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• 1. [Article] Utilizing High Resolution Bus GPS Data to Visualize and Identify Congestion Hot-spots in Urban

  Congestion and travel delay on urban roadways can influence the roadways’ operating costs and service attractiveness. This research used high-resolution bus data to examine sources of delay on urban arterials. ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Utilizing High Resolution Bus GPS Data to Visualize and Identify Congestion Hot-spots in Urban Author: Stoll, Nicholas B, Glick, Travis B, Figliozzi, Miguel Year: 2016 Congestion and travel delay on urban roadways can influence the roadways’ operating costs and service attractiveness. This research used high-resolution bus data to examine sources of delay on urban arterials. A set of tools was created to help visualize trends in bus behavior and movement; these tools allowed larger traffic trends to be visualized along urban corridors and streets. With buses as probes and examining aggregated bus behavior, contoured speed plots were used to understand the behavior of roadways outside the zone of influence of bus stops. Speed plots were used to discover trends and travel patterns with only a few days’ data. Congestion and speed variation were viewed by time of day, and plots helped to indicate delays caused by intersections, crosswalks, or bus stops. This type of information is important to transit authorities looking to improve bus running times and reliability. Congested areas were detected and ranked. Speed plots were used to reevaluate bus stop locations (e.g., near side versus far side) and to identify locations where improvement are needed (e.g., queue jump lanes). Transportation agencies can also benefit from this type of information because arterial performance measures are difficult to estimate. Title: Utilizing High Resolution Bus GPS Data to Visualize and Identify Congestion Hot-spots in Urban Author: Stoll, Nicholas B, Glick, Travis B, Figliozzi, Miguel Year: 2016 Congestion and travel delay on urban roadways can influence the roadways’ operating costs and service attractiveness. This research used high-resolution bus data to examine sources of delay on urban arterials. A set of tools was created to help visualize trends in bus behavior and movement; these tools allowed larger traffic trends to be visualized along urban corridors and streets. With buses as probes and examining aggregated bus behavior, contoured speed plots were used to understand the behavior of roadways outside the zone of influence of bus stops. Speed plots were used to discover trends and travel patterns with only a few days’ data. Congestion and speed variation were viewed by time of day, and plots helped to indicate delays caused by intersections, crosswalks, or bus stops. This type of information is important to transit authorities looking to improve bus running times and reliability. Congested areas were detected and ranked. Speed plots were used to reevaluate bus stop locations (e.g., near side versus far side) and to identify locations where improvement are needed (e.g., queue jump lanes). Transportation agencies can also benefit from this type of information because arterial performance measures are difficult to estimate. Close

• 2. [Article] Annual Metro Regional Trail Count and Why Local Extrapolation Factors Matter

  Metro, Portland's regional governing agency, conducts annual two-hour counts along its regional trail every September. This upcoming fall (2017) will be the 10th year that the counts have been held, which ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Annual Metro Regional Trail Count and Why Local Extrapolation Factors Matter Author: Gibson, Geoff Year: 2017 Metro, Portland's regional governing agency, conducts annual two-hour counts along its regional trail every September. This upcoming fall (2017) will be the 10th year that the counts have been held, which means we at Metro can finally start seeing noticeable, long-lasting trends in the regional trail network. Perhaps more importantly, we are seeing how these data have directly impacted investments in future trail, bicycle, and pedestrian projects. This seminar will cover the history of the program, details of how it's conducted and why it's conducted that way, how data are used (including an inside look at future iterations of Metro's interactive trail count map), and why creating local extrapolation factors for adjusting to annual traffic is so important. Title: Annual Metro Regional Trail Count and Why Local Extrapolation Factors Matter Author: Gibson, Geoff Year: 2017 Metro, Portland's regional governing agency, conducts annual two-hour counts along its regional trail every September. This upcoming fall (2017) will be the 10th year that the counts have been held, which means we at Metro can finally start seeing noticeable, long-lasting trends in the regional trail network. Perhaps more importantly, we are seeing how these data have directly impacted investments in future trail, bicycle, and pedestrian projects. This seminar will cover the history of the program, details of how it's conducted and why it's conducted that way, how data are used (including an inside look at future iterations of Metro's interactive trail count map), and why creating local extrapolation factors for adjusting to annual traffic is so important. Close

• 3. [Article] Track Time and Monetary Costs of Transportation as a Comprehensive Performance Measure: Development and Application of Transportation Cost Index

  As federal and state policies place increasing emphasis on using comprehensive transportation performance measures to guide transportation decision making, there is a gap in such measures of transportation ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Track Time and Monetary Costs of Transportation as a Comprehensive Performance Measure: Development and Application of Transportation Cost Index Author: Wang, Liming Year: 2016 As federal and state policies place increasing emphasis on using comprehensive transportation performance measures to guide transportation decision making, there is a gap in such measures of transportation and land use systems. This seminar reports the results from a research project aiming to fill the gap in the type of applications and policy areas covered by existing measures. Modeled after the popular Consumer Price Index, the project refines and develops a transportation cost index (TCI) measure for transportation and land use systems by tracking the time and monetary costs of transportation for households as they travel to satisfy their daily needs. The TCI can be used in applications ranging from monitoring historical and projected trends (benchmarking), to evaluating and comparing scenarios outcomes (scenario evaluation), and it is capable of representing policy areas not sufficiently covered by existing similar measures. The seminar will review similar performance measures, describe the rationale, design and implementation of TCI, and present results of its applications in Portland and Corvallis, Oregon, as well as nation-wide in the US. The project is sponsored by National Institute of Transportation Communities (NITC) and Oregon DOT. Title: Track Time and Monetary Costs of Transportation as a Comprehensive Performance Measure: Development and Application of Transportation Cost Index Author: Wang, Liming Year: 2016 As federal and state policies place increasing emphasis on using comprehensive transportation performance measures to guide transportation decision making, there is a gap in such measures of transportation and land use systems. This seminar reports the results from a research project aiming to fill the gap in the type of applications and policy areas covered by existing measures. Modeled after the popular Consumer Price Index, the project refines and develops a transportation cost index (TCI) measure for transportation and land use systems by tracking the time and monetary costs of transportation for households as they travel to satisfy their daily needs. The TCI can be used in applications ranging from monitoring historical and projected trends (benchmarking), to evaluating and comparing scenarios outcomes (scenario evaluation), and it is capable of representing policy areas not sufficiently covered by existing similar measures. The seminar will review similar performance measures, describe the rationale, design and implementation of TCI, and present results of its applications in Portland and Corvallis, Oregon, as well as nation-wide in the US. The project is sponsored by National Institute of Transportation Communities (NITC) and Oregon DOT. Close

• 4. [Article] Travel to Food: Transportation Barriers for the Food Insecure in Tampa Bay

  In partnership with the Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) at the University of South Florida (USF), the Transportation Innovation Group informed practical transportation solutions aimed at ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Travel to Food: Transportation Barriers for the Food Insecure in Tampa Bay Author: Salzer, Kevin, Joslin, Ann Year: 2017 In partnership with the Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) at the University of South Florida (USF), the Transportation Innovation Group informed practical transportation solutions aimed at improved food access in Tampa Bay (Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties). The food pantry/bank sites that are part of Tampa Bay Network to End Hunger (TBNTEH) helped to gather data through a survey and interviews of food-related organizational leadership, staff and volunteers from each site to gain insight into how clients currently access emergency food sites (qualitative). This information was supplemented with a GIS analysis of transit accessibility for the food insecure in Tampa Bay (quantitative). Funding for this project was provided, in part, by the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) at Portland State University. This project entitled “Travel to Food: Transportation Barriers for the Food Insecure in Tampa Bay” fits with the NITC’s theme of safe, healthy and sustainable transportation choices to foster livable communities in the following ways: Identify gaps in the transportation system for vulnerable communities; Lead to focused solutions to improve access to healthy food; Lead to added sustainable transportation options; and Access to food is an essential precursor to livability. Background: The dominance of the automobile in the southeast has impacted the urban and suburban built environment, resulting in barriers to transportation access. The vulnerability of the food insecure makes them an indicator population of the larger transportation system; mobility and housing location options are limited for this population. The grocery industry’s trend toward larger stores and higher-value inventory to maximize shelf space value has left lower-income neighborhoods with fewer food retail options. The lack of food access is experienced more acutely in lower-income neighborhoods where auto ownership is lower and dependence on alternative modes of transportation (e.g., transit, bike and walking) is higher. Title: Travel to Food: Transportation Barriers for the Food Insecure in Tampa Bay Author: Salzer, Kevin, Joslin, Ann Year: 2017 In partnership with the Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) at the University of South Florida (USF), the Transportation Innovation Group informed practical transportation solutions aimed at improved food access in Tampa Bay (Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties). The food pantry/bank sites that are part of Tampa Bay Network to End Hunger (TBNTEH) helped to gather data through a survey and interviews of food-related organizational leadership, staff and volunteers from each site to gain insight into how clients currently access emergency food sites (qualitative). This information was supplemented with a GIS analysis of transit accessibility for the food insecure in Tampa Bay (quantitative). Funding for this project was provided, in part, by the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) at Portland State University. This project entitled “Travel to Food: Transportation Barriers for the Food Insecure in Tampa Bay” fits with the NITC’s theme of safe, healthy and sustainable transportation choices to foster livable communities in the following ways: Identify gaps in the transportation system for vulnerable communities; Lead to focused solutions to improve access to healthy food; Lead to added sustainable transportation options; and Access to food is an essential precursor to livability. Background: The dominance of the automobile in the southeast has impacted the urban and suburban built environment, resulting in barriers to transportation access. The vulnerability of the food insecure makes them an indicator population of the larger transportation system; mobility and housing location options are limited for this population. The grocery industry’s trend toward larger stores and higher-value inventory to maximize shelf space value has left lower-income neighborhoods with fewer food retail options. The lack of food access is experienced more acutely in lower-income neighborhoods where auto ownership is lower and dependence on alternative modes of transportation (e.g., transit, bike and walking) is higher. Close

• 5. [Article] Regional Travel Options 2007-08 Program Evaluation

  To help implement the Growth Concept, Metro’s Regional Travel Options (RTO) Program works to increase awareness of non-SOV alternatives and increase the provision of those alternatives. The program complements ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Regional Travel Options 2007-08 Program Evaluation Author: Dill, Jennifer, Brown, Stephan Year: 2010 To help implement the Growth Concept, Metro’s Regional Travel Options (RTO) Program works to increase awareness of non-SOV alternatives and increase the provision of those alternatives. The program complements other strategies, including land use policies and infrastructure investment. The most comprehensive data available for this evaluation come from commute surveys of employees at work sites that participate in outreach programs offered by TriMet. All of the RTO evaluations have used these data as a benchmark for overall progress, though the data only captures commute travel. The 2008 data reflect the commute patterns of about 120,000 employees commuting to 549 worksites. The long-term trend is positive, with the share of work trips made by modes other than single-occupant vehicles (SOVs) generally increasing since 1996 Figure 3. However, the data for 2007 and 2008 show a decline since 2006 in the share of work trips made on transit. Increases in bicycling and walking, compressed work weeks, and telecommuting helped offset that decline. The share of trips made in carpools and vanpools has remained about the same for the past four years, and is still lower than 1996. Title: Regional Travel Options 2007-08 Program Evaluation Author: Dill, Jennifer, Brown, Stephan Year: 2010 To help implement the Growth Concept, Metro’s Regional Travel Options (RTO) Program works to increase awareness of non-SOV alternatives and increase the provision of those alternatives. The program complements other strategies, including land use policies and infrastructure investment. The most comprehensive data available for this evaluation come from commute surveys of employees at work sites that participate in outreach programs offered by TriMet. All of the RTO evaluations have used these data as a benchmark for overall progress, though the data only captures commute travel. The 2008 data reflect the commute patterns of about 120,000 employees commuting to 549 worksites. The long-term trend is positive, with the share of work trips made by modes other than single-occupant vehicles (SOVs) generally increasing since 1996 Figure 3. However, the data for 2007 and 2008 show a decline since 2006 in the share of work trips made on transit. Increases in bicycling and walking, compressed work weeks, and telecommuting helped offset that decline. The share of trips made in carpools and vanpools has remained about the same for the past four years, and is still lower than 1996. Close

• 6. [Article] Connecting People to Places: Spatiotemporal Analysis of Transit Supply Using Travel-Time Cubes

  Despite its importance, temporal measures of accessibility are rarely used in transit research or practice. This is primarily due to the inherent difficulty and complexity in computing time-based accessibility ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Connecting People to Places: Spatiotemporal Analysis of Transit Supply Using Travel-Time Cubes Author: Farber, Steven Year: 2016 Despite its importance, temporal measures of accessibility are rarely used in transit research or practice. This is primarily due to the inherent difficulty and complexity in computing time-based accessibility metrics. Estimating origin-to-destination travel times that include the “last mile” of travel between the transit network and actual start and endpoints of the trip is technically difficult. Not only do such estimations require multimodal network structures, they also require detailed knowledge of transit schedules and sophisticated algorithms for calculating shortest paths using such inputs. Recently, new standards for sharing transit schedules and geographic data, namely the General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) have prompted innovations in the analysis of complex transit travel times using the Esri ArcGIS package with the Network Analyst extension. With continued development of the analytical capabilities of network analysis functionality, this project assesses spatiotemporal dynamics in transit supply through an investigation of scheduled travel time variability. This report consists of a collection of three stand-alone research papers. The first defines a new data object, the public transit travel time cube, and demonstrates its use in measuring changes in transit provision over time, changes in accessibility to jobs, and the impacts of bicycling on the last mile problem. The second paper consists of a study of temporal mismatch between observed travel patterns and the spatiotemporal patterns of transit supply in the Wasatch Front. The third paper expands the food desert literature by measuring temporal fluctuations in food accessibility over the course of a typical day, and examining the trends for disparities between socioeconomic subgroups. Our findings indicate that time-based measures of transit accessibility provide more nuanced abilities for us to understand how people are impacted by temporal variability in transit provision. Title: Connecting People to Places: Spatiotemporal Analysis of Transit Supply Using Travel-Time Cubes Author: Farber, Steven Year: 2016 Despite its importance, temporal measures of accessibility are rarely used in transit research or practice. This is primarily due to the inherent difficulty and complexity in computing time-based accessibility metrics. Estimating origin-to-destination travel times that include the “last mile” of travel between the transit network and actual start and endpoints of the trip is technically difficult. Not only do such estimations require multimodal network structures, they also require detailed knowledge of transit schedules and sophisticated algorithms for calculating shortest paths using such inputs. Recently, new standards for sharing transit schedules and geographic data, namely the General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) have prompted innovations in the analysis of complex transit travel times using the Esri ArcGIS package with the Network Analyst extension. With continued development of the analytical capabilities of network analysis functionality, this project assesses spatiotemporal dynamics in transit supply through an investigation of scheduled travel time variability. This report consists of a collection of three stand-alone research papers. The first defines a new data object, the public transit travel time cube, and demonstrates its use in measuring changes in transit provision over time, changes in accessibility to jobs, and the impacts of bicycling on the last mile problem. The second paper consists of a study of temporal mismatch between observed travel patterns and the spatiotemporal patterns of transit supply in the Wasatch Front. The third paper expands the food desert literature by measuring temporal fluctuations in food accessibility over the course of a typical day, and examining the trends for disparities between socioeconomic subgroups. Our findings indicate that time-based measures of transit accessibility provide more nuanced abilities for us to understand how people are impacted by temporal variability in transit provision. Close

• 7. [Article] Understanding Social Media Program Usage in Public Transit Agencies

  Social media has been gaining prominence in public transit agencies in their communication strategies and daily management. This study aims to better understand recent trends in social media usage in public ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Understanding Social Media Program Usage in Public Transit Agencies Author: Liu, Jenny H., Shi, Wei, Elrahman, O. A., Ban, Xuegang, Reilly, Jack M. Year: 2016 Social media has been gaining prominence in public transit agencies in their communication strategies and daily management. This study aims to better understand recent trends in social media usage in public transit agencies, to examine which agencies use what kind of social media programs for what purposes, and how they measure their programs. A survey was conducted of the top transit agencies in the nation, and results are examined through descriptive statistical analysis, correlation analysis and regression modeling. We found that while most agencies still lack clearly-defined goals and performance metrics to guide their social media development, many are increasing their social media capacity with more structural components. Public transit service usage and the level of transit service provision are the most significant determinants of agencies’ social media programming and resource investments. In contrast, the measurement of social media usage and outcomes is more significantly related to city attributes and demographic characteristics. We anticipate an increase in the usage of social media to convey transit related stories and livability benefits, such as environmental sensitivity or safety improvements, as these programs expand. Public transit agencies’ commitment to measuring social media outcomes underscores the future research need to develop best practices for measuring the impacts and performance of social media communications and investments. Title: Understanding Social Media Program Usage in Public Transit Agencies Author: Liu, Jenny H., Shi, Wei, Elrahman, O. A., Ban, Xuegang, Reilly, Jack M. Year: 2016 Social media has been gaining prominence in public transit agencies in their communication strategies and daily management. This study aims to better understand recent trends in social media usage in public transit agencies, to examine which agencies use what kind of social media programs for what purposes, and how they measure their programs. A survey was conducted of the top transit agencies in the nation, and results are examined through descriptive statistical analysis, correlation analysis and regression modeling. We found that while most agencies still lack clearly-defined goals and performance metrics to guide their social media development, many are increasing their social media capacity with more structural components. Public transit service usage and the level of transit service provision are the most significant determinants of agencies’ social media programming and resource investments. In contrast, the measurement of social media usage and outcomes is more significantly related to city attributes and demographic characteristics. We anticipate an increase in the usage of social media to convey transit related stories and livability benefits, such as environmental sensitivity or safety improvements, as these programs expand. Public transit agencies’ commitment to measuring social media outcomes underscores the future research need to develop best practices for measuring the impacts and performance of social media communications and investments. Close

• 8. [Article] Webinar: Transport Cost Index: A New Comprehensive Performance Measure for Transportation and Land Use

  Recent federal and state policies are placing increasing emphasis on using comprehensive transportation performance measures to guide transportation decision making processes covering policy areas ranging ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Webinar: Transport Cost Index: A New Comprehensive Performance Measure for Transportation and Land Use Author: Wang, Liming Year: 2015 Recent federal and state policies are placing increasing emphasis on using comprehensive transportation performance measures to guide transportation decision making processes covering policy areas ranging from mobility, safety, economy and livability, to issues of equity and environment. While it is relatively easy to build consensus on mobility measures that center on the transportation system alone, it is much harder for performance measures to incorporate both transportation and land use, loosely defined as accessibility measures, even with continuous efforts to catalog and design such measures. Two projects at PSU sponsored by Oregon DOT and National Institute of Transportation Communities (NITC) aim to to develop and evaluate Transport Cost Index (TCI), a comprehensive performance measure for transportation and land use, in order to fill important gaps in popular accessibility measures: TCI is a composite indicator that is able to present an overall picture of a community’s accessibility, while at the same time is relatively easy to interpret for policy makers and the public; It fills gaps in policy areas represented by popular performance measures of land use and transportation systems, in particular the equity and balance aspects; It is applicable for monitoring historical and projected trends (benchmarking), evaluating and comparing outcomes from what-if scenarios (scenario evaluation), as well as to report the current status. The webinar reviews similar measures, describes the rationale, design and implementation of TCI, and presents results of its applications in Portland and Corvallis, Oregon, as well as preliminary testing results from Salt Lake City, Utah and Tampa Bay, Florida. Title: Webinar: Transport Cost Index: A New Comprehensive Performance Measure for Transportation and Land Use Author: Wang, Liming Year: 2015 Recent federal and state policies are placing increasing emphasis on using comprehensive transportation performance measures to guide transportation decision making processes covering policy areas ranging from mobility, safety, economy and livability, to issues of equity and environment. While it is relatively easy to build consensus on mobility measures that center on the transportation system alone, it is much harder for performance measures to incorporate both transportation and land use, loosely defined as accessibility measures, even with continuous efforts to catalog and design such measures. Two projects at PSU sponsored by Oregon DOT and National Institute of Transportation Communities (NITC) aim to to develop and evaluate Transport Cost Index (TCI), a comprehensive performance measure for transportation and land use, in order to fill important gaps in popular accessibility measures: TCI is a composite indicator that is able to present an overall picture of a community’s accessibility, while at the same time is relatively easy to interpret for policy makers and the public; It fills gaps in policy areas represented by popular performance measures of land use and transportation systems, in particular the equity and balance aspects; It is applicable for monitoring historical and projected trends (benchmarking), evaluating and comparing outcomes from what-if scenarios (scenario evaluation), as well as to report the current status. The webinar reviews similar measures, describes the rationale, design and implementation of TCI, and presents results of its applications in Portland and Corvallis, Oregon, as well as preliminary testing results from Salt Lake City, Utah and Tampa Bay, Florida. Close

• 9. [Article] Assessing Transit Fare Equity in Utah Using a Geographic Information System

  The goal of this study is to develop and apply a new method for assessing social equity impacts of distance-based public transit fares. Shifting to a distance-based fare structure can disproportionately ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Assessing Transit Fare Equity in Utah Using a Geographic Information System Author: Farber, Steven, Batholomew, Keith, Li, Xiao, Paez, Antonio, Nurul Habib, Khandker M. Year: 2014 The goal of this study is to develop and apply a new method for assessing social equity impacts of distance-based public transit fares. Shifting to a distance-based fare structure can disproportionately favor or penalize different subgroups of a population based on variations in settlement patterns, travel needs, and most importantly, transit use. According to federal law, such disparities must be evaluated by the transit agency, but the area-based techniques identified by the Federal Transit Authority for assessing discrimination fail to account for disparities in distances travelled by transit users. This means that transit agencies currently lack guidelines for assessing the social equity impacts of replacing flat fare with distance-based fare structures. Our solution is to incorporate a joint ordinal-continuous model of trip generation and distance travelled into a GIS Decision Support System. The system enables a transit planner to visualize and compare estimated distances travelled and transit-cost maps for different population profiles and fare structures. We apply the method to a case study in the Wasatch Front, Utah, where the Utah Transit Authority is exploring a switch to a distance-based fare structure. The analysis reveals that overall distance-based fares benefit low-income, elderly, and non-white populations. However, the effect is geographically uneven, and may be negative for members of these groups living on the urban fringe. The research discusses a potential conflict between policies designed to promote equity and those intended to increase discretionary ridership. For example, increasing fares for longdistance discretionary riders travelling from suburban light-rail stations to the central business district may have a negative impact on ridership, despite being economically more efficient through cost-recapturing. At the same time, reducing fares for short-distance trips that are currently too expensive compared to private automobile travel may attract new riders. A full cost-benefit analysis sensitive to heterogeneous price elasticity is recommended for future research. It is also noted that the research findings are dependent on the current spatial distributions of population segments and travel patterns. The equity benefits of distance-based fares are primarily derived from residential clustering of low-income and minority groups in more compact urban areas near the center of the city. Demographic trends, such as inner-city gentrification and suburban aging-in-place, may impose increased travel demands on low income and elderly riders, nullifying future equity gains made by a transition to distance-based fares. Title: Assessing Transit Fare Equity in Utah Using a Geographic Information System Author: Farber, Steven, Batholomew, Keith, Li, Xiao, Paez, Antonio, Nurul Habib, Khandker M. Year: 2014 The goal of this study is to develop and apply a new method for assessing social equity impacts of distance-based public transit fares. Shifting to a distance-based fare structure can disproportionately favor or penalize different subgroups of a population based on variations in settlement patterns, travel needs, and most importantly, transit use. According to federal law, such disparities must be evaluated by the transit agency, but the area-based techniques identified by the Federal Transit Authority for assessing discrimination fail to account for disparities in distances travelled by transit users. This means that transit agencies currently lack guidelines for assessing the social equity impacts of replacing flat fare with distance-based fare structures. Our solution is to incorporate a joint ordinal-continuous model of trip generation and distance travelled into a GIS Decision Support System. The system enables a transit planner to visualize and compare estimated distances travelled and transit-cost maps for different population profiles and fare structures. We apply the method to a case study in the Wasatch Front, Utah, where the Utah Transit Authority is exploring a switch to a distance-based fare structure. The analysis reveals that overall distance-based fares benefit low-income, elderly, and non-white populations. However, the effect is geographically uneven, and may be negative for members of these groups living on the urban fringe. The research discusses a potential conflict between policies designed to promote equity and those intended to increase discretionary ridership. For example, increasing fares for longdistance discretionary riders travelling from suburban light-rail stations to the central business district may have a negative impact on ridership, despite being economically more efficient through cost-recapturing. At the same time, reducing fares for short-distance trips that are currently too expensive compared to private automobile travel may attract new riders. A full cost-benefit analysis sensitive to heterogeneous price elasticity is recommended for future research. It is also noted that the research findings are dependent on the current spatial distributions of population segments and travel patterns. The equity benefits of distance-based fares are primarily derived from residential clustering of low-income and minority groups in more compact urban areas near the center of the city. Demographic trends, such as inner-city gentrification and suburban aging-in-place, may impose increased travel demands on low income and elderly riders, nullifying future equity gains made by a transition to distance-based fares. Close

• 10. [Article] A Study of Headway Maintenance for Bus Routes: Causes and Effects of “Bus Bunching” in Extensive and Congested Service Areas

  A healthy and efficient public transit system is indispensable to reduce congestion, emissions, energy consumption, and car dependency in urban areas. The objective of this research is to 1) develop methods ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: A Study of Headway Maintenance for Bus Routes: Causes and Effects of “Bus Bunching” in Extensive and Congested Service Areas Author: Figliozzi, Miguel A., Feng, Wu-chi, Lafferriere, Gerardo, Feng, Wei Year: 2012 A healthy and efficient public transit system is indispensable to reduce congestion, emissions, energy consumption, and car dependency in urban areas. The objective of this research is to 1) develop methods to evaluate and visualize bus service reliability for transit agencies in various temporal and spatial aggregation levels; 2) identify the recurrent unreliability trends of bus routes (focusing on high-frequency service periods) and understand their characteristics, causes and effects; and 3) model service times using linear regression models. This research utilized six months of archived automatic vehicle location (AVL) and automatic passenger count (APC) data from a low-performance route (Route 15) of TriMet, the public transit provider in the Portland metropolitan area. Route 15 has experienced difficulties in terms of schedule adherence and headway regularity. This research developed methods to summarize causes of bus bunching. We first determined the frequency of each cause (expressed as percentages) meeting pre-determined thresholds. Next, we performed a sensitivity analysis to demonstrate how cause percentage results change using varying difficulty levels of bus bunching thresholds. Finally, we investigated how cause percentage results vary spatially along different route segments. This research also developed novel ways to summarize and visualize vast amounts of bus route operations data in an insightful and intuitive manner: 1) a route/stop level visualization performance measure framework using color contour diagrams and 2) a dynamic interactive bus monitoring visualization framework based on a Google Maps platform. Visualizations proposed in this study can aid transit agency managers and operators to identify operational problems and better understand how such problems propagate spatially and temporally across routes. Finally, regression models were estimated to understand the key factors impacting dwell and travel times. Title: A Study of Headway Maintenance for Bus Routes: Causes and Effects of “Bus Bunching” in Extensive and Congested Service Areas Author: Figliozzi, Miguel A., Feng, Wu-chi, Lafferriere, Gerardo, Feng, Wei Year: 2012 A healthy and efficient public transit system is indispensable to reduce congestion, emissions, energy consumption, and car dependency in urban areas. The objective of this research is to 1) develop methods to evaluate and visualize bus service reliability for transit agencies in various temporal and spatial aggregation levels; 2) identify the recurrent unreliability trends of bus routes (focusing on high-frequency service periods) and understand their characteristics, causes and effects; and 3) model service times using linear regression models. This research utilized six months of archived automatic vehicle location (AVL) and automatic passenger count (APC) data from a low-performance route (Route 15) of TriMet, the public transit provider in the Portland metropolitan area. Route 15 has experienced difficulties in terms of schedule adherence and headway regularity. This research developed methods to summarize causes of bus bunching. We first determined the frequency of each cause (expressed as percentages) meeting pre-determined thresholds. Next, we performed a sensitivity analysis to demonstrate how cause percentage results change using varying difficulty levels of bus bunching thresholds. Finally, we investigated how cause percentage results vary spatially along different route segments. This research also developed novel ways to summarize and visualize vast amounts of bus route operations data in an insightful and intuitive manner: 1) a route/stop level visualization performance measure framework using color contour diagrams and 2) a dynamic interactive bus monitoring visualization framework based on a Google Maps platform. Visualizations proposed in this study can aid transit agency managers and operators to identify operational problems and better understand how such problems propagate spatially and temporally across routes. Finally, regression models were estimated to understand the key factors impacting dwell and travel times. Close