analysis of light rail systems finds that a residential density of about 30 people per gross acre near stations is needed to in order to make them among the top 25 percent of rail transit investments in terms of cost effectiveness; for heavy rail systems, the density is 45 people per gross acre. Increasing density around stations would greatly increase ridership, particularly when jobs are located within one-quarter mile of the stations and housing is located within one-half mile....