Rail

Access and the Choice of Transit Technology

Sivakumaran, Karthik
Li, Yuwei
Cassidy, Michael
Madanat, Samer
2014

An urban transit system can be made more cost-efficient by improving the access to it. Efforts in this vein often entail the provision of greater mobility, as when high-speed feeder buses are used to carry commuters to and from trunk-line stations. Other efforts have focused on the creation of more favorable land-use patterns, as occurs when households within a Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) are tightly clustered around trunk stations. The efficacy of these mobility and land-use solutions are separately examined in the present work. To this end, continuum approximation models are used...

Achieving Higher Taxi Outflows from a Congested Drop-off Lane: A Simulation-Based Policy Study

Yang, Fangyi
Gu, Weihua
Cassidy, Michael
Li, Xin
Li, Tiezhu
2019

We examine special lanes used by taxis and other shared-ride services to drop-off patrons at airport and rail terminals. Vehicles are prohibited from overtaking each other within the lane. They must therefore wait in a first-in-first-out queue during busy periods. Patrons are often discharged from vehicles only upon reaching a desired drop-off area near the terminal entrance. When wait times grow long, however, some vehicles discharge their patrons in advance of that desired area. A train station in Eastern China is selected as a case study. Its FIFO drop-off lane is presently managed by...

Could Transportation Network Companies help Improve Rail Commuting?

Darling, Wesley
Cassidy, Michael J.
2024

Commuter rail is known to have a “first- and last-mile” problem (i.e., a lack of options for getting commuters to and from a rail station). The first- and last-mile dilemma creates inequalities in access. For example, high-income commuters drive to work (forgoing transit altogether), middle-income commuters drive to a rail station and pay to park, and low-income commuters rely on feeder buses or walking to reach a rail station. Transportation network companies (TNCs), like Uber and Lyft, are a viable option for connecting travelers to rail stations, especially for those who don’t own a car...

SPRINTER Rail: Grade Crossing/ Traffic Signal Optimization Study

Wu, Guoyuan
Li, Irene
Zhang, Wei-Bin
Johnston, Scott
Li, Meng
Zhou, Kun
2009

The second phase of this project further investigates impacts to local traffic operations at intersections adjacent to signal preemption by SPRINTER commuter trains and comes up with countermeasures that not only minimize such impacts but also take into account the traffic signal coordination. An extended traffic signal optimization model has been developed to minimize overall traffic delays and the weighted width of “green band” along several coordinated traffic signals around the grade crossings. Based on the train’s movement detection at grade crossings and the waiting queue estimation...

Assessing Opportunities for Intelligent Transportation Systems in California's Passenger Intermodal Operations and Services

Miller, Mark A.
Loukakos, Dimitri
2001

This report presents the findings of its investigation into intermodal passenger transfer facilities' operations and services in urban areas of California and the opportunities for how the application of intelligent transportation systems may enhance such operations and services. The project was based initially on a macroscopic assessment of intermodal passenger transfer facility operations and services primarily by means of a review of the literature followed by a three-tier analysis through site visits, institutional aspects, and user views and opinions. Institutional aspects were...

Grade Crossing/Traffic Signal Optimization Study

We, Guoyuan
Li, Irene
Zhang, Wei-Bin
Johnston, Scott
Li, Meng
Zhou, Kun
2010

The second phase of this project further investigates impacts to local traffic operations at intersections adjacent to signal preemption by SPRINTER commuter trains and comes up with countermeasures that not only minimize such impacts but also take into account the traffic signal coordination. An extended traffic signal optimization model has been developed to minimize overall traffic delays and the weighted width of “green band” along several coordinated traffic signals around the grade crossings. Based on the train’s movement detection at grade crossings and the waiting queue estimation...

Light Rail System Safety Improvements Using ITS Technologies

Chira-chavala, Ted
Coifman, Ben
Empey, Dan
Hansen, Mark
Lechner, Ed
Porter, Chris
1997

This report describes research which studied identifying and analyzing the effectiveness of countermeasures designed to reduce light rail crashes. Focus is in collisions with road vehicles at intersections. The light rail system for the Santa Clara County Transportation Agency in California served as the focus of the study.

Development of Deployment Strategy for an Integrated BRT System

Miller, Mark A.
Tan, Chin-Woo
Golub, Aaron
Hickman, Mark
Lau, Peter
Zhang, Wei-Bin
2006

BRT mixes the flexibility of traditional bus transit service with an array of higher performance rail transit features. One of its advantages over rail, however, is its possibility for incremental and flexible deployment. With this flexibility and incremental nature comes a deployment process for BRT that is highly complex because numerous elements can be incorporated in any number of distinct phases. In almost all BRT deployments, ITS and advanced bus technologies have been applied to BRT, however, in less than a fully integrated manner. This project explores how deployment decisions can...

Evaluation of Feasibility of UAV Technologies for Remote Surveying BART Rail Systems

2018

Routine inspection and monitoring of railway tracks and facilities is an important task to ensure operational safety. The existing standard manual and rail vehicle based investigation are substantially time consuming and inaccurate. UAV-based autonomous monitoring and inspection technology has shown great potential in many fields and industries but it has been rarely explored in railway transit systems. UC Berkeley California Partners for Advanced Transportation Technologies   (PATH) in partnership with Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) investigated  the application...

Analysis Toward Mitigation of Congestion and Conflicts at Light Rail Grade Crossings and Intersections

Li, Meng
Wu, Guoyuan
Johnston, Scott
Zhang, Wei-Bin
2009

Although many different railroad grade crossing control products are available, the most challenging limitation to traditional grade crossing systems is their inability to deliver consistent warning times in response to varying train speeds and station stops (particularly nearside stops). As a result, rail-roadway crossings often generate conflicts and congestion for motorist traffic and sometimes delay trains.By conducting system level analysis, this project will investigate the interactions and conflicts between urban/suburban rail and cross traffic. The information that is obtained will...