FLEET AND FUEL STRATEGIES FOR TRANSPORTATION RESILIENCE

The state of Florida, including the Tampa Bay region, is considered one of the most vulnerable areas in the United States to hurricanes and severe tropical weather. A particular vulnerability stems from the fact that Tampa Bay receives all of its petroleum—gasoline and diesel—through Port Tampa Bay, which can be impacted by hurricanes and tropical storms, as well as other disasters. If the port is unable to receive ships due to hurricane wind or storm surge, fuel cannot be delivered to the area, and transportation is impeded. One promising way to avoid this reduction in transportation functionality is to diversify the fuels used. This paper summarizes previous fuel challenges and vulnerabilities experienced by key Tampa Bay fleets after the area’s most recent tropical event—Hurricane Irma in 2017—in order to explore ways to improve the resilience of Tampa Bay to natural disasters. Some of these strategies include maintaining emergency fuel supply, prioritizing fuel use, developing innovative real-time resource sharing mechanisms, strategically placing the assets around the region to assist with the recovery, investing in backup generators, planning for redundancies in fuel supply networks, and diversifying fuel sources by incorporating alternative fuel vehicles into the fleet

Guidebook for Deploying Battery Electric Buses

A s part of FTA\u2019s effort to promote continuous safety and operational improvements in the public transit industry, Guidebook for Deploying Battery Electric Buses was developed to provide bus transit agencies with leading transit industry practices for performing these activities. The supporting research report, Procuring and Maintaining Battery Electric Buses and Charging Systems \u2013 Best Practices, is a resource for the industry that offers a summary of industry reports highlighting the challenges and opportunities with battery electric bus (BEB) deployments and the outcomes of federally sponsored deployments, existing standards from the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) and the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), as examples, and lessons learned through case studies. It also includes a series of findings associated with BEB and charging station procurements, system efficiency and interoperability considerations, and maintenance standards and guidelines. Additionally, the Safety and Security Certification of Electric Bus Fleets \u2013 Industry Best Practices supporting research was conducted to give bus transit agencies helpful information on the requirements of a Safety and Security Certification (SSC) program to verify the unique identified risks that will be introduced to a transit agency as a result of initiating a BEB fleet transition. The findings are useful to transit agencies as tools to identify likely challenges that should be considered before embarking on the transition to bus fleet electrification, such as specific language to include in procurements to reduce challenges associated with part availability, and battery warranty ambiguity

Evaluation of the Federal Transit Administration’s Transit and Health Access Initiative: Case Highlights, Findings, and Recommendations

FTA’s Transit and Health Access Initiative provided funding for demonstration projects to test promising, replicable public transportation healthcare access solutions that support the “triple aim” of increased access to healthcare, improved health outcomes, and reduced healthcare costs. This paper highlights two compelling projects from the independent evaluation of the initiative, selected for their creative approaches and wealth of lessons learned. After in-depth case descriptions of these two projects, the authors present the overall findings and recommendations that emerged from the full evaluation effort. Overall, program participants credited the projects with significant improvements to their health. Some reported that, because of the projects, they were more active and independent, had more control over their lives, experienced less emotional hardship, and were better able to reach their goals. However, these results should be viewed in light of the caveats and limitations of relying on self-reported health data, which was often the best tool for programs unable to overcome the legal concerns surrounding health privacy laws and regulations

Procuring and Maintaining Battery Electric Buses and Charging Systems \u2013 Best Practices

The primary objective of this project was to identify the best practices for procuring and maintaining battery electric buses (BEB) and charging systems to help in U.S. Department of Transportation efforts to support the transition of the nation's transportation systems to electric vehicles and other zero-carbon technologies. The research outcomes include the identification of areas for voluntary standards development, and the development or modification of existing relevant standards including procurement specifications, other procurement documents, and maintenance standards and guidelines for transit buses powered through electric propulsion and associated charging infrastructure