Passenger waiting time and information acquisition using automatic vehicle location for verification

Bus riders utilize a variety of information media to learn how to travel to their destinations and to learn when they should arrive at bus stops. As part of the OCTA (Orange County Transit Authority) Transit Probe evaluation, 1199 passengers were surveyed to measure relationships between information acquisition and waiting time. A unique aspect of the survey was that some of the data could be correlated with automatic‐vehicle‐location (AVL) measurements of bus lateness at stops. Insights are provided as to the types of information riders acquire based on the nature of the trip and demographic characteristics. Insights are also provided as to factors affecting perceived waiting time. We found age group, whether a person needs to arrive at a destination by a specific time, primary language, and whether the person is a first‐time user of the bus line to be significant causal factors.     

Intermodal Transit System Coordination

In urban areas where transit demand is widely spread, passengers may be served by an intermodal transit system, consisting of a rail transit line (or a bus rapid transit route) and a number of feeder routes connecting at different transfer stations. In such a system, passengers may need one or more transfers to complete their journey. Therefore, scheduling vehicles operating in the system with special attention to reduce transfer time can contribute significantly to service quality improvements. Schedule synchronization may significantly reduce transfer delays at transfer stations where various routes interconnect. Since vehicle arrivals are stochastic, slack time allowances in vehicle schedules may be desirable to reduce the probability of missed connections. An objective total cost function, including supplier and user costs, is formulated for optimizing the coordination of a general intermodal transit network. A four-stage procedure is developed for determining the optimal coordination status among routes at every transfer station. Considering stochastic feeder vehicle arrivals at transfer stations, the slack times of coordinated routes are optimized, by balancing the savings from transfer delays and additional cost from slack delays and operating costs. The model thus developed is used to optimize the coordination of an intermodal transit network, while the impact of a range of factors on coordination (e.g., demand, standard deviation of vehicle arrival times, etc) is examined.     

The cost of equity: Assessing transit accessibility and social disparity using total travel cost

Social equity is increasingly incorporated as a long-term objective into urban transportation plans. Researchers use accessibility measures to assess equity issues, such as determining the amount of jobs reachable by marginalized groups within a defined travel time threshold and compare these measures across socioeconomic categories. However, allocating public transit resources in an equitable manner is not only related to travel time, but also related to the out-of-pocket cost of transit, which can represent a major barrier to accessibility for many disadvantaged groups. Therefore, this research proposes a set of new accessibility measures that incorporates both travel time and transit fares. It then applies those measures to determine whether people residing in socially disadvantaged neighborhoods in Montreal, Canada experience the same levels of transit accessibility as those living in other neighborhoods. Results are presented in terms of regional accessibility and trends by social indicator decile. Travel time accessibility measures estimate a higher number of jobs that can be reached compared to combined travel time and cost measures. However, the degree and impact of these measures varies across the social deciles. Compared to other groups in the region, residents of socially disadvantaged areas have more equitable accessibility to jobs using transit; this is reflected in smaller decreases in accessibility when fare costs are included. Generating new measures of accessibility combining travel time and transit fares provides more accurate measures that can be easily communicated by transportation planners and engineers to policy makers and the public since it translates accessibility measures to a dollar value.     

Continuous approximation for skip-stop operation in rail transit

Operating speed of a transit corridor is a key characteristic and has many consequences on its performance. It is generally accepted that an increased operating speed for a given fleet leads to reduced operating costs (per kilometer), travel and waiting times (three changes that can be computed precisely), an improved comfort and level of service, which can attract new passengers who are diverted from automobile (items harder to estimate precisely). That is why several operation schemes which aim to increase the operating speed are studied in the literature, such as deadheading, express services, and stop skipping.A novel category of solutions to this problem for one-way single-track rail transit is to perform accelerated transit operations with fixed stopping schedules. The concept is quite simple: as the time required for stopping at each station is an important part of travel time, reducing it would be a great achievement. Particular operations that take advantage of this idea already exist. This paper focuses on one of them: the skip-stop operation for rail transit lines using a single one-way track. It consists in defining three types of stations: AB stations where all the trains stop, and A and B stations where only half of the trains stop (stations type A and B are allocated interchangeably). This mode of operation is already described in the literature (Vuchic, 1973, Vuchic, 1976, Vuchic, 2005) and has been successfully implemented in the Metro system of Santiago, Chile.This work tackles the problem with a continuous approximation approach. The problem is described with a set of geographically dependent continuous parameters like the density of stations for a given line. Cost functions are built for a traditional (all-stop) operation and for skip-stop operation as described above. A simple example is presented to support this discussion. Finally, a discussion about the type of scenarios in which skip-stop operations are more beneficial is presented.     

城市高架轨道交通景观评价体系研究

研究目的:目前国内对于城市高架轨道景观评价的研究尚处于探索阶段,还没有成熟的指标体系及评价方法,为此需首要建立一套较为客观、简捷、实用,又能得到专家和公众认同的景观评价体系。研究方法:本文选用“目标—指标层次结构”模式,就是AHP层次分析方法,从动态景观和静态景观2个方面去构建城市高架轨道交通景观评价体系,并以重庆轻轨2号线中的2个有代表性的区段景观,对该体系进行验证。研究结论:经实例验证,本文建立的城市高架轨道交通景观评价体系能够具体体现出高架轨道景观的差异性,并能反映具体差异点及差异程度。可明确量化地反映高架轨道交通的景观评价等级和其中单项指标的景观等级,并具有可比性,其结果能准确、客观地反映城市高架轨道交通景观的实际情况,方法简单易行,具有实用性。     

新干线信号通信设备的维修管理体制

系统地描述和分析总结了JR东日本的新干线信号通信设备的维修管理体制.对维修管理系统的管理对象、组织结构、主要任务,以及信号通信系统的中央信息监视系统和维修作业管理系统进行了充分的说明,对我国客运专线的综合维修管理体制的建设有很好的借鉴作用.     

基于乘客换乘量和停车泊位的BRT站台规模研究

快速公交系统(BRT)的研究在我国尚处起步阶段,目前已有一些城市引进了BRT,为了保证公交的快速通行,对BRT站台规模的研究日益重要。首先找出快速公交站台规模的影响因素,由此结合排队论的相关知识,从站台乘客换乘量和泊位对站台规模的影响进行了深入探讨,提出了基于乘客换乘量和基于泊位的站台规模计算模型。该模型可以计算出站台的最小面积和最小长度;再以最小宽度为验算指标,当指标冲突时,结合调整原则,最终得到合理设置的站台规模。     

Examining the influence of multidestination service orientation on transit service productivity: a multivariate analysis

Between 1990 and 2000, U.S. transit agencies added service and increased ridership, but the ridership increase failed to keep pace with the service increase. The result was a decline in service effectiveness (or productivity). This marks the continuation of a long-running and often-studied trend. The scholarly literature attributes this phenomenon, at least in part, to transit agency decisions to decentralize their service rather than focus on serving the traditional CBD market. Many scholars argue that a decentralized service orientation is both ineffective and inefficient because it attracts few riders and requires large per-rider subsidies. This research tests whether a non-traditional, decentralized service orientation, called multidestination service, results in reduced service productivity. Contrary to what the literature suggests, we find that MSAs whose transit agencies pursued a multidestination service orientation did not experience lower productivity. These results indicate that policies that have encouraged the growth of decentralized transit services have not necessarily been detrimental to the industry.

快速公交(BRT)线路布局优化研究

快速公交（BRT）是国际上公交发展的新模式。保证系统得以推广,同时应以低成本、显著见效为原则建设快速公交系统,因此对快速公交线路布局进行优化也是不可忽视的。为了探讨现有公共交通线网结构下如何优化BRT线路的布设问题．本文时快速公交线路布设的内部条件和外部条件进行了分析,并在此基础上依据快速公交的发展特点．以乘客的总出行时耗最小和车公里成本投入最小为目标,建立快速公交布局优化的模型．并且给出了优化目标和相应约束条件的函数表达式。通过事例分析对BRT线路布设优化算法进行说明．从而得知优化模型具有较高的应用价值。     

城市公交线网规划综合评价方法研究

首先建立科学的城市公交线网规划综合评价流程和指标体系。然后在主成分分析法原理的基础上,提出应用主成分分析法对公交线网规划进行综合评价的操作步骤。最后借助统计分析软件SPSS实施综合评价,并与专家咨询法、模糊分析法等常用综合评价方法对比分析评价结果。