Program of the Center for Urban Transportation Research at the University of South Florida

Best Practices in Transit Service Planning

The provision of cost efficient and effective bus transit service is the basic premise upon which transit service is developed and the goal that all public transportation agencies strive to achieve.  To attain this goal, public transit agencies must design their services around clear and defined principles, as well as a process to monitor the results achieved and to respond accordingly.  This requires service design standards, an effective performance measurement system, and a systematic and continuous service evaluation methodology.  More

                                                                                                                    03.27.09

Enhancing Transit Safety and Security With Wireless Detection and Communication Technologies

Public transportation systems are among the most open public facilities in the world and susceptible to breaches of security.  Reconciling the need for workplace safety and security with budgetary pressures requires new approaches to increase the effectiveness of existing solutions while preserving flexibility and low costs. An inexpensive sensor-based intrusion detection system that remotely monitors and notifies on- and/or off-site personnel of any incidents can significantly multiply the observational effectiveness of a few onsite safety or security personnel monitoring a facility. The advancement in the miniaturization of circuits has produced small computing devices allowing the development of pervasive applications that only a few years ago were not possible. The combination of such devices with wireless networks and micro-electro-mechanical systems technology provides a new platform for research and development of innovative monitoring applications. More

                                                                                                                    02.09.09

Development of Comprehensive Guidance on Obtaining Service Consumed Data for NTD

This document proposes The National Transit Database Sampling Manual. It is developed for the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to replace its current guidance (circulars 2710.1A and 2710.2A) to transit agencies on how they may estimate service consumed data through random sampling for the National Transit Database (NTD). It also comes with an Excel-based template for transit agencies to develop customized sampling plans with sample data from their own services. The FTA is expected to formally adopt a shortened version of this proposed NTD Sampling Manual but has not yet done so by January 2009. Even if the FTA were to decide not to adopt it, however, the best practices presented and the template are useful for transit agencies to reduce their reporting burdens while meeting FTA’s requirements. More

02.02.09

Synthesis of Research on Value of Time and Value of Reliability

The objective of this study is to compile and synthesize current and past research on the value of time (VOT) and the value of reliability (VOR).  Findings are summarized into an application-oriented document to provide practitioners with applicable ranges of estimates that can be used in project evaluations.  More                 

01.29.09

Integrating Transit and Urban Form

This study develops an integrated behavioral model of transit patronage and urban form.  Although herein focused on transit, the framework can be easily generalized to study other forms of travel.  Advanced economic models are used to test specific behavioral hypotheses developed in the theoretical models.  Findings are then summarized in a succinct fashion showing relevance and magnitude of the impact of land use on transit demand.  The empirical models also quantify these relationships in the form of point elasticity estimates that can be used as indicators of the relevance of transit supply measures.  This work summarizes the study results, an exposition of the methodology and tables that lay out the findings in a readily accessible format.  More

           01.29.09

Development of an NTD Tool for Vanpool Services

The National Transit Database has requirements on how providers of vanpool services collect and report their data on service consumed and service provided. Current practices, however, often deviate from these requirements. Such deviations lead to poor data for policy decision-making and can result in less funding from the Urbanized Area Formula Grant Program. This report describes a spreadsheet template and related guidance to help providers of vanpool services better meet the requirements of the National Transit Database. More

                                                                                                                    01.29.09

Journal of Public Transportation

Volume 11, No 4, 2008  of the Journal of Public Transportation is now available.   You can view the Abstracts of these articles, click on the links below for the full text version of the article or obtain a full text version of this issue.

Impacts of Express Bus Service on Passenger Demand
Jeffrey M. Casello, Ph.D., P.E., and Bruce Hellinga, Ph.D., P. Eng., University of Waterloo

Users' Perceptive Evaluation of Bus Arrival Time Deviations in Stochastic Networks  
Nikolaos G. Daskalakis, and Anthony Stathopoulos, National Technical University of Athens

Impact of High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) Lane Incentives for Hybrids in Virginia
David Diamond, Ph.D., LMI Research Institute

Project NPV, Positive Externalities, Social Cost-Benefit Analysis - The Kansas City Light Rail Project 
Suhakar Raju, Rockhurst University 

An Unconventional Design for Bus U-Turns at Signalized Intersections
Huaguo Zhou, Ph.D., P.E., Southern Illinois University, Pei-Sung Lin, Ph.D., PTOE, University of South Florida, and Joan Shen, Ph.D., P.E., PTOE, Miami-Dade County Public Works

Submission information or Subscriptions requests

                                                                                                                    01.14.09

Abstracts Sought for GIS in Transit Conference

URISA and the National Center for Transit Research (NCTR) are pleased to announce a new partnership to present the Fifth National GIS in Transit Conference, to be held in St. Petersburg, Florida, November 10-12, 2009. This biennial conference will focus on the growing role of GIS in supporting planning, service delivery, and decision making in public transit. More

                                                                                                                    01.12.09

Programs that Match Seniors with Volunteer Drivers

Seniors need adequate transportation, not only to maintain their health and vitality, but also to stay active in the community and fully participate in life.  Transportation is the essential link to basic services needed by the aging population.  The problem that this research project addresses is the documented general lack of transportation options suitable for seniors who are no longer able to drive, particularly those who are too frail to use public transportation.  The development and operation of volunteer driving programs for seniors has been one approach to solve this problem.  More

              01.08.09

What's New in NCTR Transit Research in 2009

• Development of Comprehensive Guidance on Obtaining Service Consumted Data for National Transit Database (NTD) (2.2.09)

• Synthesis of Research on Value of Time and Value of Reliability (1.29.09)

• Integrating Transit and Urban Form(1.29.09)

• Development of a National Transit Database (NTD) Tool for Vanpool Services (1.29.09)

• Journal of Public Transportation Volume 11, No 4, 2008 (1.14.09)

• Abstracts Sought for GIS in Transit Conference (1.12.09)

• Programs That Match Seniors With Volunteer Drivers(1.08.09)

• Other Transit Research Publications

Prior Year Additions to NCTR Website

2008 | 2007 |2006 | 2005 | 2004