scholarly journals Subways, Strikes, and Slowdowns: The Impacts of Public Transit on Traffic Congestion

2014 ◽  
Vol 104 (9) ◽  
pp. 2763-2796 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael L. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Traffic Congestion ◽  
Regression Discontinuity ◽  
Public Transit ◽  
Choice Model ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Regression Discontinuity Design ◽  
Transit Systems ◽  
Transit Service ◽  
Net Benefits

Public transit accounts for 1 percent of US passenger miles traveled but attracts strong public support. Using a simple choice model, we predict that transit riders are likely to be individuals who commute along routes with severe roadway delays. These individuals' choices thus have high marginal impacts on congestion. We test this prediction with data from a strike in 2003 by Los Angeles transit workers. Estimating a regression discontinuity design, we find that average highway delay increases 47 percent when transit service ceases. We find that the net benefits of transit systems appear to be much larger than previously believed. (JEL H76, J52, L92, R41)

scholarly journals Measuring Cost Variability in Provision of Transit Service

2000 ◽  
Vol 1735 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian D. Taylor ◽  
Mark Garrett ◽  
Hiroyuki Iseki
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Cost Allocation ◽  
Public Transit ◽  
Time Of Day ◽  
Allocation Model ◽  
Transit Systems ◽  
Capital Costs ◽  
Transit Service ◽  
Cost Variability ◽  
Time Of Travel

The cost of producing public-transit service is not uniform but varies by trip type (e.g., local or express), trip length, time of travel, and direction of travel, among other factors. However, the models employed by public-transit operators to estimate costs typically do not account for this variation. The exclusion of cost variability in most transit-cost-allocation models has long been noted in the literature, particularly with respect to time-of-day variations in costs. This analysis addresses many of the limitations of cost-allocation models typically used in practice by developing a set of models that account for marginal variations in vehicle-passenger capacity, capital costs, and time-of-day costs. FY 1994 capital and operating data are used for the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). This analysis is unique in that it combines a number of previously and separately proposed improvements to cost-allocation models. In comparison with the model currently used by the Los Angeles MTA, it was found that the models developed for this analysis estimate ( a) higher peak costs and off-peak costs, ( b) significant cost variation by mode, and ( c) lower costs for incremental additions in service. The focus is on the limitations of the rudimentary cost-allocation models employed by most transit operators and not on the Los Angeles MTA per se. This analysis found that an array of factors addressed separately in the literature can be incorporated simultaneously and practically into a usable cost-allocation model to provide transit systems with far better information about the highly variable costs of producing service.

Adaptive route choice model for public transit systems: an application of Markov decision processes

2012 ◽  
Vol 39 (8) ◽  
pp. 915-924 ◽  
Author(s):  
Behzad Rouhieh ◽  
Ciprian Alecsandru
Keyword(s):  
Travel Time ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Intelligent Transportation Systems ◽  
Traffic Congestion ◽  
Public Transit ◽  
Choice Model ◽  
Transportation Systems ◽  
Transit System ◽  
Transit Systems ◽  
The Impact

Over the past couple of decades the advancements in the areas of information and computational technology allowed for a variety of intelligent transportation systems developments and deployments. This study investigates an advanced traveler information system (ATIS) and (or) an advanced public transit system (APTS) adaptive and real-time transit routing component. The proposed methodology is applied to bus routes with fixed, predefined bus line alignments. It is shown that routing buses on such systems can be modeled in real-time by employing an associated Markov chain with reward model to minimize the impact of congested traffic conditions on the travelers and the overall operation cost of the transit system. A case study using a traffic and transit data from a real-world bus line was used to apply the proposed bus routing approach. It was found that under certain traffic congestion conditions buses should be re-routed to minimize their travel time and the associated system costs. The hypothetical congestion scenarios investigated show that individual bus travel time delays range between 50 and 740 s when the proposed adaptive routing is employed. The proposed methodology is also suitable for application to transit systems that run on a demand-adaptive basis (the bus line alignment changes with the travelers demand). Additional calibration and future integration of the system into specific ATIS and (or) APTS user services will be investigated.

Understanding Differences in Public Transit: Comparison of Boston and Toronto

1997 ◽  
Vol 1604 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Schimek
Keyword(s):  
Population Density ◽  
Public Transit ◽  
Operating Costs ◽  
Level Of Service ◽  
Massachusetts Bay ◽  
Transit System ◽  
Transit Systems ◽  
Transit Service ◽  
American Cities ◽  
The City

Public transit systems in Toronto and Boston, two North American cities of similar size and income, are compared. Although Boston has a reputation as a transit-oriented city, there are about twice as many public transit trips in Toronto. Transit service in Toronto runs, on average, twice as frequently as service in Boston on a network of similar size. This level of service can be supported in part because population density does not decrease as much with increasing distance from the center of the city and because employment is more centralized. The transit system in Boston is constrained from emulating the Toronto transit system not only by a less transit-favorable distribution of population and employment but also by operating costs that are twice as high. The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority’s higher costs are the result of more fringe benefits for employees and disproportionately more managers and fixed facilities.

Driving Ambivalence

2019 ◽  
pp. 101-117
Author(s):  
John Macdonald ◽  
Charles Branas ◽  
Robert Stokes
Keyword(s):  
Traffic Congestion ◽  
Public Transit ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
Transit Systems ◽  
Human Scale ◽  
Active Lifestyles ◽  
Negative Impacts

This chapter assesses the role of transportation and street environments in people's lives and how reliance on the automobile has shaped the United States and other parts of the world. The century-long evolution into a car-dependent culture has had its benefits in terms of commerce and regional mobility, but has also had devastating effects on people's health and safety. Rather than discuss the negative impacts of cars on air pollution, the chapter focuses on the place-based health impacts of reducing people's reliance on the automobile by increasing the walkability of areas and expanding access to public transit. Younger adults are increasingly ambivalent about whether they should even own a car and are moving to cities in search of more efficient and human-scale mobility options. These options include having access to a street network with safe and efficient pedestrian and bike infrastructures as well as public-transit options. Meanwhile, public officials in numerous cities are talking about the benefits of expanded transit systems and walkable street grids to encourage more active lifestyles and attract tourists, families, and entrepreneurs who are tired of traffic congestion and car commuting and interested in a lively street experience that is not simply seen from behind a windshield. The chapter then highlights case studies showing how new place-based transportation and streetscape changes can be a tool for improving health and safety.

scholarly journals Analysis of Aerial Ropeways by following various Indian and International Codes for Urban Mobility with some Structural Modifications in Monocable Ropeways to make it Safe, Secure, Economical and all Weather Durable

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (VI) ◽  
pp. 1539-1548
Author(s):  
Bhat Omair Bashir
Keyword(s):  
Public Transportation ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Public Transit ◽  
Transportation Systems ◽  
Urban Transport ◽  
Transport Systems ◽  
Transit Systems ◽  
Tourist Attractions ◽  
Structural Modifications ◽  
Transit Service

Cable-propelled transit’ (CPT), in particular detachable aerial ropeways are widely employed as transportation systems in alpine areas. In recent years, these transport systems have also been increasingly used in urban areas and are no longer a niche public transportation technology (Hoffmann 2006, Alshalalfah, Shalaby, and Dale 2014). Cable cars systems compete with performance characteristics of other more common urban transport technologies and have the potential to enhance the existing transport provision in cities (O'Connor and Dale 2011). While many applications can be found as transportation systems in airport facilities, and to provide access to tourist attractions, several metropolitan areas have even incorporated gondolas and aerial tramways into their public transport networks. This paper focuses on aerial ropeway systems that operate as a mass transit service (similar to buses, BRT, LRT, etc.) and are part of the public transit systems in their respective cities. Therefore, the analysis and case studies presented in the paper concern systems that are used as a public transit service

Critical Measures of Transit Service Quality in the Eyes of Older Travelers

2003 ◽  
Vol 1835 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon E. Burkhardt
Keyword(s):  
Service Quality ◽  
Public Transportation ◽  
Consumer Satisfaction ◽  
Older Persons ◽  
Public Transit ◽  
Transit Systems ◽  
Transit Service ◽  
Focus Group Research ◽  
Near Term ◽  
The Individual

Older travelers use public transportation services for relatively few of their trips. Attracting additional older riders will require that transit operators pay more attention to the specific mobility preferences of older travelers. Focus group research generated measures of transit service quality. These measures rate factors that affect the relative levels of consumer satisfaction for older persons, who rate certain factors differently from other travelers. The travel attributes that were most highly valued by seniors in the focus groups are used to assess current travel modes and to suggest near-term and long-term improvement strategies for public transit operators. Public transit systems most likely to succeed in attracting older persons (and other riders as well) are expected to be those systems that offer the following: more choices in travel modes and their corresponding attributes, especially price; greater focus on higher-quality services; and greater degree of service articulation, in which travel services are more closely tailored to the specific travel needs of the individual traveler and a specific trip.

Evaluating the impact of partial driving restrictions on local air quality in Chongqing using regression discontinuity design

2021 ◽  
pp. 239980832110108
Author(s):  
Xin Li ◽  
Shuhan Jiang ◽  
Tianqi Wang ◽  
Jia Hu ◽  
Yun Yuan
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Traffic Congestion ◽  
Quality Index ◽  
Regression Discontinuity ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
River System ◽  
Air Quality Index ◽  
Regression Discontinuity Design ◽  
Driving Restrictions ◽  
The Impact

Driving restriction is used to mitigate traffic congestion and improve air quality. A partial bridge restriction policy is created in Chongqing, China since the bridges are natural network bottlenecks due to the local river system. Is such a strategy really capable of reducing air pollution and further improving local air quality? Employing an integration of principal component analysis and a regression-discontinuity design approach, this study examines the short-run effect of the partial driving restrictions on the local air quality index in Chongqing, China. The examination is first conducted to the city level, and then its eight administrative districts are tested separately. The findings reveal that the air quality index of the whole city area has experienced deterioration after the introduction of restrictions in Chongqing. Among eight districts, Yuzhong is the only one experiencing an improvement of air quality index.

scholarly journals Performance measurement and operations control in advanced public transit systems

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nader Azizi
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Traffic Congestion ◽  
Public Transit ◽  
Monitoring And Control ◽  
Real Time Control ◽  
Transit Systems ◽  
Transit Agencies ◽  
Real Time Information ◽  
And Control ◽  
Time Information

In most major cities, levels of traffic congestion are rising along with their associated problems such as travel delays and pollution. While any increase in public transit rider-ship could reduce the level of traffic congestion and related costs, most transit agencies are not able to expand their existing services because of fiscal• and physical constraints. As a result, a growing interest has been developing recently to maximize the transit system efficiency and productivity using new emerging technologies. Recently, the emergence of new technologies such as automatic vehicle location (AVL) and global positioning systems (GPS) has facilitated the design of computer-based real-time decision support systems for public transits. These technologies could significantly help transit agencies improve their operations monitoring and control. In the context of public transit systems, operations monitoring refers to real-time service performance measure and problems detection, and control refers to implementing real time control actions to remedy those problems. This thesis presents a new approach for operations monitoring and control in public transit systems with real-time information. First, an integrated model that combines both headway-based and schedule-based services is presented. To measure the headway or schedule adherence, the model uses predicted arrival times of vehicles at downstream stops. This feature allows the operational managers to avoid major service interruptions by proactively taking necessary corrective actions. Transit agencies have used and continue to use real-time control strategies to improve quality of their services. These strategies are employed by inspectors at various points along a route to remedy the problems as they occur. Practice shows that it is difficult to apply such strategies effectively without real-time information. In the second part of this thesis, a mathematical model for holding control strategy with real-time information is described. The proposed model aims at minimization of the total passengers waiting time and considers both cases of overcrowded and underutilized services. Due to complexity of the holding problem, several metaheuristics are proposed and tested. Among all intelligent search algorithms, a new version of simulated annealing algorithm is proposed to solve the real-time holding control model.

Performance measurement and operations control in advanced public transit systems

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nader Azizi
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Traffic Congestion ◽  
Public Transit ◽  
Monitoring And Control ◽  
Real Time Control ◽  
Transit Systems ◽  
Transit Agencies ◽  
Real Time Information ◽  
And Control ◽  
Time Information

In most major cities, levels of traffic congestion are rising along with their associated problems such as travel delays and pollution. While any increase in public transit rider-ship could reduce the level of traffic congestion and related costs, most transit agencies are not able to expand their existing services because of fiscal• and physical constraints. As a result, a growing interest has been developing recently to maximize the transit system efficiency and productivity using new emerging technologies. Recently, the emergence of new technologies such as automatic vehicle location (AVL) and global positioning systems (GPS) has facilitated the design of computer-based real-time decision support systems for public transits. These technologies could significantly help transit agencies improve their operations monitoring and control. In the context of public transit systems, operations monitoring refers to real-time service performance measure and problems detection, and control refers to implementing real time control actions to remedy those problems. This thesis presents a new approach for operations monitoring and control in public transit systems with real-time information. First, an integrated model that combines both headway-based and schedule-based services is presented. To measure the headway or schedule adherence, the model uses predicted arrival times of vehicles at downstream stops. This feature allows the operational managers to avoid major service interruptions by proactively taking necessary corrective actions. Transit agencies have used and continue to use real-time control strategies to improve quality of their services. These strategies are employed by inspectors at various points along a route to remedy the problems as they occur. Practice shows that it is difficult to apply such strategies effectively without real-time information. In the second part of this thesis, a mathematical model for holding control strategy with real-time information is described. The proposed model aims at minimization of the total passengers waiting time and considers both cases of overcrowded and underutilized services. Due to complexity of the holding problem, several metaheuristics are proposed and tested. Among all intelligent search algorithms, a new version of simulated annealing algorithm is proposed to solve the real-time holding control model.

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