Analyzing the Effects of Transit Network Change on Agency Performance and Riders in a Decentralized, Small-to-Mid-sized US Metropolitan Area: A Case Study of Tallahassee, Florida, MTI Report 12-04

On July 11, 2011, StarMetro, the local public transit agency in Tallahassee, Florida, restructured its entire bus network from a downtown-focused radial system to a decentralized, grid-like system that local officials and agency leaders believed would better serve the dispersed local pattern of population and employment. The new, decentralized network is based on radial routes serving the major arterial roads and new crosstown routes linking the outer parts of the city, where population and employment is growing. Local officials and agency staff hoped the change would increase transit’s attractiveness and usefulness to the community. One year after the service restructuring, overall performance results are similar to those experienced in other cities that have implemented major service changes. Overall ridership and productivity are lower than before the service restructuring, due to the short time frame for rider adjustments and longer-than-anticipated headways, but new ridership has appeared in previously un-served or under-served corridors and neighborhoods. The service restructuring resulted in longer walks to bus stops, due to the removal of stops from many neighborhoods and their relocation to major roads, but overall transit travel times are shorter due to more direct routing. No particular neighborhoods or community groups disproportionately benefited from or were harmed by the change. The service restructuring was supported by some segments of the community who viewed the older system as ill-suited to the increasingly decentralized community, while it was opposed by other community stakeholders who worried about the loss of service in some neighborhoods and issues of access and safety, particularly affecting elderly and disabled riders, at new stop locations. StarMetro’s extensive public outreach efforts and ongoing service adjustments have reduced the intensity of the opposition to the service restructuring over time, although some segments of the community continue to voice their concerns about the effects of the change on transit-dependent, disabled, and elderly riders

Understanding Transit Ridership Demand for a Multi-Destination, Multimodal Transit Network in an American Metropolitan Area, Research Report 11-06

This study examines the factors underlying transit demand in the multi-destination, integrated bus and rail transit network for Atlanta, Georgia. Atlanta provides an opportunity to explore the consequences of a multi-destination transit network for bus patrons (largely transit-dependent riders) and rail patrons (who disproportionately illustrate choice rider characteristics). Using data obtained from the 2000 Census, coupled with data obtained from local and regional organizations in the Atlanta metropolitan area, we estimate several statistical models that explain the pattern of transit commute trips across the Atlanta metropolitan area. The models show that bus riders and rail riders are different, with bus riders exhibiting more transit-dependent characteristics and rail riders more choice rider characteristics. However, both types of riders value many of the same attributes of transit service quality (including shorter access and egress times and more direct trips) and their use of transit is influenced by many of the same variables (including population and employment). At the same time, the factors that influence transit demand vary depending on the type of travel destination the rider wishes to reach, including whether it is the central business district (CBD) or a more auto-oriented, suburban destination. The results of the study offer new insights into the nature of transit demand in a multi-destination transit system and provide lessons for agencies seeking to increase ridership among different ridership groups. The results suggest that more direct transit connections to dispersed employment centers, and easier transfers to access such destinations, will lead to higher levels of transit use for both transit-dependent and choice riders. The results also show that the CBD remains an important transit destination for rail riders but not for their bus rider counterparts. Certain types of transit-oriented development (TOD) also serve as significant producers and attractors of rail transit trips

Predicting the Second Caustic Crossing in Binary Microlensing Events

We fit binary lens models to the data covering the initial part of real microlensing events in an attempt to predict the time of the second caustic crossing. We use approximations during the initial search through the parameter space for light curves that roughly match the observed ones. Exact methods for calculating the lens magnification of an extended source are used when we refine our best initial models. Our calculations show that the reliable prediction of the second crossing can only be made very late, when the light curve has risen appreciably after the minimum between the two caustic-crossings. The best observational strategy is therefore to sample as frequently as possible once the light curve starts to rise after the minimum.Comment: 14 pages + 3 EPS figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Examining the Role of Internal Planning Decisions in Improving Transit Performance and Economic Outcomes

Scholars and practitioners continuously seek best practices to increase transit ridership, efficiency, and modal share. The ongoing suburbanization and decentralization of U.S. metropolitan regions brings new challenges for accomplishing these goals. Investigating possible strategies for improving transit outcomes in the existing socioeconomic setting, scholars from the Florida State University have pointed to the role of internal performance factors. In a series of research studies, they have found that improving transit service characteristics, such as frequency, connectivity, regional coverage, intermodal integration, as well as decentralization of network structures, could result in increased transit ridership and productivity. These positive effects could be observed even in auto-oriented, low-density environments. This presentation will briefly summarize the previous findings regarding the role of internal factors in improving transit performance and elaborate on the most recent study, which has attempted to assess the economic effects of implementing planning strategies based on adjusting the internal factors. While the previous research utilized average ridership and average vehicle load as primary measures of transit outcomes, this study evaluates the benefits and costs of adjusting specific internal factors, with the objective of determining whether the additional costs of improved service could be balanced with increased revenues and social benefits. The study focuses on 13 U.S. bus and light rail systems during the 2001 – 2011 period. The results indicate that higher service frequency and service density are positively correlated with the amount of net benefits generated by bus and light rail systems. Simultaneously, the degree of network decentralization appears to have no significant influence on the benefits and costs.https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/trec_seminar/1063/thumbnail.jp

Examining the Influence of Internal Service Characteristics on Social Benefits of Multimodal Transit

Recent research has demonstrated that certain transit planning decisions about internal performance factors appeared to serve as successful strategies for improving transit ridership and productivity. However, the research has not assessed overall social benefits or the operating and capital costs of implementing such strategies. The influence of several transit performance factors, internal and external, on the annual net benefits generated by 13 U.S. bus and light rail transit systems was investigated with data from 2001 to 2011. The evaluation started with a benefit–cost analysis, which estimated net benefits (equal to agency revenues plus indirect social benefits minus operating and capital costs). Then, the statistical relationship between specific performance factors and the average net benefits generated by the systems studied was evaluated with a panel regression model. Results indicated that high frequency and service density positively influenced net benefits, but network decentralization (i.e., volume of service headed out of the central business district) played an insignificant role. Surprisingly, only one of several external factors, reflecting congestion volume, appeared to be correlated significantly with the benefits. These results provide new insight into the outcomes of planning decisions on the basis of internal factors and imply that the costs of certain transit service enhancements may be outweighed by increased revenues and indirect benefits. The results also indicate that bus and light rail systems can improve their economic feasibility by adjusting specific types of internal service characteristics

Do Light Rail Transit Planning Decisions Affect Metropolitan Transit Performance? Examination of Eight U. S. Metropolitan Areas with Light Rail Transit Backbones

In 2011, light rail transit (LRT) in eight U. S. metropolitan areas—Phoenix, Arizona; Sacramento and San Diego, California; Denver, Colorado; Saint Louis, Missouri; Portland, Oregon; Dallas, Texas; and Salt Lake City, Utah—carried 20% or more of the metropolitan area\u27s total fixed-route ridership. The study reported in this paper explored the role of socioeconomic, planning, and operational factors as influences on LRT and metropolitan fixed-route performance in these eight areas, where LRT might function as a backbone around which other transit services were organized. Of particular interest were the planning and operational decisions over which planners and policy makers exercised some control. With the use of a combination of national and agency data, the eight areas were ranked on criteria with a basis in the optimal conditions suggested by a review of the literature. These rankings were then related to performance. The results showed that although socioeconomic factors were important influences on performance, they were not determinative. Planning and operational decisions about coverage, access, and multimodal coordination and integration also emerged as important influences on LRT and metropolitan transit performance

The Effects of Perception vs. “Reality” on Travel Behavior after a Major Transit Service Change: The Case of Tallahassee, Florida

An individual’s perception plays an important role in determining the decisions that people make involving the use of public transportation. An individual’s perception about the qualities of transit service might differ from the objective measures (“reality”) of service quality used by planners to make and evaluate decisions. This study explores the roles of perception and “reality” of transit service quality as influences on the attitudes and behaviors of two different groups of transit dependent riders after a major service change in Tallahassee, Florida. Using a combination of community surveys, key informant interviews, and agency data, the study finds that perception mattered more than “reality” as an influence on the attitudes and behaviors of the two groups. The need for more effective outreach to understand the reasons that individual perception might differ from the objective measures used and understood by transit professionals also emerges as an important lesson of the study

The Effects of Perception vs. “Reality” on Travel Behavior after a Major Transit Service Change: The Case of Tallahassee, Florida

An individual’s perception plays an important role in determining the decisions that people make involving the use of public transportation. An individual’s perception about the qualities of transit service might differ from the objective measures (“reality”) of service quality used by planners to make and evaluate decisions. This study explores the roles of perception and “reality” of transit service quality as influences on the attitudes and behaviors of two different groups of transit dependent riders after a major service change in Tallahassee, Florida. Using a combination of community surveys, key informant interviews, and agency data, the study finds that perception mattered more than “reality” as an influence on the attitudes and behaviors of the two groups. The need for more effective outreach to understand the reasons that individual perception might differ from the objective measures used and understood by transit professionals also emerges as an important lesson of the study

Restructuring from a Central Business District-Focused to a Decentralized Transit System

The relationship between a transit system\u27s design and the pattern of urban development affects the level and pattern of accessibility in a community. A mismatch between the two renders some destinations inaccessible to people who rely primarily on transit to serve their transportation needs. System design is critical to accessibility and to equity, but thus far, the research literature has largely neglected this important issue. The relationship between system design and accessibility was examined through a study of the July 11, 2011, restructuring of StarMetro, the bus system in Tallahassee, Florida. The focus was on the change in riders\u27 accessibility provided by shifting from a transit network that was downtown-oriented and radial before restructuring to one that was decentralized and multidestination after restructuring. System restructuring increased the time for people to walk to bus stops, but once people reached the stops, the more direct travel connections provided by the new system reduced travel times and increased access to destinations. The net result of the service change was a reduction in total travel time and thus increased accessibility for most trip interchanges. The restructuring neither disproportionately harmed nor disproportionately benefited neighborhoods with larger numbers of transit-dependent, low-income, or minority residents. The restructuring did not disproportionately benefit, nor disproportionately harm, neighborhoods with large numbers of college students either. StarMetro was a system largely dominated by college students and transit-dependent residents before restructuring, as well as after. However, there was a modest increase in the use of the system by infrequent riders after restructuring