Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

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 …

Building And Maintaining A Statewide Transportation Framework, Kenneth Dueker, Paul Bender

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

Creating and maintaining up-to-date sharable Geographic Information SystemsTransportation (GIS-T) data is challenging. Many states are working on Transportation Framework efforts to build a complete, consistent, and current transportation data layer in conjunction with the NSDI and Geospatial One-Stop efforts. This paper summarizes an effort that systematically re-examined transportation data sharing issues as part of the development of a Transportation Framework for the State of Washington. Business needs were assessed in terms of spatial and temporal accuracy needs of stakeholders and users of a state-wide Transportation Framework. A conceptual model was developed for a Transportation Framework with emphasis on data flows …

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 …

White Paper On Issues And Strategies For Building A State Transportation Framework, Kenneth Dueker, Paul Bender

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

The purpose of this white paper is to systematically re-examine transportation data sharing issues that have been discussed at length, but in a manner to foster final decisions and closure. In some cases, choices among alternatives may require more detailed analysis or pilot studies. The development of this document has benefited from discussion at the Interorganizational Resource Information Coordinating Council (IRICC) Roads Committee, which has led to this consensus document. This sixth and final version serves to draw the process to a close and recommends a twofold approach to the development of a Transportation Framework. It also recommends six pilot …

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.

State Of Maine Bicycle Crash History 1996 - 2000, Maine Department Of Transportation

Maine Collection

State of Maine Bicycle Crash History 1996 - 2000

Prepared by: Maine Department of Transportation, Bureau of Maintenance and Operations, Accident Records Section, 16 State House Station, Augusta, Maine 04333 (circa 2002)

Contents: Preface / Bicycle Crash Tables and Charts 1996 - 2000 / Detailed Statewide Bicycle Accident Summaries / Appendix

An Analysis Of The Demand For Passenger Rail Services In Peninsular Malaysia, Tick Seng Lee

Student Works (2000-2009)

Rail passenger service is an important part of Malaysia's public transport system where Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB) is the only sole provider of intercity rail passenger services in Peninsular Malaysia. For years, there has been a decline in the number of intercity train passengers. This paper attempts to evaluate the factors, which determine the demand for rail passenger services. Binary logit models were built based on the data collected from the train passenger survey and bus passenger survey that were conducted across the Peninsular whereby the socioeconomic and demographic variables were coded into dummy variables so that these variables …

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.

Real-Time Travel Time Estimation Using Macroscopic Traffic Flow Models, Pushkin Kachroo, Kaan Ozbay, Antoine G. Hobeika

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Research

This paper presents the estimation of travel time on highways based on macroscopic modelling. The focus is on real-time values as compared to average or static values. The macroscopic models are used for distributed and time/space lumped settings and corresponding travel time estimation functions and algorithms are developed. The implications of these algorithms for the implementation of various incident management and traffic control strategies are also discussed.

Economics Of Overloading And The Effect Of Weight Enforcement: Research Note, James G. Strathman

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

This note describes the economic rationale for exceeding weight limits by motor carriers in the face of weight enforcement activities. Patterns of weight enforcement practices by states are identified reflecting differences in enforcement intensity and the severity of penalties imposed for exceeding weight limits. Statistical analysis of weight enforcement data shows that the marginal effects of enforcement intensity and penalties are similar in deterring overloading, with most of the enforcement-related deterrence attributable to the use of portable/semi-portable scales.

Analysis Of Design Attributes And Crashes On The Oregon Highway System, James G. Strathman, Kenneth Dueker, Jihong Zhang, Timothy Williams

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

Since the passage of the Highway Safety Act of 1966, state departments of transportation have engaged in systematic safety improvement planning and programming. According to Davis (2000), the general approach to safety improvement planning employed by most states follows six principal steps:

1. Identification of hazardous roadway locations using crash records;

2. Detailed engineering study of selected hazardous locations to identify roadway design problems;

3. Identification of potential countermeasures;

4. Assessment of the costs and benefits of potential countermeasures;

5. Implementation of countermeasures with the highest net benefits;

6. Assessment of countermeasure effectiveness following implementation.

All planning processes are subject …

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.

Isolated Ramp Metering Feedback Control Utilizing Mixed Sensitivity For Desired Mainline Density And The Ramp Queues, Pushkin Kachroo, Kaan Ozbay, Donald E. Grove

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Research

This paper presents a feedback control design for isolated ramp metering control. This feedback control design, unlike the existing isolated feedback ramp controllers, also takes into account the ramp queue length. Using a nonlinear H∞ control design methodology, we formulate the problem in the desired setting to be able to utilize the results of the methodology.

2000 Regional Transportation Plan, Metro (Or.)

Metro Collection

No abstract provided.

The "Kiddie Cab" Industry Transformation In The 21st Century, Jason Wachs

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

A new niche business has increased in the United States from a handful of private van services in 1992 to almost 250 nationwide. Referred to by many as "kiddie cabs," these private business are more than buses, iii that, they will chauffeur children to after school activities, the dentist, school, and anywhere else that children need to go.

The Kiddie Cab industry must explicitly be separated from publicly owned and operated transportation services for children such as paratransit services, shuttles for specific programs such as the YMCA, and any other transportation services for children that are currently funded and operated …

A Clearinghouse Approach To Sharing Transportation Gis Data, Kenneth Dueker, J. Allison Butler, Paul Bender, Jihong Zhang

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

Updating and maintaining Geographic Information Systems-Transportation data (GIS-T data) is proving difficult. Different database formats needed to support diverse applications leads to inconsistencies and inaccuracies, and duplication in updating. A clearinghouse approach is recommended for the collection and dissemination of new transportation features that can be segmented in different ways to meet the needs of various applications and inserted to update existing GIS-T databases. The clearinghouse approach is advantageous in that it is based on collecting data about new or changed transportation features once and uses the data many times to update existing databases.

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.

The Effects Of Roadway Capacity On Peak Narrowing - Evidence From 1995 Npts, Jihong Zhang, Anthony M. Rufolo, Kenneth Dueker, James G. Strathman

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

Spreading of the peak is one effect of increased peak-period congestion. Due to peak spreading, the travel-time impact of congestion is mitigated for some travelers, but the inconvenience of traveling at a less-preferred time also has a cost. Alternatively, increases in capacity have their impacts on peak-period congestion mitigated by a narrowing of the peak. This reduces the travel-time savings, but it generates a benefit for those traveling closer to their preferred times. This benefit from capacity improvements has largely been ignored, and one reason is the difficulty of quantifying the effect. This paper reports on some crude attempts to …

Sharing Transportation Gis Data, Kenneth Dueker, Paul Bender, Jihong Zhang

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

Updating and maintaining Geographic Information Systems-Transportation data (GIS-T data) is proving difficult. Different database formats needed to support diverse applications leads to inconsistencies and inaccuracies, and duplication in updating. Dueker and Butler (1998) have proposed an Enterprise GIS-T data model that unbundles the various components of transportation data (network links, cartography, and attributes) to facilitate generating application-specific networks, and which eases updating and maintenance. However, developers of existing application-specific databases that employ integrated data models that bundle the network link with cartography and attributes are reluctant to step back to an intermediate form for managing their data. Consequently, attention is …

A Framework For Gis-T Data Sharing, Kenneth Dueker, J. Allison Butler

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

This paper develops a framework and principles for sharing of transportation data. The framework is intended to clarify roles among participants, data producers, data integrators, and data users. The principles are intended to provide guidance for the participants. Both the framework and the principles are based on an enterprise GIS-T data model that defines relations among transportation data elements. The data model guards against ambiguities and provides a basis for the development of the framework and principles for sharing of transportation data. There are two central principles. First is the uncoupling of graphics, topology, position, and characteristics. Second is the …

Analysis Of Induced Travel In The 1995 Npts, James G. Strathman, Kenneth Dueker, Thomas W. Sanchez, Jihong Zhang, Ann-Elizabeth Riis

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

In this paper we estimate the relationship between road capacity and vehicle miles of travel (VMT) from a sample of 12,000 respondents from 48 urban areas in the 1995 Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey (NPTS). Our approach seeks to account for the effects of residential location, employment location, and commute mode choice in estimating the effect of capacity on VMT. VMT is found to be directly related to road capacity, as well as indirectly related through the influence of road capacity on residential and work place densities.

Highlights: Accomplishments Of Portland's Downtown Plan, Central City Plan, Albina Community Plan, Outer Southeast Community Plan, Portland (Or.). Bureau Of Planning

Portland Regional Planning History

All four plans were comprehensive. Their scope included transportation, housing, economic development, parks and open space, natural resources, urban design, and land use. Large scale planning efforts had previously focused on a limited set of concerns, such as parking, commercial revitalization, or housing. The Downtown Plan, Central City Plan, Albina Community Plan, and Outer Southeast Community Plan, on the other hand, evaluated, balanced, and integrated the different elements so that each action was taken in light of its effect on others. Extensive citizen involvement shaped the content of these plans and contributed to their success.

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 …

A Primer On Gis-T Databases, J. Allison Butler, Kenneth Dueker

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

This paper describes the primary database design approaches that have been and are being used in geographic information system applications for transportation (GIS-T). While not intending to be exhaustive, the paper covers the primary approaches used in federal, state, and local transportation agencies.

Effect Of Oregon's Axle-Weight-Distance Tax Incentive, Anthony M. Rufolo, Lois M. Bronfman, Eric Kuhner

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

Oregon s weight-mile tax was amended in 1990 to provide for a lower tax rate for trucks weighing more than 80,000 pounds if they added axles. The additional axles within a weight class reduce the amount of road damage. The tax break was largely based on equity considerations, since trucks within a weight class tend to do less road damage if they have more axles; however, the tax reductions also created an economic incentive to add axles and thus reduce road damage. This article is a report on attempts to determine if the tax break actually led to an increase …

Effective Transportation Demand Management: The Results Of Combining Parking Pricing, Transit Incentives, And Transportation Management In A Commercial District Of Portland, Oregon, Martha J. Bianco

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

The Lloyd District is a high-density commercial and residential district located a short distance from downtown Portland, Oregon. Parking and transportation problems in the District have been a source of increasing contention for nearly a decade. As a result. in September of 1997. the City of Portland implemented a Lloyd District Partnership Plan, which consists of a number of elements aimed at curbing SOY use for the commute to and from the District. This plan included parking pricing in the form of meters, w'here on-street parking had previously been free: discounted transit passes: and other transportation demand management (TOM) strategies. …

Land Use And Growth Impacts From Highway Capacity Increases, Thomas W. Sanchez

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

This analysis examined the historical relationship between land use changes and the location of capacity increasing highway projects in the State of Oregon from 1970 to 1990. Aerial photography for 18 cities was used to delineate the extent of urban development in each time period. A geographic information system (GIS) was used to assemble the data. Using this data, a logit regression model tested the significance of geographic variables such as proximity to highway projects, land use zoning classification, city size, and other spatial characteristics. The analytical methods used in this study incorporated a set of commonly used techniques to …

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.

Income Distribution, City Size, And The Role Of Public Transportation, Thomas W. Sanchez

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

This article presents an income inequality analysis for all 1990 U.S. metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). The analysis is concerned with whether public transportation has a detectable influence on levels of urban income equality. Because public transportation systems are generally designed to link residences with employment locations, higher levels of transit service provision, all other factors being equal, should be associated with higher employment rates and more uniform distributions of economic gains. The research presented here was influenced by an analysis originally performed by Haworth, Long, and Rasmussen (1978). Along with there study, few analyses have tried to evaluate policies that …