Public Transportation

How Chaos Does Not Destroy Ridership: Operations of an Exclusive Busway Carrying More Than 35,000 Passengers Per Hour Per Direction

Ardila, A
Rodriguez, DA
2000

Busways have been reported to carry up to 28,000 passengers per hour per direction (pphpd). However, recent passenger counts indicate that the exclusive busway in Bogotá, Colombia, has a flow of more than 35,000 pphpd. This passenger flow is achieved despite poor operating conditions and a general lack of maintenance without a city busway management and operation authority. Consequently, there is little police control, no systems management, and scarce information for users. These conditions should affect passenger flow negatively, but the Bogotá busway carries more passengers than...

Unwanted Excess Commuting: Proximate Commuting, Transportation Demand Management and the Transportation-Land Use Connection

Rodriguez, DA
2000

O f current theoretical controversies in urban pianning, arguably few have fartherreaching implications for policy than the debate on the relationship between transportation and land use. On the one hand, the transportation-land use relationship or connection focuses on the influence of transportation policy, including transportation services, infrastructure, and pricing, on individual and firm location decisions in a metropolitan area. On the other hand, the connection also encompasses the influence of individual and firm location decisions on transportation policy.

Proximate Commuting: Hype or Potential? An Evaluation

Rodriguez, DA
2001

Proximate commuting is a potential employer-based travel-demand management program under which large, decentralized employers reassign each voluntary participant to a job location (with the same employer) closer to the participant’s residence to reduce commuting distances. Key to determining proximate commuting’s feasibility and potential success are the identification and estimation of its commuting benefits. A model for quantifying the distance and time savings of proximate-commuting programs is presented. It relies on stated preference information regarding an employee’s...

An Empirical Exploration of Bus Travel Times and Dwell Times in a Highly Competitive Exclusive Busway

Rodriguez, DA
Ardila, A
2002

Busway transit has reemerged as a cost-effective transportation alternative for providing urban mobility. This article examines the operational characteristics of an exclusive busway svstem with high passenger ridership and subject to the competitive forces of individual operators. Results of a running time model suggest that the increase in running time associated with an additional passenger movement is low but that the delay imposed by recurrent vehicle deceleration and acceleration related to frequent stops is high. Frequent vehicle stops reduce fuel efficiency, increase...

Analysis of Bogota's Bus Rapid Transit System and its Impact on Land Development

Taiga, F
Rodriguez, DA
2004

Recent experiences in Latin American cities supporting world-class public transportation systems have resulted in the creation of livable spaces with a significant potential to spur land development. In cities like Bogota, Colombia, and Curitiba. Brazil, bus rapid transit (BRT) has re-emerged as a cost-effective transportation alternative for satisfying growing demands for urban mobility. Bogota's BRT system has allowed for a 32 percent reduction in average travel times and significant reduction in accident and air pollution levels along the busway corridors. Although previous...

Value of Accessibility to Bogotá's Bus Rapid Transit System

Rodriguez, DA
Targa, F
2007

With several successful cases world‐wide, bus rapid transit (BRT) has reemerged as a cost‐effective transportation alternative for urban mobility. Despite the resurgence of BRT, there is a world‐wide paucity of research examining its ability to spur and development. By estimating spatial hedonic price functions, the paper determines the extent to which access to BRT stations in Bogotá, Colombia, currently are capitalized into land values. Results suggest that for every 5 min of additional walking time to a BRT station, the rental price of a property decreases by between 6.8 and 9.3...

An Evaluation of the Accessibility Benefits of Commuter Rail in Eastern Massachusetts Using Spatial Hedonic Price Functions

Armstrong, RJ
Rodriguez, DA
2006

We estimate spatial hedonic price functions to examine local and regional accessibility benefits of commuter rail service in Eastern Massachusetts, while controlling for proximity-related negative externalities and other confounding influences. The data include 1,860 single-family residential properties from four municipalities with commuter rail service, and three municipalities without commuter rail service. We find some evidence of the capitalization of accessibility to commuter rail stations. Two model specifications suggest that properties located in municipalities with commuter...

Improving Transit Performance With Advanced Public Transportation System Technologies

Hansen, Mark
Qureshi, Mohammad
Rydzewski, Daniel
1994

This report identifies opportunities to improve transit performance using Advanced Public Transportation System (APTS) Technologies, assesses transit operator viewpoints on and experiences with APTS technologies, and proposes how current adoption and utilization practices might be improved so that these technologies are used in a more efficient and effective manner. The study focuses on the attitudes and experiences of individual transit agency management, staff, and line personnel that are likely to determine their future choices with regard to APTS adoption and utilization. The research...

Assess the Trade-Offs between People Through-put and Level of Service Degradation in the Conversion of a Mixed Flow Lane to a Bus Only Lane on US 101

Li, Yue Irene
Li, Jing-Quan
Miller, Mark A.
Zhang, Wei-Bin
2001

This report proposes a generalized process for evaluating the ridership impact and traffic impact of a bus rapid transit system. The process proposed aims at providing such evaluation at the sketch planning stage and has a specific focus on two aspects -- the ridership forecast based on the implementation of various ITS technologies and the degradation of level of service that results from converting a traffic lane into exclusive bus lane for the implementation of a bus rapid transit system. The proposed process is tested on the Van Ness Blvd site in San Francisco, California. It is also...

San Gabriel Valley Smart Shuttle Technology (SGVSST) Field Operational Test Evaluation: Final Report

Giuliano, Genevieve
Moore, II, James E.
O'Brien, Thomas
Golob, Jacqueline
2002

This report presents results of the San Gabriel Valley Smart Shuttle (SGVSS) Field Operational Test (FOT). Results are drawn from a comprehensive evaluation of the FOT conducted over a three-year period. The SGVSS attempted to integrate services of three local municipal public transit operators and a regional fixed route operator via networked computer-assisted dispatching, automated vehicle location, and mobile data terminals. The integrated system was never fully deployed. We describe the project, its participants and the history of the project. The portions of the SGVSS that were...