Transportation Engineering Commons^™

Towards Food Service Sustainability In Suburban Environments By Optimally Locating Shared Anaerobic Digester Units, Rebecca Loraamm, Joni Downs, Robert Alonso Bair, Daniel Yeh

Suburban Sustainability

Anaerobic digestion is an effective method for reducing food waste at the consumer level. Drawbacks associated with this strategy include high construction costs for multiple digester units and limited public awareness of the method’s commercial potential. Given the large scale problem of food waste, an approach establishing community partnerships between local businesses and primary schools is offered to combat the problem of food waste. Optimizing the placement of shared digester units enabling utilization by multiple stakeholders is the suggested mitigation method. This research explores application of the p-median problem to determine the set of optimal sites for shared anaerobic digester …

Recommendation Of A New Transit Performance Measure In The National Transit Database, Fatemeh Baratian-Ghorghi, Hossein Ahmadianyazdi

Journal of Public Transportation

The frequency of incidents negatively changes public perception with regard to the public safety in transit systems. The level of safety expressed as performance measures, ensures contractors and users that a quality safety level is maintained. Both the private and public sectors in the U.S. annually report accurate data to the National Transit Database (NTD) to be used in assessing the progress of the nation's public transportation systems. Although they must provide both the annual report and monthly reports including Safety and Security data, measures are only grouped into the indicators of efficiency and effectiveness of a system and there …

A Fuzzy Ahp Approach To Compare Transit System Performance In Us Urbanized Areas, Xin Li, Yingling Fan, John W. Shaw, Yunlei Qi

Journal of Public Transportation

Public transit systems in the United States often face multiple policy objectives. Typically, stakeholders desire frequent service on an extensive network, but funding and other resources are constrained, creating complicated relationships between service effectiveness goals and business efficiency goals. Using data from the National Transit Map (NTM), this study evaluated the general performance of transit systems across 294 Urbanized Areas (UZAs) in the US, which were stratified into six peer groups based on population. Transit efficiency and effectiveness were compared by developing a composite business efficiency index score and a composite service effectiveness index score for each urbanized area. The …

A Framework For Measuring The Spatial Equity In The Distribution Of Public Transportation Benefits, Seyyed Amir Hosein Mortazavi, Meisam Akbarzadeh

Journal of Public Transportation

This paper proposes that an equitable transit system requires that the geographical distribution of transit service benefits conform to the geographical distribution of the citizens with the greatest need for public transportation. This is the essence of vertical equity. This study calculated “connectivity power,” which reflects public transit service quality in each traffic analysis zone (TAZ) in a city to indicate the amount of benefit that TAZ is receiving from the transit system. The number of carless citizens in each TAZ was also calculated as an index of need to the public transit services in that area. Conformity of need …

Identifying Key Factors Of Rail Transit Service Quality: An Empirical Analysis For Istanbul, Erkan Isikli, Nezir Aydin, Erkan Celik, Alev Taskin Gumus

Journal of Public Transportation

Providing a high quality of service in public transportation is essential to reduce dissatisfactions stemming from traffic congestion and noise. Public transport providers need to find ways to dilute the effects of immoderate use of private cars in big cities while maintaining a sufficient level of customer satisfaction. This study aimed to identify the key service quality (SQ) factors that drive passenger satisfaction in Istanbul’s rail transit (RT) system using data obtained from an extensive survey conducted by the Istanbul Public Transportation Co. A total of 11,116 passengers who used rail transport from May 15–June 3, 2012, and June 17–July …

Impact Of Different Bus Stop Designs On Bus Operating Time Components, Xiaodong Liu, Yao Yang, Meng Meng, Andreas Rau

Journal of Public Transportation

The design of bus stops significantly affects bus operation. The delay time caused by inappropriate bus stop design adversely influences the efficiency of the system. This paper aims to examine the influence of bus stops on bus operating time components through statistical analysis, using Singapore as a case study. Two common types of bus stops, bus bay and curb-side stop, were investigated during the field survey to obtain actual data of bus operation at stops. Sixteen stops were chosen in pairs to compare the differences in operating time at bus stops. Bus operating times, including acceleration time, dwell time, deceleration …

A New Market Segmentation Approach: Evidence From Two Canadian Cities, Dea Van Lierop, Ahmed El-Geneidy

Journal of Public Transportation

Traditionally, transit market research has categorized passengers into two distinct groups: captive riders and choice riders. Market analyses that depend on such broad categories are likely to overlook important details about the needs and desires of their customer base. This study attempts to better understand the complexities of the different groups who take transit by using information from five years of customer satisfaction questionnaires collected by two Canadian transit providers. Employing a series of clustering techniques, the analysis reveals that nine market segments are present across different modes in both transit agencies. Three different overarching groups of transit users are …

Evaluation Of Red Rrfb Implementation At Freeway Off-Ramps And Its Effectiveness On Alleviating Wrong-Way Driving, Seckin Ozkul, Pei-Sung Lin

CUTR Faculty Journal Publications

Wrong-way crashes are a major cause for safety concern along freeways and limited access facilities. This study investigated three different aspects of the use of Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons (RRFBs): 1) different settings of red RRFBs and their perceived effectiveness on reducing wrong-way driving based on a public opinion survey, 2) the effect of active red RRFBs on the behavior of drivers traveling on adjacent roadways via a before-and-after study, and 3) the effectiveness of red RRFBs on alleviating wrong-way driving on freeway off-ramps by analyzing the percentage of vehicles turning back after observing the red RRFB activation. Based on …

Improvement Assessment Of Bus Serviceability By Proposing Route Revision, Shahrzad Ainkeshavarzi, Hamed Soleimani

CUTR Faculty Journal Publications

Public transit is an essential part of a city’s transportation. An efficient transit system makes a city more sustainable by reducing the number of single occupancy vehicles leading to a reduction in emissions, energy consumption and less congestion on streets. Public serviceability is an important indicator to indicate how good a transit route is determined; however, it could change during the years since population density is variable. This study is intended to do a comparison between serviceability of a bus line in Memphis, Tennessee for one zip code area to point out the necessity of considering route revising in short-term …

Exploring Factors Contributing To Lane Changes During Left Turns On Quadruple Left-Turn Lanes At Signalized Intersections, Fulu Wei, Zhenyu Wang, Jian Lu

CUTR Faculty Journal Publications

Quadruple left-turn lanes are employed gradually at some major intersections in Jilin, China. At these intersections, frequent lane changes during left turns of vehicles can lead to vastly disordered traffic operations. In this study, the factors contributing to lane changes during left turn behaviors at quadruple left-turn lane intersections were interpreted based on a field survey. In total, data on 192 green intervals and 550 individual lane-change behaviors were collected in Changchun, Jilin Province. A lane-changing rate model was established to predict the rate of lane changes during left turns. In addition, an interval selection model was built to estimate …

Optimal Limited-Stop Bus Routes Selection Using A Genetic Algorithm And Smart Card Data, Yongju Yi, Keechoo Choi, Young-Jae Lee

Journal of Public Transportation

In recent years, express bus service has come into the spotlight by overcoming slow bus operating speeds while maintaining its accessibility when it operates with local bus services. This study developed an optimal limited-stop bus routes selection (LSBRS) guideline as a scenario-based analysis and compared it with case study results. Smart card data and a genetic algorithm (GA) were used to develop the model with different scenarios. Then, total travel time savings as a result of implementing limited-stop bus service generated by the GA model were computed. The effectiveness of each factor was verified by multiple regression analysis, and the …

Passenger Satisfaction And Mental Adaptation Under Adverse Conditions: Case Study In Manila, Andra Charis Mijares, Mio Suzuki, Tetsuo Yai

Journal of Public Transportation

Public transportation systems in several developing cities face congestion, air pollution, and safety problems, yet many passengers use them regularly. This study examines the structure of passenger satisfaction and the role of mental adaptation under such conditions. Metro Manila MRT-3 was analyzed as a case study.

The actual and perceived conditions at the MRT-3 were assessed using surveys. Results of the waiting time and PM_2.5 monitoring surveys revealed that passengers queue for 30 minutes, on average, while being exposed to unsafe levels of PM_2.5. The questionnaire survey results show some discrepancies between actual and perceived values, suggesting …

Regularity Of Public Transport Usage: A Case Study Of Bus Rides In Lisbon, Portugal, Stefan Foell, Santi Phithakkitnukoon, Marco Veloso, Gerd Kortuem, Carlos Bento

Journal of Public Transportation

This paper presents an analysis of regularity in public transport usage based on a large-scale bus transportation data of Lisbon, Portugal. By exploring the combined information from the bus boarding history of riders and bus arrivals at each bus stop, an analysis of individual bus usage was performed. Daily and weekly patterns were extracted, from which it was observed that a rider takes, on average, 2 trips, visits 1.93 distinct stops, and uses 1.55 distinct bus lines daily. Inter-trip time analysis revealed a daily cycle, and a study of the interaction between riders and bus infrastructure explored how usage was …

Innovative Gtfs Data Application For Transit Network Analysis Using A Graph-Oriented Method, Philippe Fortin, Catherine Morency, Martin Trépanier

Journal of Public Transportation

Public transit networks are constantly evolving in the face of frequent economic and social challenges. There exists a large knowledge base on travel demand; however, there is a shortage of information on travel supply and networks. To our knowledge, no analysis tool can, at this point, systematically characterize a network and observe changes over time in a structured and automated manner. This paper addresses this issue and proposes a graph-oriented method for developing an analysis tool that will characterize a single network and then provide the necessary means to compare two distinct networks. A time-expanded model was applied to import …

Applying Ahp And Clustering Approaches For Public Transportation Decisionmaking: A Case Study Of Isfahan City, Alireza Salavati, Hossein Haghshenas, Bahador Ghadirifaraz, Jamshid Laghaei, Ghodrat Eftekhari

Journal of Public Transportation

The main purpose of this paper is to define appropriate criteria for the systematic approach to evaluate and prioritize multiple candidate corridors for public transport investment simultaneously to serve travel demand, regarding supply of current public transportation system and road network conditions of Isfahan, Iran. To optimize resource allocation, policymakers need to identify proper corridors to implement a public transportation system. In fact, the main question is to adopt the best public transportation system for each main corridor of Isfahan. In this regard, 137 questionnaires were completed by experts, directors, and policymakers of Isfahan to identify goals and objectives in …

Assessing Park-And-Ride Efficiency And User Reactions To Parking Management Strategies, Krae E. Stieffenhofer, Michael Barton, Vikash Gayah V.

Journal of Public Transportation

Increasing the number of spaces at overutilized park-and-rides often is not possible due to budgetary and other constraints. Instead, transit agencies may instead seek to maximize the number of people that are able to use the existing spaces through various parking management strategies. Unfortunately, the efficiency of park-and-rides is difficult to measure, so agencies cannot accurately quantify existing use or improvement after parking management strategies have been applied. This study proposed and tested a method to measure the person-efficiency of park-and-ride lots through an onsite audit. Additionally, a user survey was proposed to confirm the audit results and unveil reactions …

Investigation Of Wheeled Mobility Device Orientation And Movement On Streetcars And Light Rail Vehicles During Normal And Emergency Braking, Andrea J. Mather, Katharine M. Hunter-Zaworski

Journal of Public Transportation

Wheeled mobility devices have been accessing public transit vehicles for decades, and most new rail transit systems are accessible. This has increased ridership by people with disabilities. Side-facing orientation on rail transit vehicles often is considered an option to increase capacity for wheeled mobility devices. This paper reports findings of a study of vehicle dynamics and wheeled mobility device orientation on rail transit vehicles. The study used acceleration data and field observations to evaluate wheeled mobility devices in longitudinal and side-facing orientations on streetcar and light rail vehicles. Results from the study include recommendations for longitudinal-oriented areas for wheeled mobility …

Public Transport Accessibility Levels For Ahmedabad, India, Jay S. Shah, Bhargav Adhvaryu

Journal of Public Transportation

Public transport plays an important role in a city’s economy and its social equity. It is also instrumental in reducing automobile dependence and traffic congestion. Several factors must come together to achieve well-functioning public transport systems. One major factor is the level of accessibility offered by the public transport system. To better understand and consequentially enhance accessibility, we must be able to measure it and map it, which is the key aim of this paper.

The methodology in this study, which was originally developed by the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and later adopted by Transport for London (TfL) …

Public Transport Crowding Valuation: Evidence From College Students In Guangzhou, Jianrong Liu, Huiying Wen

Journal of Public Transportation

Overcrowding has grown to be an increasingly important issue for public transit in Guangzhou, China. To capture traveler benefits of reduced crowding from improved public transport, it is necessary to identify the relevant importance of crowding to travelers. This paper analyzes the disutility of crowding in metro car and bus transit with discrete choice models. Based on the stated preference survey data from college students in Guangzhou, the results show that there is non-negligible impact of crowding on passenger travel. The relationship between the disutility of crowding and standee density is not linear; that is, the disutility increases at a …

Cross-Elasticities In Frequencies And Ridership For Urban Local Routes, Joseph Totten, David Levinson

Journal of Public Transportation

Observational data from the Minneapolis-Saint Paul region’s Metro Transit were analyzed to determine the effects of service levels on ridership levels at different intervals. The research compares changes in service levels and ridership in several service intervals and includes elasticities and cross elasticities, or the influence that these service levels have on different service intervals’ ridership. These cross-elasticities were found to have little effect during the week; however, weekend ridership was found to be influenced by rush-hour and overnight frequencies.

Effects Of Speed, Curves, And Driver Behavior On Passive Securement Systems On Large Transit Buses, Andrea Mather, Katharine Hunter-Zaworski

Journal of Public Transportation

Wheeled mobility devices that are not secured properly on large transit vehicles pose risks to all passengers. The purpose of this study was to increase the understanding of the effects of horizontal and vertical curves, speed, and driver behavior on the safety and security of people using wheeled mobility devices in rear-facing passive containment systems on large transit buses. Testing included the use of manual wheelchairs and lightweight scooters on an articulated low-floor transit bus. The project conclusions were derived from data produced by accelerometers placed on the bus as well as visual observations of wheeled mobility device movement. The …

Evaluation Of Horizontal Equity Under A Distance-Based Transit Fare Structure, Milad Bandegani, Meisam Akbarzadeh

Journal of Public Transportation

Horizontal equity requires equal distribution of investment/benefit/costs among equal members of society. In other words, a transit passenger should pay as much as he/she uses. This study evaluated the measure of fulfillment of this rule in a case study, developed a distance-based fare structure, and shows that justice is better served by switching to the proposed structure. Fare elasticity of demand and probability distribution of transit passenger trip lengths were investigated through a field survey. Although mainly used in the measurement of inequality in income or wealth, the Gini index and the recovery ratio (revenue to cost for each transit …

Modeling Transit Users Stop Choice Behavior: Do Travelers Strategize?, Mohammad Nurul Hassan, Taha Hossein Rashidi, S. Travis Waller, Neema Nassir, Mark Hickman

Journal of Public Transportation

Transit choice research focuses predominantly on mode choice and route choice, whereas very few studies on stop choice are conducted. To fill this gap, this research aimed to study transit stop choice behavior with a focus on how people strategize when making their choices. It is hypothesized that travelers treat stops differently based on various schemes (strategies); minimizing travel time, access time, and the number of transfers are the schemes considered in this study, and the effectiveness of several discrete choice model specifications was examined. The study found that path attributes and stop attributes have significant impacts on stop selection …

Modeling Bus Dwell Time And Time Lost Serving Stop In China, Chao Wang, Zhirui Ye, Yuan Wang, Yueru Xu, Wei Wang

Journal of Public Transportation

The primary objective of this study was to develop a quantitative approach to estimate bus dwell time and time lost serving stop, which included acceleration and deceleration time, dead time, and time for serving boarding and alighting passengers. A polynomial model incorporating kinematics of a particle was derived for estimating bus acceleration and deceleration time. In addition, descriptive statistics methods were used to analyze dead time. A case study was conducted to show the applicability of the proposed model with data collected from the seven most common types of bus stops in China. R-square and Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) …

Influence Of Socio-Demography And Operating Streetscape On Last-Mile Mode Choice, M. Meng, P. P. Koh, Y. D. Wong

Journal of Public Transportation

This study investigated how personal and operational factors (travel distance and streetscape) influence traveler mode choice decisions for the last-mile home-bound trip stage from rail transit stations. Personal factors include the socio-demography of travelers, and attributes of the streetscape include the built environment (degree of areal development), prevalence of cycling, availability of short-range transport modes, and walking/cycling infrastructure. Interviewers randomly intercepted pedestrians to administer a mode choice survey at five rail transit station exits and engaged all available cyclists at bicycle parking areas in the vicinity of stations in Singapore. A multimodal logit regression model revealed a significant relationship between …

Commuting By Customized Bus: A Comparative Analysis With Private Car And Conventional Public Transport In Two Cities, Tao Liu, Avishai Ceder, Romain Bologna, Benjamin Cabantous

Journal of Public Transportation

Commuting is a major component in the creation of traffic and travel problems. Thus, more attention should be given to its practice. Private car (PC) transport, the dominant mode of commuting in most of the world’s major cities, creates traffic-related social problems such as traffic congestion, traffic fatalities and injuries, and adverse environmental impacts. This study proposes a novel commuting travel mode—a customized bus (CB) transit system that provides advanced, personalized, and flexible demand-interactive minibus service using Internet, telephone, and smartphone apps. The aim was to assess and compare the performance of CB with PC and with conventional public transport …

The Estimation Of Modal Shift Potential For A New Form Of Dial-A-Ride Service, Banihan Gunay, Kadir Akgol, Ingmar Andréasson, Serdal Terzi

Journal of Public Transportation

The concept of a dynamic and flexible Intelligent Subscription Bus Service (I-Service) was developed, and two integrated questionnaires were conducted among the commuters of a large university campus. To determine travel times to the campus by I-Service, a digital urban road network map with travel time databases was produced, and software was developed to calculate optimum routes using these databases. Travel times for each participant were determined by the shortest travel time principle. The proposed hypothetical service was introduced to participants, and anticipated advantages for each participant were reported back to them by means of a second questionnaire to determine …

Factors Influencing Demand For Buses Powered By Alternative Energy Sources, Janer Galván, Victor Cantillo, Julian Arellana

Journal of Public Transportation

Transit buses consume high amounts of fossil fuels, with the consequent release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. In recent decades, much effort has been concentrated on the development of cleaner fuels to mitigate this externality. However, market shares for cleaner-fueled buses are still modest, which is why it is relevant to evaluate the aspects influencing their acceptance. This article presents an econometric model to evaluate factors influencing demand for transit buses in Colombia powered by cleaner fuels. For this purpose, a stated preference survey was applied to public transportation entrepreneurs. Results suggest that the target population considers acquisition cost …

A Composite Index For Evaluating Transit Service Quality Across Different User Profiles, Juan De Oña, Rocio De Oña, Francisco Diez-Mesa, Laura Eboli, Gabriella Mazzulla

Journal of Public Transportation

This paper evaluates the quality of service of the metropolitan Metro of Seville (Spain) across different user profiles, as determined through cluster analysis. Service quality evaluation is performed using a composite index that combines the user point of view with the service operator point of view. The combination of these two types of service quality measurement fulfils the need to provide a reliable measurement tool for transit performance. Six user profiles were identified, and it was ascertained that they have different opinions about the service, with heterogeneous gaps between the points of view among the six user profiles.

Examining Bus Lost Time Dynamics For A Bus Rapid Transit Station, Ankit Kathuria, M. Parida, Ch. Ravi Sekhar, Manu Pathak

Journal of Public Transportation

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems are considered to be the most effective alternative for solving urban transportation problems for both developed and developing countries. The conventional approach to estimate dwell time (DT) is based on traditional DT models derived for normal bus stops, but not for modern BRT stations. BRT stations are different from bus stops in terms of length of platform, multiple loading areas, and number of passengers handled. Therefore, understanding dwell time dynamics, including the recently-introduced component of Bus Lost Time (BLT), is important to improve the operations of BRT systems. This research introduces various possible scenarios of …