Ownership & Governance

Different Institutional Forms

• Local Agency
  • Better integration
  • Budget constraints
• Transit Authority or District
  • Multijurisdictional setting
  • Better funding and Districts can raise their taxes
• Cooperative Arrangements
  • Cooperating among different agencies to provide transit in any area
  • Jointly redistribution revenues
• Privatization
  • Paratransit or demand-responsive transit
  • Some form of operations like maintenance/fare collection

Contemporary Transit Planning

• Ridership
  • Estimated in both passenger-miles traveled and unlinked passenger trips.
  • Increased since 1990 in United States
• Trip Lengths and Operating Speeds
  • The ratio of passenger-miles traveled to revenue vehicle-miles (or vehicle-hours) operated offers insight into vehicle loadings (utilization) and trip lengths
  • A revenue vehicle-mile is defined as a mile traveled while the vehicle was providing service

Transit Modes

• Rights-of-way, technologies, and operational characteristics

Transit Modes : Bus Transit

• Bus Transit Modes
  • Regular IC Engine Buses and Electrical Buses/Trolley
  • Low operation costs i.e. economical
  • Regular Bus systems with bus travel ways and dedicated busways
  • Bus Rapid Transit system with physically separated rights-of-way and busways
  • BRT is popularized in Bogota Columbia
  • BRT service is preferred to improve bus speed, reliability, and identity
  • BRT systems commonly use 52.5- to 60-ft (16- to 18-m) articulated buses.
  • Separate design criteria for stations and intersection signals etc.
  • BRT can carry about 6,000 passengers per hour

Transit Modes : Guided Transit

• Street car
  • Streetcars were the dominant mode of street transit in many cities until the 1950
  • Streetcars are electrically powered vehicles, usually articulated
  • Streetcars and LRT share basic technological characteristics
• Light Rail Transit
  • LRT is an electrically powered system that operates mostly on right-of-way category
  • 35 LRT/streetcar systems operating in the United States in 2012 and 12 in procurement stage
  • Variety of vehicle design, right-of-way types, station configurations, and speeds presents many opportunities in the design of LRT lines
• Rapid Rail Transit
  • RRT is an electrically powered system of trains operating only on exclusive rights-of-way and with fully access-controlled stations.
  • RRT systems use fail-safe train control systems, which consist of signals controlling occupancies
• Regional Rail Transit
  • A system of electric or diesel-powered trains operating on railroad rights-of-way
  • Higher speeds and more gap between stations
• Mono Rail
  • Run along a single beam and costs about $44 million to $118 million per mile
  • The ability to run only on elevated sections, complicated switching, and greater operational complexity than rail systems

Transit Modes : Paratransit & Other Modes

• Automated Systems: Automated people movers, automated guided transit and Automated metros
• Semi Public Para Transit:
  • Available to certain categories of users
  • Subscription vans or buses like Vanpools , Car sharing and Subscription programs
• Public Para Transit
  • Available to any individual or group of persons
  • Taxis/Uber/Lyft.
  • Jitneys
  • Flexible Transit Service – demand responsive
• Terrain based
  • Cable Cars, Cog railways, Funicular, Aerial Tramways
• Water based Transit
  • Passenger and auto ferries and water taxis

Costs & Quality of service

Capital Costs and Operation Costs E.g. O & M Costs = $42.67 (revenue hours) + $2.64 (revenue miles) + $108.27 (peak bus)

Transit Planning Procedure

• Strategic Planning
  • Linked to budgeting process

• Comprehensive Operational Analysis
  • Where best to change the network
  • Adjustments to running times, departure times/locations, transfer times, and stop spacing to improve schedule adherence and customer satisfaction.
  • Removal of minimally used bus stops and/or consolidation of bus stops.
  • Appropriate vehicle type and service characteristics, including fixed- and flex-route, local, limited, and express service.
• Long range Transit Planning
  • Done by MPOs
  • Planning for major transit investments
• Mode and Technology Selection

Planning for passenger stations

• Vision for Passenger Station
• Market Research (Demand Estimation)
• Performance Analysis Techniques
  • Process analysis
  • Simulation
  • Queuing
  • Pedestrian analysis
  • Life cycling planning
  • Security
  • Information systems

Non-Motorized Transport

Goals and Benchmark for Pedestrian and Bicycle Planning

• Pedestrian and Bicycle Trips as Alternative Modes of Transportation
• Walking and Bicycling for Healthy Lifestyles
• Less Costly Travel
• Environmentally-Friendly Travel Modes

Important Considerations in Today’s Planning Environment

• Balance among Transportation Modes and Complete Streets
• Context-Sensitive Design/Solutions
• Land Use
• Education, Encouragement, and Enforcement
• Design Flexibility to Enhance Safety

Pedestrian and Bicyclist Planning

• Understanding the Context and Problem
• Developing Vision/Goals/Objectives/Performance Measures

• Analyzing Walking and Bicycling Alternatives

  • Data
  • Surveys
  • Travel Demand Models
  • Pedestrian and Bicyclist Suitability, Level of Service, and Level of Traffic Stress Analysis
  • Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety Analysis
  • Simulation and Network Models
  • Transportation Impact Studies
  • Environmental Justice Analysis

Pedestrian and Bicyclist Planning Design Issues

• All streets where bicyclists are permitted to ride and share the same travel lanes with motor vehicles are technically classified as shared roadways.

• Pedestrian facilities should be designed with the following factors in mind
  • Sufficient Width
  • Protection from Traffic
  • Intersection Design
  • Street Trees
  • Pedestrian-Scale Design
  • Continuity
  • Clearances
  • Conformance with National Standards