An Approach for Actions to Prevent Suicides on Commuter and Metro Rail Systems in the United States, MTI Report 12-33

The primary goals of this report are to discuss measures to prevent suicides on commuter and metro rail systems, and to outline an approach for suicide prevention on rail systems. Based on existing literature and analysis of data obtained from the Metrolink system in Southern California, it was found that most suicides occur near station platforms and near access points to the track. Suicides occurred most frequently when relatively more trains were in operation and in areas of high population density. There do not appear to be suicide “hot spots” (e.g., linked to mental hospitals in the proximity, etc.), based on data analyzed for U.S. systems. The suicide prevention measures range from relatively inexpensive signs posting call-for-help suicide hotline information to costly platform barriers that physically prevent people from jumping onto tracks in front of trains. Other prevention measures fall within this range, such as hotlines available at high frequency suicide locations, or surveillance systems that can report possible suicide attempts and provide the opportunity for intervention tactics. Because of the relatively low number of suicides on rail systems, as compared to the overall number of suicides in general, a cost-effective strategy for preventing suicides on rail systems should be approached in a very focused manner. The prevention measures executed by the rail authorities should be focused on the suicides occurring on the rail systems themselves, while the broader problem of suicides should be left to community-based prevention efforts. Moreover, prevention measures, such as surveillance and response, could “piggyback” on surveillance and response systems used for other purposes on the rail systems to make such projects economically feasible

Housing and Mobility Toolkit for San Mateo County

Since the end of the Great Recession, San Mateo County has attracted new workers at a record rate without building anywhere near enough housing. This jobs-housing imbalance drives the cost of housing up and forces many moderate and lower-income employees and their families out of the County. A lack of access to quality affordable housing in the County and the entire Bay Area along with limited transportation options means that an increased number of employees drive in and out of the County every workday. The resultant congestion, gridlock, and long commutes along with other negative environmental, social, and economic impacts create a major concern for communities in the County and beyond. Clearly, this problem has two distinct but interrelated dimensions: housing development and transportation planning. A select group of Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) Research Associates worked closely with representatives from the San Mateo County Home for All initiative to help address this challenge by developing a toolkit of successful case studies with a holistic approach to housing development and transportation planning

Selecting Software to Evaluate the Anticipated Effectiveness of CMP Strategies

DVRPC is seeking a software program or programs to evaluate the anticipated performance of a range of congestion management strategies. This is a required task in federal regulations for the Congestion Management Process (CMP). DVRPC staff would share this resource with partner organizations. Thirty-four software packages are reviewed. The conclusion is that a sketch planning-level program would be the most useful type of software; however, there is no one program able to analyze all of the strategies used in the CMP. Initial testing of Cal-B/C, a free, downloadable spreadsheet-based sketch modeling tool, shows potential. Future plans to continue testing software for CMP strategy analysis are outlined

Automated Transit Networks (ATN): A Review of the State of the Industry and Prospects for the Future, MTI Report 12-31

The concept of Automated Transit Networks (ATN) - in which fully automated vehicles on exclusive, grade-separated guideways provide on-demand, primarily non-stop, origin-to-destination service over an area network – has been around since the 1950s. However, only a few systems are in current operation around the world. ATN does not appear “on the radar” of urban planners, transit professionals, or policy makers when it comes to designing solutions for current transit problems in urban areas. This study explains ATN technology, setting it in the larger context of Automated Guideway Transit (AGT); looks at the current status of ATN suppliers, the status of the ATN industry, and the prospects of a U.S.-based ATN industry; summarizes and organizes proceedings from the seven Podcar City conferences that have been held since 2006; documents the U.S./Sweden Memorandum of Understanding on Sustainable Transport; discusses how ATN could expand the coverage of existing transit systems; explains the opportunities and challenges in planning and funding ATN systems and approaches for procuring ATN systems; and concludes with a summary of the existing challenges and opportunities for ATN technology. The study is intended to be an informative tool for planners, urban designers, and those involved in public policy, especially for urban transit, to provide a reference for history and background on ATN, and to use for policy development and research

An Analysis of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Ability to Achieve Sustainability as Defined by the Transportation Index for Sustainable Places

This paper analysis the ability of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority to adhere to sustainability under the Transportation Index for Sustainable Places (TISP). Analysis focuses solely on the environmental domain of the TISP and the criteria included within that domain. Three pieces are analyzed: the Los Angeles Sustainable Implementation Plan, the Sustainable Rail Plan, and the Regional Connector Transit Project. These pieces are found to adhere to the sustainability criteria under the environmental domain of the TISP

Development of a Supervisory Control Unit for a Series Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle

A Series PHEV was chosen, as ERAU\u27s entry into EcoCAR2 through a multidisciplinary architecture selection process. The series architecture was chosen for its mechanical feasibility, consumer acceptability and its performance on energy consumption simulations. The Series PHEV architecture was modeled using Matlab, Simulink, and dSPACE ASM tools, to create a plant model for controller development. A supervisory controller was developed to safely control the interactions between powertrain components. The supervisory control unit was tested using SIL and HIL methodologies. The supervisory controller was developed with an emphasis on fault detection and mitigation for safety critical systems. A power management control algorithm was developed to efficiently control the vehicle during charge sustaining operation. The first controller implemented was a simplified bang-bang controller to operate at the global minimum BSFC. A power-tracking controller was then developed to minimize powertrain losses. The power-tracking controller substantially reduced the vehicles energy consumption on simulated EPA drive cycles

Ecodriving and Carbon Footprinting: Understanding How Public Education Can Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Fuel Use

Ecodriving is a collection of changes to driving behavior and vehicle maintenance designed to impact fuel consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in existing vehicles. Because of its promise to improve fuel economy within the existing fleet, ecodriving has gained increased attention in North America. One strategy to improve ecodriving is through public education with information on how to ecodrive. This report provides a review and study of ecodriving from several angles. The report offers a literature review of previous work and programs in ecodriving across the world. In addition, researchers completed interviews with experts in the field of public relations and public message campaigns to ascertain best practices for public campaigns. Further, the study also completed a set of focus groups evaluating consumer response to a series of websites that displayed ecodriving information. Finally, researchers conducted a set of surveys, including a controlled stated-response study conducted with approximately 100 University of California, Berkeley faculty, staff, and students, assessing the effectiveness of static ecodriving web-based information as well as an intercept clipboard survey in the San Francisco Bay Area. The stated-response study consisted of a comparison of the experimental and control groups. It found that exposure to ecodriving information influenced people’s driving behavior and some maintenance practices. The experimental group’s distributional shift was statistically significant, particularly for key practices including: lower highway cruising speed, driving behavior adjustment, and proper tire inflation. Within the experimental group (N = 51), fewer respondents significantly changed their maintenance practices (16%) than the majority that altered some driving practices (71%). This suggests intentionally altering driving behavior is easier than planning better maintenance practices. While it was evident that not everyone modifies their behavior as a result of reviewing the ecodriving website, even small shifts in behavior due to inexpensive information dissemination could be deemed cost effective in reducing fuel consumption and emissions

Framework for integrated planning of bus and paratransit services in Indian cities

Public transport services in India and many other developing countries are provided by a combination of formal-Government led public transport systems and informal paratransit or Intermediate Public Transport (IPT) systems, which offer shuttle services along high demand corridors with passengers boarding and alighting at multiple points. Despite limited Government support, paratransit systems continue to thrive in many cities serving a crucial shared mobility need of users, without which cities would have more private vehicle usage. Due to their informal nature and the perceived competition to formal public transport systems, they have traditionally been either excluded from the public transport planning processes or designed as a feeder service to the formal transit system. The current thesis recognises paratransit’s role in serving end to end travel demand needs, particularly in developing economies with limited public transport supply and not just being a feeder to the formal public transport system. Hence, we develop an integrated planning framework that enables formal and informal public transport systems to operate as complementary systems towards meeting the mobility needs of the city. We proved an integrated planning framework based on comprehensive understanding of the demand and supply characteristics of both formal and informal systems which currently operate independently to realign services and complement each other. The tactical planning stage of public transport planning i.e. frequency setting was identified as the ideal stage of planning for integration of the two types of services. This will ensure continuity of their existing route networks and at the same time allow for paratransit services’ flexibility to switch operations between routes. Visakhapatnam, a representative medium sized Indian city with a significant presence of formal public transport in the form of city bus services and paratransit services provided by three-wheeler auto-rickshaws with a seating capacity of three to six passengers, was selected as the case city to demonstrate the methodology. A household survey based data collection and analysis methodology was adopted to analyse the socio-economic and travel demand characteristics of city bus and paratransit users. The variables impacting users’ choice between these two systems were derived through binary logistic regression. The high frequency and low occupancy paratransit systems were more popular among shorter trips, while longer trips preferred the fixed table bus systems. The operational characteristics of bus and paratransit systems were derived through a combination of primary surveys with paratransit operators and secondary data on the city bus operations. Data regarding their network of operation, services offered, passenger demand and revenue generated were collected for analysis. Buses perform a service function in the city by operating throughout the day and on a wider network, while paratransit operates with a profit motive only on high demand corridors and during peak hours. A Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) based methodology was adopted to compare the performance efficiency of the two systems using a set of input and output indicators that define the performance of the two systems. Paratransit operations were identified to be more efficient compared to buses, due to their demand responsive operations. The lower efficiency of buses was also due to their service obligation to the city to provide affordable services throughout the day, even in areas with low demand. A bi-level transit assignment and frequency optimisation framework is developed to integrate formal bus and paratransit services. The lower-level of the model solves for the multi- modal transit assignment problem while the upper level solves for the integrated frequency optimisation problem. The transit assignment problem was solved from the users perspective i.e. to minimise their travel time through the user-equilibrium method. The frequency optimisation problem was solved using an integer programming formulation with the objective of minimising operational cost of bus and paratransit systems while meeting constraints like the travel demand on any link. The outputs from the optimisation exercise were used to quantify the impact of the public transport system at various levels i.e. users total travel time spent in the system, operators cost of providing the services and the overall impact on the society by estimating its road space requirement and emissions. Alternative user demand and transit supply scenarios were tested to assess their impacts on the society. The results show significant operational cost benefits of an integrated transit assignment and frequency planning approach where paratransit provides demand responsive services for short distance trips while formal public transport provides fixed schedule services on with broader network coverage. The analysis established the complimentary role played by bus and paratransit systems in meeting users travel demands. Therefore, it is recommended that cities harness both the systems towards meeting increasing travel needs of developing economies. Formal transit will continue to be the core of the public transport system, providing fixed route services, while paratransit can augment its capacity on high demand corridors and during peak hours. The planning and frequency optimisation framework developed in this thesis can help cities in identifying the modal-mix of fixed route public transport and on-demand services