Light-Rail in Louisville: Assessing the Financial Feasibility of Mass Transit

The Louisville-Jefferson County area encompasses a vast area and large population of citizens. To meet the transportation needs of this growing city, the Transit Authority of River City or TARC undertook a study in 1996 to determine potential transportation solutions to traffic congestion in the area. Based on their analysis, TARC determined that a 15-mile light rail transit system would best service their needs. This light rail system would run from the downtown central business district to a park-and-ride facility at the Gene Snyder Freeway. Prior to undertaking this project, TARC and all those parties involved should ask the fundamental question: Can we afford the high cost of this project? This capstone sought the answer to that very question. A thorough and exhaustive financial condition analysis was performed on a focus group of US cities that currently have light rail systems in existence. Local municipal governments were examined across this focus group to best ascertain the financial condition of the community at large. This financial condition analysis incorporated various financial factors. These financial factors included measures relating to revenues, expenditures, debt capacity, and operations. Based on the results of this study, we can conclude that the community of Louisville can justify the construction of a light rail transit system. This means that the project would be financially feasible. This does not mean that a light rail transit system in Louisville would enjoy great success with the community (i.e.- high ridership rates). Currently, funding for this project has been put on indefinite hold due to the allocation of several billion dollars to the Louisville Two Bridges project. Despite this setback, the light rail project issue may gain traction again in the future as the political winds change. If this happens, the extreme magnitude and scale of light rail transit would impose a large financial toll on TARC. As such, the second phase of this capstone comes up with a list of comparable cities to Louisville. Those seven cities included the communities of Boston, Buffalo, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Portland, and St Louis. The transit authorities from those respective cities were then evaluated one by one to determine likely financial scenarios for TARC. Specifically, the capstone sought to determine viable revenue and expenditure scenarios should this project become a reality. For example, what might TARC expect to pay in terms of operating and capital expenses? From the revenue perspective, where are these sources of funds going to come from? Each transit authority, acting as an independent body in charge of local transit, provides reasonable comparisons for projecting expenditures and providing possible revenue models. Pertinent information obtained from the Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) National Transit Database is used in conjunction with financial statements from the various transit authorities. On the expenditure side, it initially appears TARC has underestimated what it expects to pay in annual operating costs. On the revenue side, there are many options for source funding but a sales tax model and a municipal payroll tax model remain the most likely choices for TARC

Creating a Highway Information System for Safety Roadway Features

Roadway departures are the leading cause of roadside fatalities. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) has undertaken a number of roadside safety measures to reduce roadway departures. Specifically, KYTC has installed several low-cost, systemic roadway safety treatments to Kentucky’s roadways in recent years. These treatments include cable barriers, high friction surface treatments, rumble stripes, and Safety Edges. KYTC has installed approximately 44 cable barrier systems over 265 miles of roadway,112 HFST applications over 20 miles of roadway, 750 rumble stripe installations over 2,500 miles of roadway, and 147 Safety Edge treatments on 580 miles of roadway. The project team developed a complete inventory for safety measure installations, including their locations and select characteristics. This information was collected through interviews, KYTC databases, KYTC contract proposals, KTC studies, and onsite assessments. These data served as inputs into KYTC’s statewide highway model. ArcMap was used to reference locations of the inventoried safety treatments. All safety measure installations were compiled into a comprehensive Excel database. The database is a tool that will allow policy makers and transportation agencies to evaluate the effectiveness, cost, and benefits of roadway safety treatments

Evaluation of Guardrail Needs and Update of Guardrail Rating Program

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) seeks to reduce the frequency of roadway departure crashes, which often prove fatal. Roadside barriers such as guardrail have proven effective at mitigating these crashes, however, the demand for installations is high throughout the state. KYTC must prioritize prospective guardrail locations to match available funds with the most critical, or unsafe, sites. The current guardrail rating program (GRP) was established in 1989 to identify and prioritize guardrail needs. Despite periodic updates, the existing program no longer meets the transportation industry’s safety guidelines and policies. The Kentucky Transportation Center (KTC) studied national and state guardrail practices and developed a new methodology for prioritizing guardrail installations. The new GRP model focuses on two main factors: crash frequency and crash severity, with the goal of maximizing safety outcomes for roadway departure crashes

KYTC Sidewalk and Curb Ramp Inventory for ADA Compliance

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) requires that all public and private organizations providing services to the public ensure their facilities and infrastructure comply with regulations set forth therein. The ADA requires that a transition plan “identify physical obstacles in the public entity’s facilities that limit the accessibility of its programs or activities to individuals with disabilities.” In the first phase of Kentucky’s transition plan to become ADA compliant, KTC researchers inventoried sidewalks along all state-maintained roads in Kentucky to determine the presence or absence of pedestrian facilities. This sidewalk inventory was used to query Kentucky’s intersection database to achieve two goals: identify intersections along state-maintained roadways that have sidewalks, and determine the presence of curb ramps at intersections. Researchers performed quality control to ensure sidewalk and curb ramp inventories correctly characterized the pedestrian facilities that existed on the roadways. This process showed the error in the inventory to be approximately five percent, below the 10 percent error rate requested by KYTC. As a result of this project, KYTC now has access to a statewide inventory of state-maintained sidewalks and curb ramps that can serve as the basis for Kentucky’s ADA compliance transition plan

Evaluation of Alternative Rumble Strip Designs

Since Kentucky’s initial rumble strip designs were adopted, there has been additional research and experimentation in other states with alternative designs as a response to complaints from the public about noise pollution caused by rumble strips. The new research indicates that other rumble strip designs might provide increased interior noise/vibration with decreased exterior noise. Application of these alternative designs in Kentucky could result in improved rumble performance, reduced damage to new pavement, decreased noise pollution, installation on roadways with lower speed limits, and allow reinstallation of rumbles on thin overlays/microsurfacing. The research team reviewed national and state guidelines for conventional and alternative rumble strip designs and compiled a synthesis of current rumble strip practices. A series of site visits to rumble strip installations across the state revealed many findings about Kentucky’s current rumble strip practices. This research provides recommendations for conventional, sinusoidal, and shallow rumble strips as well as for rumble strip maintenance, rumble strips on thin overlays, and the use of edgeline and centerline rumble strips

Work Vehicle Warning Lights: Color Options and Effectiveness

KTC reviewed existing regulations, guidance, and practices to assess the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s warning lights program on highway work vehicles. The Kentucky Revised Statutes categorizes KYTC vehicles as “public safety vehicles” and requires their use of amber lights. Because the use of red can be confused with emergency vehicles, KYTC prohibits the use of red on work vehicles. At the national level, standards for warning light colors do not exist. Rather, AASHTO provides guidance on roadway operations equipment and recommends the use of amber and white lights as the primary warning light colors for highway vehicles. AASHTO guidance also prescribes the use of slow, asynchronous flash frequencies; LED light sources; and placement of lights at high elevations and against solid-colored backgrounds. The MUTCD provides little guidance in terms of warning light specifications, including color preferences. A review of existing state agencies, including DOTs, concluded that amber and white are the primary light colors currently in use across highway operations vehicles. KTC conducted two external surveys to assess warning light products and practices within the U.S. The first survey reviewed vendor LED products and revealed that LED lights are primarily available in the colors of amber, blue, green, red, and white. Fluorescent yellow-green is not available. The second survey requested state DOT information related to lighting systems’ colors, sources, intensity, and placement; responding agency names and policies; and previous state DOT studies related to warning lights. Survey responses indicated 100 percent use of the color amber (as a color type) as well as use of LED light sources. More than 75 percent of reporting agencies place warning lights on their highway work vehicle’s roof to maximize visibility to motorists. Survey results varied dramatically on the differentiation of warning light colors by vehicle type and the differentiation of light intensities for daytime versus nighttime conditions. KTC researchers recommend the use of amber and white colors for KYTC work vehicles, an asynchronous flashing pattern with slow flash frequencies, and LED bulbs. Other recommendations include placement of warning lights at high elevations on the vehicle, placement of warning lights against a solid-colored background, and investigation on feasibility of yellow-green LED lights

Applicability of Zipper Merge Versus Early Merge in Kentucky Work Zones

In an effort to improve work zone safety and streamline traffic flows, a number of state transportation agencies (STAs) have experimented with the zipper merge. The zipper merge differs from a conventional, or early, merge in that vehicles do not merge into the lane that remains open immediately after being notified of a lane closure. Rather, vehicles continue to occupy all lanes until they reach the taper, at which point — and directed by signage — vehicles take turns merging into the open lane, creating a zipper pattern. At the request of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC), Kentucky Transportation Center (KTC) researchers reviewed the performance of the zipper merge as documented in case studies from other states and analyzed two instances of the zipper merge being implemented in Kentucky. Previous studies found zipper merges are optimal on roadways with heavy traffic, whereas the conventional merge is preferable for uncongested and low-volume roadways. The case studies used a blend of quantitative and qualitative, observational data; researchers investigated the performance of zipper merges installed on Interstate 275’s Carroll Copper Bridge and KY 9’s Taylor Southgate Bridge. For the I-275 bridge, KTC researchers were able to compare the early merge configuration to the zipper merge. Here, the zipper merge brought about minor, although statistically insignificant, improvements in traffic flow and roadway safety. Analysis of the zipper merge on the Taylor Southgate Bridge relied more heavily on qualitative data, as the zipper merge was installed from the outset of the study and no comparison to an early merge could be made. The zipper merge appeared to improve traffic flow, reduce backups, and minimize the area impacted by construction. While neither case study offers definitive evidence that the zipper merge is significantly more effective than the early merge, they offer limited support for its use. On this basis, researchers suggest its continued implementation on other KYTC projects. Implementing the zipper merge elsewhere in Kentucky will enable further data collection and potentially identify locations and situations for which the zipper merge is the most appropriate merging method

In-Service Evaluation of High Tension Cable Barrier Systems

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet has installed hundreds of miles of high-tension cable median barrier (CMB) as a safety innovation. The usage of CMB aids in the prevention of crossover crashes, where a vehicle departs the roadway on the left shoulder, crosses the median, and enters the opposing lane(s) of traffic. KYTC officials have questioned whether all three barrier products perform similarly. Some installed cable barrier systems have lost tension across the entire cable length after a single vehicle impact. If a second vehicle were to strike the cable barrier system in a location other than the damaged area of the first vehicle’s crash, ideally, the high-tension cable barrier system should continue to prevent errant vehicles from crossing the median and causing a head-on collision. The goal of this research was to improve the safety and effectiveness of Kentucky’s cable barrier systems by reviewing state DOT best practices for cable barrier, conducting on-site evaluation of current cable barrier installations, and examining crash data. The research team analyzed each CMB vendor product’s performance and maintenance requirements, and recommended modifications to KYTC policies, specifications, and maintenance procedures. The study showed that CMB systems have decreased crossover crashes in Kentucky, which warrants the continued use of high-tension cable barrier across the state. One recommendation of the study is to institute and enforce tension-monitoring programs, as applicable, for both annual inspections and after repairs

Evaluation of Deterioration of Structural Concrete Due to Chloride Intrusion and Other Damaging Mechanisms

Kentucky\u27s bridges continue to age and experience distress. The intrusion of chlorides into concrete remains the primary mechanism for deterioration. It leads to reinforcing steel corrosion that damages the adjoining concrete structure. This study found problematic chloride concentrations in Kentucky concrete bridge elements (decks, pier caps, abutments). Chloride levels have been found at concentrations sufficient to initiate reinforcing steel corrosion. In some cases, chloride concentrations were sufficient to cause accelerated corrosion and produce major section loss of reinforcing steel. Advanced stages of corrosion such as these typically require costly repairs and maintenance to extend the service life of bridges. Field inspections and laboratory analyses conducted during this study verified the ongoing problem of concrete deterioration across bridges within Kentucky\u27s transportation network

Estimation of Average Daily Traffic on Local Roads in Kentucky

Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) officials use annual average daily traffic (AADT) to estimate intersection performance across the state maintained highway system. KYTC currently collects AADTs for state maintained roads but frequently lacks this information on local roads. A method is needed to estimate local road AADTs in a cost-effective and reasonable manner. Kentucky Transportation Center (KTC) researchers conducted a literature review on U.S. AADT models but found that none of them were suitable to Kentucky. Therefore, KTC developed an AADT model using non-linear regression to estimate AADTs on approaches to those intersections. KTC developed a Poisson distributed, non-linear regression model to estimate AADT. This model divided the state into three regions encompassing all of the highway districts: West (Districts 1, 2, 3, and 4), North Central (Districts 5, 6, and 7), and East (Districts 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12). This partitioning accounted for geographic and socioeconomic variability across the state. Each regional model relied upon three independent variables: probe count, residential vehicle registration, and curve rating. HERE proprietary probe counts—indicative of vehicle movements—provide tracking visibility on a select portion of vehicles moving across Kentucky highways. Residential vehicle registrations can be used to estimate trip generation information. Finally, the curve rating partially indicates accessibility. Model results were adjusted to KYTC daily vehicle miles traveled (DVMT) county control totals for local roads. Sensitivity analysis was conducted to examine the impact of model errors for use in intersection safety analysis. Results indicate that the estimates generated can be effectively used for safety assessment and countermeasure prioritization