Creating Intelligent, Coordinated Transit

Author(s):  
Judith M. Espinosa ◽  
Eric F. Holm ◽  
Mary E. White

New Mexico is among the first states in the United States to develop, implement, and deploy contactless, smart card technology in a rural area. The Alliance for Transportation Research Institute, working with the New Mexico Department of Transportation's Public Transportation Programs Bureau, developed the Intelligent, Coordinated Transit (ICTransit) smart card technology and the Client, Referral, Ridership, and Financial Tracking (CRRAFT) software. The U.S. Department of Transportation's FTA–FHWA Joint Program Office provided federal funding for the project. The ICTransit smart card functions as a universal use electronic fare card, enabling passengers to transfer between transit providers to access jobs, education, and health care beyond their local rural communities. ICTransit's Global Positioning System receiver and Pocket PC capture the time and location that passengers board and exit the vehicle and the passenger miles traveled on the vehicle. The CRRAFT software system for express scheduling, automatic generation of monthly financial reports, and onboard tracking of ridership provides increased efficiency in rural areas. The ICTransit system with CRRAFT can overcome barriers to coordinated interagency transportation and provide increased access and mobility to all, but especially to those underserved by public transportation. ICTransit with CRRAFT can empower states to build coordinated transportation networks that provide safe and seamless movement of people and enhance the quality of life.

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-132
Author(s):  
Adinda Sekar Tanjung ◽  
Puspita Dirgahayani

Abstract   The demand for rural public transportation is dominated by people who cannot access private vehicles. In terms of the number of operating routes and the performance of their services, currently rural public transport services tend to decline. The mobility of rural communities to reach social facilities can be hampered if there is no public transportation service, which in turn will reduce the quality of human resources in rural areas. This study focuses on the movement characteristics of rural public transport passengers in Kuningan Regency. Several rural transportation routes were taken as samples, namely route 030 Cilimus-Linggarjati, route 061 Cilimus-Mandirancan, and route 037 Lengkong-Rancakeusik. This study shows that the characteristics of the movement of rural public transport passengers are an integral part in an effort to maintain rural public transport services. These characteristics of passenger movement can be used to improve the performance of public transportation, become input for public transport operators, and become material for local governments to make policies   Keywords: rural public transportation; public transport routes; public transport services; public transport performance.     Abstrak   Permintaan angkutan umum perdesaan didominasi oleh masyarakat yang tidak dapat mengakses kendaraan pribadi. Dari sisi jumlah trayek yang beroperasi dan kinerja layanannya, saat ini layanan angkutan umum perdesaan cenderung semakin menurun. Mobilitas masyarakat perdesaan untuk menjangkau fasilitas sosial dapat terhambat jika tidak ada layanan angkutan umum, yang pada akhirnya akan menurunkan kualitas sumber daya manusia di kawasan perdesaan. Studi ini berfokus pada karakteristik pergerakan penumpang angkutan umum perdesaan di Kabupaten Kuningan. Beberapa trayek angkutan perdesaan diambil sebagai sampel, yaitu trayek 030 Cilimus-Linggarjati, trayek 061 Cilimus-Mandirancan, dan trayek 037 Lengkong-Rancakeusik. Penelitian ini  menunjukkan bahwa karakteristik pergerakan penumpang angkutan umum perdesaan merupakan bagian yang tidak terpisahkan dalam upaya mempertahankan layanan angkutan umum perdesaan. Karakteristik pergerakan penumpang ini dapat digunakan untuk meningkatkan kinerja angkutan umum, menjadi masukan bagi operator angkutan umum, serta menjadi bahan pemerintah daerah untuk membuat kebijakan.   Kata-kata kunci: angkutan umum perdesaan; trayek angkutan umum; layanan angkutan umum; kinerja angkutan umum.


Author(s):  
Morgan D. Vogel ◽  
Robert Blair ◽  
Jerome Deichert

Across the United States there is increased pressure for communities, especially in states like Nebraska, to engage in sustainable transportation infrastructure development. Through a case study of an ongoing statewide transportation initiative in nonmetropolitan Nebraska, this chapter examines transportation sustainability and planning from a regional and collaborative perspective. The Nebraska effort can be adapted to other states with significant rural and dispersed population centers. Funded by the state and the federal governments, Nebraska's transportation initiative, using an innovative public-private partnership, is creating and enhancing regional transit services in small urban and rural areas, using public transportation as a means to promote long-term economic growth and sustainability. Smaller urban and micropolitan communities, often serving as regional growth centers, frequently are overlooked when it comes to research on transportation planning and policy.


Author(s):  
Wallace Hannum ◽  
Matthew Irvin ◽  
Claire de la Varre

Rural schools in many countries face problems in providing educational opportunities to children and youth for a variety of reasons. There has been the tendency in many countries to migrate to urban areas, often in search of better economic opportunities. The resulting shift from rural areas to urban/suburban areas has placed increased pressures on schools in rural communities. Schools often form the hub of social and civic activity in rural communities. Although they are an important component to rural communities, many rural schools are struggling under the weight of declining populations, declining budgets, staffing difficulties, and increased pressures to better prepare students for the workforce or further education. Rural schools face particular difficulties in attracting and retaining qualified teachers. Faced with problems of providing a comprehensive curriculum and qualified teachers, many rural schools in the United States have turned to distance education. This case explores the use of distance education in the United States through a national survey of distance education use, analysis of barriers to distance education and an experimental study of enhancing distance education through more appropriate training of local facilitators to support students.


Author(s):  
Judith M. Espinosa ◽  
Matthew R. Baca ◽  
Amy D. Estelle ◽  
Nancy Bennett ◽  
Geri Knoebel ◽  
...  

From the 1990s on, a growing number of federal and state human service programs have identified transportation as an allowable, often vital, support service for clients. State human services agencies in New Mexico are improving clients’ transportation options either by funding the expansion of local transit operators’ service areas and hours, or the starting up of new transit systems. Agencies providing this new transportation funding require specific reports based on the human service delivery model. Because services are client-based, the reports include the number of unique clients served, number of trips provided to each client, trip purposes, and costs. For New Mexico rural transit systems that operate under FTA Section 5311 guidelines, services and reports are trip based. To bridge the gap between human service agency and rural transit system cultures, the Alliance for Transportation Research Institute of the University of New Mexico developed a web-based software program, the Client Referral, Ridership, and Financial Tracking (CRRAFT) Transit Management System. The software integrates human service client transportation referral and service delivery with daily rural public transit operations, provides passengers with increased seamlessness in transportation service, and generates financial and client tracking reports that meet each funding agency’s criteria, including those required by FTA. The CRRAFT lessens the burden on small transit systems that have limited administrative staff of two to three people. The software also provides funding agencies with tools to facilitate planning and to maintain administrative and fiscal accountability.


Author(s):  
Anna M. Rakoczy ◽  
Stephen T. Wilk ◽  
MaryClara Jones

Transportation Technology Center, Inc., with support from the Center for Urban Transportation Research at the University of South Florida, was tasked by the FTA to research areas of transit safety risk, identify existing specifications and guidelines for rail transit tunnel design, construction, maintenance, and rehabilitation, and perform a gap analysis to establish the need for additional standards, guidance, or recommended practices to support and further the safe operation of the United States’ public transportation industry. This paper presents industry needs with a focus on security and safety that were identified by reviewing past tunnel incidents and related literature. The compilation of past tunnel incidents includes available reports published by the National Transportation Safety Board and other U.S. and European agencies. These reports generally involve rare but high-risk events such as fires and flooding, and emphasize public safety. A summary of needs obtained through a literature review emphasizes the need for continually updated specifications and best practices. The industry needs findings include the need for working fire detection, ventilation, and emergency egress along with coordinated emergency response plans that can be utilized by trained personnel.


2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 618-637 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca U. Thorpe

I examine the political consequences of prison development in the United States. I theorize that the prison apparatus not only upholds a system of racial hierarchy and class stratification, but also links the economic stability of lower-class, rural whites to the continued penal confinement of poor, urban minorities. Analysis of an original dataset suggests that local reliance on existing prison infrastructure throughout many economically-depressed rural communities strengthens political support for harsh criminal punishments and militates against reform efforts. Political representatives have powerful interests in protecting rural prison investments, regardless of their actual economic impact in host communities. The evidence indicates that rural prison development contributes to the perceived economic viability and political power of rural areas, while reinforcing forms of punishment that destabilize poor urban neighborhoods and harm politically marginalized populations.


Author(s):  
Sharon Strover ◽  
Alexis Schrubbe

As community anchors and public spaces, libraries are in unique positions to serve emerging 21st century information needs for the unconnected. Some libraries have extended their technology offerings beyond basic computers and Internet to include mobile hotspot lending, which allows patrons to "take home" the Internet from the library. The research in this project examines hotspot lending programs undertaken by the Maine State Library and the Kansas State Library across 24 different libraries in small and rural communities. In the United States, rural areas tend to have lower Internet adoption because many communities face considerable barriers to competitive and fast Internet service, exacerbated by the fact that rural communities tend to be older, of lower-income, and less digitally skilled. This research examines the role of library hotspot lending and how free and mobile-based Internet connects rural communities and serves their information needs. Through qualitative and quantitative assessments this research details the scope and efficacy of programs to reach publics, the impact that rural hotspots have in communities, and the larger information and communications ecosystem in these rural communities in Maine and Kansas.


Author(s):  
Sahima N.Vohra

In recent years, information and communication technology (ICT) has rapidly spread across the globe, along with increased market penetration and easy availability of economical smartphones and cell phones with both wired and nonwired connections to access the Internet; this leapfrogging in the Internet access is true even in the rural areas of the world's developing countries. This study explored the interplay between contextual and individual factors related to Internet adoption in isolated rural communities. By investigating 10 remote villages throughout Chile that received Internet access infrastructure in 2010–2011, we identified 3 areas in which contextual and individual factors are intertwined.1.Geogeaphical isolation,2. the communities' aging population also represented a strong challenge because they lack young people, a relevant technology socialization agent.3.Jon and economic. When the Internet has reached the vast majority of the population, isolated communities confront specific challenges that we need to consider in policy?making decisions. As Internet access spreads and the level of penetration reaches high percentages in both developed and developing countries, the urban–rural digital gap remains strong (e.g., LaRose, Strover, Gregg, &Straubhaar, 2011; Rivera, Lima & Castillo 2014). Thus, many policy?making efforts have promoted online connection in rural areas. For example, in the United States, the Department of Agriculture has promoted broadband access programs such as the Sustainable Broadband Adoption Program (LaRose et al., 2012).


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S357-S357
Author(s):  
Cassandra Cantave Burton

Abstract About 16 percent of adults 50-plus and 25 percent of 65-plus adults reside in rural areas or small towns in the United States . The percentage increases to rural communities could mean a higher prevalence of chronic disease, a higher disability rate, a lower prevalence of healthy behaviors, and a widening gap in life expectancy relative to the nation as a whole. Moreover, rural areas face additional obstacles and challenges such: Difficulty forming community partnerships because of proximity challenges; migration of younger individuals to cities for career and social opportunities, resulting in a smaller pool of potential caregivers; an aging housing stock that also may be unsafe and in need of repair; and inadequate resources available to meet the broad range of needs among older adults. AARP has been engaged with policy makers and community members to ensure that older residents who live in rural areas have access to community supports so they can remain in their homes and communities and have the services that they need as they get older. Presenters in this symposium will present data supporting AARP’s work to better the lives of older rural residents. Findings from AARP studies on home and community preferences, social isolation, telehealth and broadband access, and brain health will be presented.


Author(s):  
Judith M. Espinosa ◽  
DeAnza Valencia ◽  
Michael Jensen ◽  
Mary E. White

Despite the area's notable heterogeneity, the North Central Regional Transit District (NCRTD) is the first regional transit district (RTD) certified in New Mexico. The NCRTD contains the state's largest and smallest pueblos, the poorest and richest counties, and rural communities steeped in 500-year-old Spanish traditions near the New Age cosmopolitanism of Santa Fe. The diverse geographical, political, and economic landscape of the NCRTD can make it difficult to pursue new or ambitious projects across the disparate jurisdictions. Organizational and jurisdictional barriers can create roadblocks to effective collaboration. The New Mexico Department of Transportation Research Bureau provided funds to develop a case study and model that could be followed by other potential RTDs in the state. As the organizing and research entity, the Alliance for Transportation Research Institute of the University of New Mexico was charged with developing the RTD model and staffing the effort. An organizing committee, representing public and private interests, was tasked with producing the certification documents and supporting materials, presenting them clearly and effectively to governing bodies and the public, and providing an example of crossjurisdictional transit collaboration. Creation of the NCRTD required public hearings in every jurisdiction. One-on-one “study sessions” raised public awareness in every jurisdiction and fueled the process for obtaining the needed affirmative votes to join the NCRTD. The NCRTD, composed of 10 initial members, has completed the necessary steps for creating an RTD and was certified by the New Mexico Transportation Commission in autumn 2004 as the first RTD in New Mexico.


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