Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Planning Transportation For Recreational Areas, Anne Dunning

PSU Transportation Seminars

Population growth and increased accessibility of formerly remote destinations have created new needs for planning mobility to and within recreational areas.

Transportation planners studying recreational travel face unusual travel-demand peaks, travelers who are often unfamiliar with their surroundings, and a uniquely important need for traveler and community communication. Planners must consider what characteristics of an individual area make it attractive to visitors, as well as local goals for the special resources of the area.

This presentation will characterize unique facets of mobility in recreational areas, and pose approaches to planning transportation systems to serve them.

Overlooked Destinations: Suburban Nodes, Centers, And Trips To Strips, Nico Larco, Robert Parker

TREC Final Reports

This study looks at travel to typical suburban commercial strips by residents living within one-third of a mile of the strip by focusing on six sites – four in the Portland, OR., metro area and two in the Atlanta, GA., metro area. The study mapped pedsheds around the commercial strips in these sites and found significant increases in network extents when formal and informal pedestrian paths were added to street centerline data. Informal networks such as goat paths through vacant land and cuts in fences were widespread and suggest a pent-up demand for route directness. Travel surveys of residents found …

2035 Regional Transportation Plan Update: A New Look At Transportation - Background Information And Proposed Work Plan For Public Participation, Eco Northwest, Ltd.

Metro Collection

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of Transit Signal Priority Using Archived Trimet Bus Dispatch System Data, Thomas J. Kimpel, James G. Strathman, Robert L. Bertini, Steve Callas

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

This paper presents findings on changes in bus running times, on-time performance, and excess passenger wait times following implementation of transit signal priority in select bus corridors in the Portland metropolitan region. Analysis of the effectiveness of transit signal priority is often undertaken using simulation techniques or empirical studies that are either limited in scope and/or data availability. The present research uses an abundance of trip-level data collected from TriMet’s Bus Dispatch System. The study focuses on the most common performance measures of interest to both transit operators and passengers. Our study shows that the expected benefits of TSP are …

The Portland Region: How Are We Doing? Highlights Of The Region, Metro (Or.)

Metro Collection

No abstract provided.

Headway Deviation Effects On Bus Passenger Loads: Analysis Of Tri-Met’S Archived Avl-Apc Data, James G. Strathman, Thomas J. Kimpel, Steve Callas

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

In this paper we empirically analyze the relationship between transit service headway deviations and passenger loads, using archived data from Tri-Met’s automatic vehicle location and automatic passenger counter systems. The analysis employs two-stage least squares estimation to account for the simultaneous relationship between headway deviations and loads. Controlling for the effects of passenger activity on delay, the results indicate that the observed incidence of excess passenger loads is systematically attributable to deviations from scheduled headways. In turn, analysis of the causes of headway deviations served to identify possible operations control actions that would improve service regularity and, consequently, reduce incidences …

Tri-Met's Experience With Automatic Passenger Counter And Automatic Vehicle Location Systems, James G. Strathman

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

The Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (Tri-Met) is one of about 30 metropolitan transit agencies that have deployed both automatic vehicle location (AVL) and automatic passenger counter (APC) systems (Casey, 1999). These technologies are important components of the agency’s new automated bus dispatching system (BDS). The AVL and APC systems at Tri-Met recover comprehensive operations and passenger activity data at the bus stop level that is archived for later analysis. The agency has gained a reputation as an industry leader in the areas of data archiving and the application of archived data to performance monitoring and analysis.

Prior to …

Analysis Of Transit Fare Evasion In The Rose Quarter, Shimon Isreal, James G. Strathman

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

Tri-Met collected fare evasion data for buses and MAX trains passing outbound through the Rose Quarter Monday, June 11 through Saturday, July 7. Beginning September 2001, Tri-Met’s “Fareless Square’s” free zone was extended towards the Lloyd District, with an eastern boundary of NE 14th. Prior to this, all trips between the Central Business District and Lloyd Center required a full Zone 1 fare.

Development Of A Statistical Algorithm For The Real-Time Prediction Of Transit Vehicle Arrival Times Under Adverse Conditions, Kenneth Dueker, Thomas J. Kimpel, James G. Strathman

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

Prior TransNow funded research by Portland State University (PSU) and the University of Washington (UW) in cooperation with Tri-Met, the transit provider for the Portland metropolitan area, has utilized a rich set of archived data from the Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL)-based Bus Dispatch System (BDS). Tri-Met is one of the few transit agencies that archive AVL data for analysis and research.

Evaluation Of Transit Operations: Data Applications Of Tri-Met’S Automated Bus Dispatching System, James G. Strathman, Thomas J. Kimpel, Kenneth Dueker, Rick Gerhart, Steve Callas

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

Over the past decade, the adoption of Advanced Public Transportation System (APTS) technology has been motivated by transit providers’ desire to improve service reliability as well as to identify potential savings from improvements in scheduling and service planning. Casey (2000) reports that Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) systems, a cornerstone of APTS, have been deployed by 61 transit agencies as of 1998.

Implementing The Regional Transportation Plan: Evaluating Traffic Congestion, Metro (Or.)

Metro Collection

No abstract provided.

2000 Regional Transportation Plan, Metro (Or.)

Metro Collection

No abstract provided.

Time Point-Level Analysis Of Passenger Demand And Transit Service Reliability, Thomas J. Kimpel, James G. Strathman, Kenneth Dueker

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

This paper provides a framework for analyzing transit service reliability and estimating passenger demand at the time point-level of analysis. It begins with a literature review of passenger demand modeling and transit service reliability analysis, and shows how advances in transportation technologies are producing vast amounts of data that encourage the use of new modeling techniques. Differences between route-level and time point-level demand modeling are discussed. Lastly, the results of the passenger demand and transit service reliability models estimated from Tri-Met BDS data are presented.

Bus Transit Operations Control: Review And An Experiment Involving Tri-Met’S Automated Bus Dispatching System, James G. Strathman, Thomas J. Kimpel, Kenneth Dueker

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

An operations plan contains information on the provision of transit service, including intended service levels, vehicle availability, and driver schedules. Agency resources would be utilized efficiently if the operations plan could be executed without disruptions in service. When service disruptions occur, the aim of operations control is to optimize system performance given the current state of the system (Wilson et al., 1992). This typically involves actions intended to either return service to schedule or restore headways separating vehicles. Disruptions in service impose costs on transit providers in the form of reduced productivity and on passengers in the form of increased …

Service Reliability Impacts Of Computer-Aided Dispatching And Automatic Vehicle Location Technology: A Tri-Met Case Study, James G. Strathman, Kenneth Dueker, Thomas J. Kimpel, Rick Gerhart, Ken Turner, Pete Turner, Steve Callas, David Griffin

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

This paper presents findings on initial changes in service reliability following Tri-Met’s deployment of a new bus dispatching system using automatic vehicle location and automatic passenger counter technology. Changes in on-time performance, headway variation, run time variation, and run times were determined with respect to pre-deployment levels. Changes in headway variation and run times were also used to estimate the initial benefits of the new system with respect to operating costs, passenger waiting, and passenger travel time.

Automated Bus Dispatching, Operations Control, And Service Reliability: The Initial Tri-Met Experience, James G. Strathman, Kenneth Dueker, Thomas J. Kimpel, Rick Gerhart, Ken Turner, Pete Taylor, Steve Callas, David Griffin

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

This paper presents findings on initial changes in service reliability following Tri-Met’s deployment of a new bus dispatching system using automatic vehicle location and automatic passenger counter technology. Changes in on-time performance, headway variation, run time variation, and run times were determined with respect to pre-deployment levels. Changes in headway variation and run times were also used to estimate the initial benefits of the new system with respect to operating costs, passenger waiting, and passenger travel time.

Orbit: The Oregon Road Base Information Team Draft Summary Report Ii, Paul Bender, Mark Bosworth, Kenneth Dueker

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

Data sharing among organizations has the potential to 1) decrease long-term costs of obtaining and maintaining data and 2) to facilitate data consistency and accuracy. Consistency includes both completeness and currency, while accuracy includes positional and relative accuracy of transportation features and their attributes, i.e. any data element related to roads or other transportation infrastructure.

ORBIT, the Oregon Road Base Information Team, is an ongoing effort to create an accessible and comprehensive GIS transportation base for use by public and private agencies with shared stewardship through stakeholder partnerships and standards. ORBIT is occurring concurrently with an effort at the national …

Orbit: The Oregon Road Base Information Team, A Draft Summary Report, Mark Bosworth, Kenneth Dueker, Philip J. Wuest

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

It is clear that transportation organizations across the nation are integrating GIS into operations at many different levels—from day to day use for data display, to full-scale enterprise level integration for operations, inventory management, research and a variety of other purposes. The cost of building and maintaining a current and accurate GIS database can be substantial within any given organization. For some smaller level organizations—small counties, cities or special districts, the cost of gathering data, organizing it and implementing systems within expensive software on an expensive operating platform can be downright discouraging. Also, as more complex data structures are accumulated …

Issues In The Design Of A Stop-Level Transit Patronage Model, James G. Strathman, Kenneth Dueker, Zhongren Peng

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

Tri-Met, the transit agency serving the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area is implementing a new bus dispatching system (BDS) that includes automated vehicle location (AVL) technology. An important objective in the agency's decision to invest in a new dispatching system was to maintain or improve service reliability in an urban environment characterized by rapid growth and worsening traffic congestion.

Request For Qualifications: Region 2040: Transportation And Land Use Concepts: Phase 1, Metro (Or.)

Metro Collection

No abstract provided.

Challenges Confronting Metropolitan Portland's Transportation Decision-Making Regime, Sheldon Edner, Sy Adler, Peter B. Morris

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

In this paper we discuss the structure and dynamics of this consensus process through an exploration of a series of challenges to the regime. These challenges include: (1) cultivating new sources of project finance, as the federal government reduces its contribution; and (2) integrating transport projects with regional and local land use plans designed to manage urban growth; in the context of (3) intensifying competition between -business centers within the region, as rapidly growing suburban areas seek transport projects that will facilitate locally-oriented economic growth. We first discuss the institutional and normative elements of the regional consensus process in historical …

An Evaluation Of Automatic Passenger Counters: Validation, Sampling, And Statistical Inference, James G. Strathman

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

While automatic passenger counters (APC's) offer the potential for cait effective data recovery and management, they also introduce new complications in the data recovery process. This report addresses three issues associated with the implementation of APC's, based on an evaluation of the recent experiences of the Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (Tri-Met). First is the issue of validation, which is concerned with both the recovery and accuracy of APC passenger data. The second issue concerns the development of a sampling methodology for APC's compatible with UMTA's Section 15 reporting requirements. Third is the issue of inferring system-level ridership from …

Constructing The 1990 Public Transportation Study Process: Reflections Of The 1988 Research Team, Janice Dean, Sheldon Edner

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

The 1988 Oregon Public Transportation Study provided a solid foundation of information about Oregon’s transportation providers. In particular, it furnishes information on which revenue sources members of the industry are utilizing, expenditure patterns, capital and operating revenue needs, the protected increased demands for public transportation, and the ability of provides to makes use of available resources in their strategic planning. The study also substantiated that many members of the industry do not identify themselves as transportation providers, particularly the Special Need Transportation providers. The research process also revealed several additional factors about the process of collecting information that should be …