en-us Tue, 5 Jun 2012 00:24:31 UTC Inmagic DB/Text WebPublisher http://114.111.144.247/ics-wpd/exec/icswppro.dll?AC=QUERY&TN=inroads&QY=find+RC+=+1205AR257E Mon, 14 May 2012 14:00:00 UTCIn response to the environmental, economic, and social costs associated with overreliance on the automobile, planners and transportation professionals are promoting sustainable alternatives such as walking, cycling, and public transit, either as single modes or in combination. It has been argued that the marriage between cycling and transit presents opportunities for synergy by enlarging catchment areas of transit stations while drawing in new users to both of these green modes. However, because of the marginality of combining cycling and transit in North America, there is a shortage of reliable empirical studies in this area. The present study addressed this gap through an analysis of travel behavior and preferences related to cycle-transit (C-T) integration. An online survey was conducted in the region of Montreal, Canada, during the summer of 2010. The questionnaire included a section on Montreal's public bicycle sharing system, Bixi (bicycle taxi), and its potential for integration with transit. Three current or potential C-T user groups were identified through a factor-cluster analysis: current parking bike-and-riders, Bixi users, and car drivers. Bringing a bicycle on transit was the preferred form of integration; however, scenarios involving bicycle parking (or using a public bicycle) were likely to be used more regularly. To accommodate the greatest number of bicycle-transit trips, measures that facilitated parking at transit stops and those that enabled the bringing of bicycles on board transit vehicles were recommended in tandem. http://114.111.144.247/ics-wpd/exec/icswppro.dll?AC=QUERY&TN=inroads&QY=find+RC+=+1205AR346E Mon, 14 May 2012 14:00:00 UTCThe Tcard was first promised in time for the 2000 Sydney Olympics, but serious implementation plans only started in 2003 when the company ERG was contracted to deliver the Tcard. An amendment bill was passed to establish an organisation to overlook the technical rollout of the Tcard and massive financial investment followed. However, the Tcard was never implemented and the contract with ERG was cancelled in 2008. Meanwhile other global cities – Tokyo, Hong Kong, Seoul, London as well as other Australian cities have successfully implemented smartcard systems over the last two decades. This study uses two theoretical frameworks to find out what caused the failure of Tcard implementation. Both frameworks reveal that the key actors’ decisions to leave pre-existing legacy fares and bureaucratic structures led to the failure. The study also uncovers beyond the direct findings of the two frameworks, exposing that key actors failed to reform pre-existing structures due to their confinement in electoral interests, causing policy myopia and a major misunderstanding of public demands on transportation. http://114.111.144.247/ics-wpd/exec/icswppro.dll?AC=QUERY&TN=inroads&QY=find+RC+=+1205AR006E Mon, 14 May 2012 14:00:00 UTC http://114.111.144.247/ics-wpd/exec/icswppro.dll?AC=QUERY&TN=inroads&QY=find+RC+=+1205AR027E Mon, 14 May 2012 14:00:00 UTC http://114.111.144.247/ics-wpd/exec/icswppro.dll?AC=QUERY&TN=inroads&QY=find+RC+=+1205AR048E Mon, 14 May 2012 14:00:00 UTC http://114.111.144.247/ics-wpd/exec/icswppro.dll?AC=QUERY&TN=inroads&QY=find+RC+=+1205AR067E Mon, 14 May 2012 14:00:00 UTC http://114.111.144.247/ics-wpd/exec/icswppro.dll?AC=QUERY&TN=inroads&QY=find+RC+=+1205AR081E Mon, 14 May 2012 14:00:00 UTC http://114.111.144.247/ics-wpd/exec/icswppro.dll?AC=QUERY&TN=inroads&QY=find+RC+=+1205AR086E Mon, 14 May 2012 14:00:00 UTC http://114.111.144.247/ics-wpd/exec/icswppro.dll?AC=QUERY&TN=inroads&QY=find+RC+=+1205AR138E Mon, 14 May 2012 14:00:00 UTC http://114.111.144.247/ics-wpd/exec/icswppro.dll?AC=QUERY&TN=inroads&QY=find+RC+=+1205AR164E Mon, 14 May 2012 14:00:00 UTCThis study seeks to improve our understanding of the “transfer penalty” that is created in the minds of public-transport users for routes with interchanges. The results of the study are on the major interchange attributes which influences the intention of public transportation users to use routes which require making inter-mode and intra-mode transfers. To obtain a deeper understanding of the “transfer penalty” set on routes with interchanges, the Theory of Planned Behaviour was used to explore the role of perceived behavioural control in the traveller’s intention to use routes which involve making a transfer. A survey was undertaken in two of the major transport hubs in Auckland, New Zealand. The key findings indicate that the transfer penalty of a route has a strong relationship with the interchange connectivity value of that route. Results of the survey have shown that control beliefs of a traveller are only susceptible to change through improvement in the reliability of the transfer connection. In order to increase usage of routes with interchanges, the service should be designed to minimise the interchange time (interchange walking and waiting time) such that travellers do not feel anxious and disconnected from their travel. The maximum interchange time that is accepted by travellers is 10 minutes. Furthermore, results of the study have shown that perceived behavioural control is a strong antecedent of intention; once travellers feel more in control of their journey, their willingness to use routes with interchanges increases. http://114.111.144.247/ics-wpd/exec/icswppro.dll?AC=QUERY&TN=inroads&QY=find+RC+=+1205AR165E Mon, 14 May 2012 14:00:00 UTCCreating a bus network that covers demand conveniently is an important part of transit planning. The high sensitivity of a bus network to any demand changes implies that demand variations need to be considered in the design process. Many cities around the world experience seasonal demand variations which have impacts on the optimality of their bus networks. In order to overcome this problem, the bus network should be convenient in all seasons for all corresponding demand scenarios. This issue has not been thoroughly addressed in the literature, thus considered in this work. Analyzing seasonal demand variations in the bus-network design process increases further the computational complexity which is known already as an NP-hard problem. A solution procedure using efficient genetic algorithm has been proposed to solve the problem. The modeling and use of the solution algorithm with a defined objective-function value provides the optimization of the problem. The proposed algorithm has a shorter running time than solving the model in a conventional manner. The method was applied as a case study to the city of Mashhad in Iran with over 3 million residents and 20 million visitors annually. This case study, characterized by significant seasonal demand variation, demonstrates how to find the best single network of bus routes to suit the annual passenger demand. http://114.111.144.247/ics-wpd/exec/icswppro.dll?AC=QUERY&TN=inroads&QY=find+RC+=+1205AR166E Mon, 14 May 2012 14:00:00 UTCBus and any other public transit connectivity issues facilitate an understanding of the importance of transit planning in enhancing existing or new transit services. Improving transit connectivity is one of the most vital tasks in transit-operations planning. A poor connection can cause some passengers to stop using the transit service. Service-design criteria always contain postulates to improve routing and scheduling coordination (intra- and inter-agency transfer centers/points and synchronized/timed transfers). Ostensibly the lack of well-defined connectivity measures precludes the weighing and quantifying of the result of any coordination effort. This work provides an initial methodological framework and concepts for directions and tools for detecting weak segments in inter-route and intermodal chains (paths) for possible revisions/changes. Finally this paper presents a case study of two major cities preparing for two major sporting events, the city of London in the United Kingdom hosting XXX Olympic Games in 2012 and the city of Auckland in New Zealand programmed to host the 7th Rugby World Cup (RWC) in 2011. These cities are used to offer a comparison of the bottlenecks in their public transit (PT) networks. The results indicate that in the City of London, the PT lines of Tube (Bakerloo), Rail (London Euston) and Bus (route 18) leading to the Wembley Stadium Station are the bottlenecks and in the City of Auckland, the bottlenecks are the PT lines of Bus (routes 212 – 249) and Rail (Western Line) leading to the Eden Park Stadium. It is evident that improving the capacity and accessibility of these lines will increase the maximum flow (throughput) to their respective sport stadiums. http://114.111.144.247/ics-wpd/exec/icswppro.dll?AC=QUERY&TN=inroads&QY=find+RC+=+1205AR167E Mon, 14 May 2012 14:00:00 UTCIn times of climate change and scarce resources it is essential to reduce emissions and to use fuel as economically as possible. The transportation sector alone accounts for 44 per cent of the energy use in New Zealand with only about one quarter of that being used by the transportation industry for transporting goods. Therefore, an attractive public-transport (PT) service and prudent use of its vehicles can help make travel more economical, thus saving resources and reducing high carbon dioxide emissions. This work demonstrates how to make public-bus services more attractive by using two simultaneous objectives: minimizing the expected passenger waiting time and minimizing the discrepancy from a desired occupancy level on the vehicles. The first objective will improve the service and attract more users, and the second objective will assure economical operation. A network-based procedure is used to create timetables with multiple vehicle types to solve this bi-objective problem. The methodology developed is applied to a case study in Auckland, New Zealand. It results in a saving of more than 43 per cent of passenger waiting time where, at the same time, attaining an acceptable passengers’ load on all vehicles. http://114.111.144.247/ics-wpd/exec/icswppro.dll?AC=QUERY&TN=inroads&QY=find+RC+=+1205AR169E Mon, 14 May 2012 14:00:00 UTCDeterministic transit capacity analysis applies to planning, design and operational management of urban transit systems. The Transit Capacity and Quality of Service Manual and Vuchic enable transit performance to be quantified and assessed using transit capacity and productive capacity. This paper further defines important productive performance measures of an individual transit service and transit line. Transit work (p-km) captures the transit task performed over distance. Passenger transmission (p-6 km/h) captures the passenger task delivered by service at speed. Transit productiveness (p-km/h) captures transit work performed over time. These measures are useful to operators in understanding their services’ or systems’ capabilities and passenger quality of service. This paper accounts for variability in utilized demand by passengers along a line and high passenger load conditions where passenger pass-up delay occurs. A hypothetical case study of an individual bus service’s operation demonstrates the usefulness of passenger transmission in comparing existing and growth scenarios. A hypothetical case study of a bus line’s operation during a peak hour window demonstrates the theory’s usefulness in examining the contribution of individual services to line productive performance. Scenarios may be assessed using this theory to benchmark or compare lines and segments, conditions, or consider improvements. http://114.111.144.247/ics-wpd/exec/icswppro.dll?AC=QUERY&TN=inroads&QY=find+RC+=+1205AR170E Mon, 14 May 2012 14:00:00 UTCThis paper explores the importance of track crossover provision in addressing the issue of replacement bus services in response to unplanned rail service disruptions using a case study in Melbourne, Australia. Crossovers act to determine the point at which rail replacement bus services can operate from and are thus critical in determining the scale, costs and benefits of rail disruption management. Despite research evidence that crossover provision is important in managing rail disruption there is little guidance in the research literature about how this can be achieved and what the relative costs and benefits of providing crossovers are. Theoretical modelling evaluated passenger and operator impacts of alternative crossover plans for a case study of unplanned service disruptions on a suburban rail line in Melbourne, Australia. Results show that an additional crossover reduced user rail disruption costs by between 78 and 96 per cent whilst bus hire costs were reduced by between 63 and 93 per cent. Results suggest that only a few rail disruptions annually make the provision of track crossovers financially viable based on savings in rail replacement bus service costs. Research found that crossovers located as close as possible to major disruption locations provide the highest users and operator benefits. Sensitivity tests show that even with substantially lower ridership and with lower frequency of disruption, the addition of crossovers was financially positive and generated substantial user benefits. All highlighted results are in respect to the one suburban rail line under analysis. Overall it would appear that providing additional track crossovers is a highly positive means of reducing costs and improving services and presents a rare ‘win-win’ solution for railway management. However research has identified that crossovers can be a cause of disruption on some rail systems and this factor also needs to be considered in rail planning. http://114.111.144.247/ics-wpd/exec/icswppro.dll?AC=QUERY&TN=inroads&QY=find+RC+=+1205AR175E Mon, 14 May 2012 14:00:00 UTCPrevious research shows dwell time is a major factor influencing transit competitiveness. Streetcars have particularly uncompetitive running times but no research has explored influences on streetcar dwell time. There is also no analytical research on dwell time effects of stop design despite anecdotal evidence showing platform stops have acted to reduce streetcar dwell time. This is an empirical study of factors affecting dwell time on streetcars in Melbourne and Toronto focussing on tram stop design. Results show payment of fares to drivers on entry in Toronto acts to increase dwell time compared to on-board self-ticket validation in Melbourne. For a typical 10 passengers boarding/5 alighting, the Melbourne approach saves 9 sec (48 per cent) of dwell time compared to Toronto. Tram stop design, notably platform stops, was the next most significant factor affecting streetcar dwell time. For a typical passenger 10 boarding/ 5 alighting, platform stops reduce dwell time by 6.6 seconds or 34 per cent. A positive link between the number of doors on trams and dwell time was found however this is thought to result from insufficient examples of high boarding numbers on 4-door trams. The results suggest that off-vehicle or post-boarding ticket purchase and validation are significant strategies to reduce dwell time. Providing platform stops are also a potential strategy for reducing dwell time. Areas for future research are suggested. http://114.111.144.247/ics-wpd/exec/icswppro.dll?AC=QUERY&TN=inroads&QY=find+RC+=+1205AR176E Mon, 14 May 2012 14:00:00 UTCThis paper explores transit research with the aim of understanding areas covered, research trends, research uses and how research provision matches needs. Method involves an empirical analysis of the content, use and users of the World Transit Research Clearinghouse. Content analysis shows that Transportation Research Record is the academic journal with most transit research publications but only 14 per cent of its papers are in transit. Transport Policy is the second largest source but transit made up 58 per cent of its publications. The majority of research papers in transit concern bus, rail, or mass transit. In the last decade the most significant change in publications by transit mode is that bus rapid transit research has grown although it still remains a small share of overall content. Consumption of research content by mode is highest for bus rapid transit followed by light rail/tram and bicycle/ pedestrian themed papers. Analysis comparing research supply with research consumption suggests that research papers concerning (in order) sustainability, urban density and ridership growth have the highest readership but represent a very small share of research content in the field. User surveys had a low response rate but suggest that professionals including government policy makers, consultants and academics are the major research users. The most common use of transit research is to be “kept informed” however research is also cited as evidence notably by academics. A modest though significant share of professionals use transit research for transit policy and/or service development. Opportunities for future research are identified. http://114.111.144.247/ics-wpd/exec/icswppro.dll?AC=QUERY&TN=inroads&QY=find+RC+=+1205AR177E Mon, 14 May 2012 14:00:00 UTCThe case for transit priority can be substantially enhanced if direct passenger travel time benefits are supplemented by secondary benefits including mode shift from auto drivers and operating fleet resource savings due to running time improvements. Although these effects have been theorised in previous research no quantitative evidential basis has been established. The paper aims to fill this gap and expand on previous theoretical models using actual evidence of transit priority impacts. It is part of a wider international research project aiming to develop new methodologies to plan and optimise the design of transit priority schemes. Evidence of mode shift effects suggests that transit priority can generate mode shift from auto drivers at levels of travel time savings much lower than suggested in previous theoretical models. A strong statistical link between the percentage of travel time savings resulting from transit priority and reductions in auto driving was established. Evidence of transit fleet savings resulting from priority schemes shows that they can occur at much lower levels of travel time savings than previous suggested as long as transit route lengths and headways are reasonably short. The analysis suggested that savings in fleet resources will continue beyond the thresholds suggested in theoretical models. The paper suggests a revised theoretical model of the secondary benefits of transit priority which reveals benefits are cumulative and generally higher than previously suggested. Areas for future research are suggested. http://114.111.144.247/ics-wpd/exec/icswppro.dll?AC=QUERY&TN=inroads&QY=find+RC+=+1205AR194E Mon, 14 May 2012 14:00:00 UTCThis paper analyzes the current accessibility of New York City region train stations for disabled riders. Utilizing GIS and data analysis, this paper finds that high income communities are better served by accessible stations in the suburbs than those in low income urban communities, despite a higher percentage of disabled and elderly population in the urban areas than in the suburbs. Staten Island has the least number of ADA accessible stations out of the four lines. The number of stops on the suburban leg of the LIRR and MNRR are more accessible than the on the urban leg or the other two lines. The NYC Subway has the largest disabled population within walking distance but is the least accessible rail line of the four. http://114.111.144.247/ics-wpd/exec/icswppro.dll?AC=QUERY&TN=inroads&QY=find+RC+=+1205AR304E Mon, 14 May 2012 14:00:00 UTC http://114.111.144.247/ics-wpd/exec/icswppro.dll?AC=QUERY&TN=inroads&QY=find+RC+=+1205AR335E Mon, 14 May 2012 14:00:00 UTCThis report summarises the outcomes to date of investigating bus rapid transit (BRT) and light rail transit (LRT) options for the City to Gungahlin Transit Corridor. Introducing rapid transit to the corridor will go towards improving the Frequent Network outlined in the Transport for Canberra plan, and help transform the City to Gungahlin corridor into a more urban, active, attractive boulevard and entry to the ACT. The BRT or LRT options would replace the current Red Rapid service between Gungahlin and City made permanent after successful trials in 2011. Further extensions south and east towards the Parliamentary Zone/Barton, Woden and Belconnen have been considered and are part of current and future transport planning.