Reshaping the Region

2015 ◽  
Vol 2537 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-41
Author(s):  
Stephanie Pollack ◽  
Anna Gartsman ◽  
Timothy Reardon ◽  
Meghna Hari
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Public Transportation ◽  
Travel Behavior ◽  
Massachusetts Bay ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Transit System ◽  
Transit Systems ◽  
Commuter Rail ◽  
In Transit ◽  
The Impact

The American Public Transportation Association's use of a “land use multiplier” as part of its methodology for calculating greenhouse gas reduction from transit has increased interest in methodologies that quantify the impact of transit systems on land use and vehicle miles traveled. Such transit leverage, however, is frequently evaluated for urbanized areas, although transit systems serve only a small proportion of those areas. If transit leverage is stronger in areas closer to transit stations, studies based on larger geographies may underestimate land use and travel behavior effects in transit-served areas. A geographic information system–based data set was developed to understand better the leverage effects associated with the mature and extensive Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority transit system in areas proximate to its stations throughout Metropolitan Boston. The region was divided into the subregion that was transit-proximate (within a half mile of a rapid transit station or key bus route), the portion that was commuter rail–proximate, and the remaining 93.3% of the region that was not proximate to high-frequency transit. Households in the transit-proximate subregion were significantly more likely to commute by transit (and walking or biking), less likely to own a car, and drove fewer miles than households in the non-transit-served areas of the region. Commuter rail–proximate areas, although denser than the region as a whole, exhibited more driving and car ownership than regional averages. Given these spatial and modal variations, future efforts to understand transit leverage should separately evaluate land use and travel effects by mode and proximity to transit stations.

The Impact of Zoning and Built Environment Characteristics on Transit, Biking, and Walking

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-129
Author(s):  
Andrew G. Mueller ◽  
Daniel J. Trujillo
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Built Environment ◽  
Discrete Choice ◽  
Travel Behavior ◽  
Choice Model ◽  
Mode Choice ◽  
Land Use Regulation ◽  
Policy Action ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
The Impact

This study furthers existing research on the link between the built environment and travel behavior, particularly mode choice (auto, transit, biking, walking). While researchers have studied built environment characteristics and their impact on mode choice, none have attempted to measure the impact of zoning on travel behavior. By testing the impact of land use regulation in the form of zoning restrictions on travel behavior, this study expands the literature by incorporating an additional variable that can be changed through public policy action and may help cities promote sustainable real estate development goals. Using a unique, high-resolution travel survey dataset from Denver, Colorado, we develop a multinomial discrete choice model that addresses unobserved travel preferences by incorporating sociodemographic, built environment, and land use restriction variables. The results suggest that zoning can be tailored by cities to encourage reductions in auto usage, furthering sustainability goals in transportation.

Planning Transit System for Indian Cities

2018 ◽  
pp. 1647-1672
Author(s):  
Arnab Jana ◽  
Ronita Bardhan
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Traffic Congestion ◽  
Transit System ◽  
Transit Systems ◽  
Seamless Connectivity ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Limited Opportunity ◽  
Land Use Development ◽  
Parking Demand ◽  
Indian Cities

Indian cities are currently in a phase of transition. Continuous urbanization and seamless connectivity is the paradigm. Proliferating bourgeois class is extending the demand for private automobiles. With limited opportunity to increment land use allocated to transportation and rapid shift towards automobile ownership, importance of transit system is being sensed. City managers believe that public transit could be an alternative in providing solution to ever increasing problem of traffic congestion, parking demand, accidents and fatalities, and global environmental adversities. This chapter examines the critical planning issues that need to be addressed. It highlights the opportunities and challenges these cities are poised towards transit system planning. The experiences from cities worldwide that have adopted transit systems to create compact city forms fostering mixed land use development are exemplified here. A ‘3P' developmental framework of ‘provide', ‘promote' and ‘progress' has been proposed to harness the opportunity.

scholarly journals Comparison of eddy covariance CO<sub>2</sub> and CH<sub>4</sub> fluxes from mined and recently rewetted sections in a northwestern German cutover bog

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (10) ◽  
pp. 2853-2874 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Holl ◽  
Eva-Maria Pfeiffer ◽  
Lars Kutzbach
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Time Series ◽  
Eddy Covariance ◽  
Relative Difference ◽  
Plant Litter ◽  
Absolute Difference ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Ch4 Flux ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. With respect to their role in the global carbon cycle, natural peatlands are characterized by their ability to sequester atmospheric carbon. This trait is strongly connected to the water regime of these ecosystems. Large parts of the soil profile in natural peatlands are water saturated, leading to anoxic conditions and to a diminished decomposition of plant litter. In functioning peatlands, the rate of carbon fixation by plant photosynthesis is larger than the decomposition rate of dead organic material. Over time, the amount of carbon that remains in the soil and is not converted back to carbon dioxide grows. Land use of peatlands often goes along with water level manipulations and thereby with alterations of carbon flux dynamics. In this study, carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) flux measurements from a bog site in northwestern Germany that has been heavily degraded by peat mining are presented. Two contrasting types of management have been implemented at the site: (1) drainage during ongoing peat harvesting on one half of the central bog area and (2) rewetting on the other half that had been taken out of use shortly before measurements commenced. The presented 2-year data set was collected with an eddy covariance (EC) system set up on a central railroad dam that divides the two halves of the (former) peat harvesting area. We used footprint analysis to split the obtained CO2 and CH4 flux time series into data characterizing the gas exchange dynamics of both contrasting land use types individually. The time series gaps resulting from data division were filled using the response of artificial neural networks (ANNs) to environmental variables, footprint variability, and fuzzy transformations of seasonal and diurnal cyclicity. We used the gap-filled gas flux time series from 2 consecutive years to evaluate the impact of rewetting on the annual vertical carbon balances of the cutover bog. Rewetting had a considerable effect on the annual carbon fluxes and led to increased CH4 and decreased CO2 release. The larger relative difference between cumulative CO2 fluxes from the rewetted (13±6 mol m−2 a−1) and drained (22±7 mol m−2 a−1) section occurred in the second observed year when rewetting apparently reduced CO2 emissions by 40 %. The absolute difference in annual CH4 flux sums was more similar between both years, while the relative difference of CH4 release between the rewetted (0.83±0.15 mol m−2 a−1) and drained (0.45±0.11 mol m−2 a−1) section was larger in the first observed year, indicating a maximum increase in annual CH4 release of 84 % caused by rewetting at this particular site during the study period.

scholarly journals Optimization Model for Reserve Fleet Sizes in Traditional Transit Systems considering the Risk of Vehicle Breakdowns

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bowen Hou ◽  
Shuzhi Zhao ◽  
Huasheng Liu ◽  
Jin Li
Keyword(s):  
Optimization Model ◽  
Queueing Theory ◽  
Solution Method ◽  
Transit System ◽  
Transit Systems ◽  
Total Cost ◽  
User Costs ◽  
Transit Services ◽  
Optimized Model ◽  
In Transit

Traditional transit systems are susceptible to unexpected costs and delays due to unforeseen events, such as vehicle breakdowns. The randomness of these events gives the appearance of an imbalance in the number of operating vehicles and of unreliable transit services. Therefore, this paper proposes the queueing theory as a means to characterize the state of any given transit system considering the risk of vehicle breakdowns. In addition, the proposed method is used to create an optimized model for reserve fleet sizes in transit systems, in order to ensure the reliability of the transit system and minimize the total cost of any transit system exposed to the risks of vehicle breakdowns. The optimization is conducted based on the two main characteristics of all bus systems, namely, operator costs and user costs, in both normal and disruptive situations. In addition, the situations in our optimization are generated in scenarios that have a certain degree of probability of experiencing delays. This paper formulates such an optimization model, presents the formulation solution method, and proves the validity of the proposed method.

An Analysis of Success Plans and Performance Measures for Rural Transit Systems in North Carolina

2019 ◽  
Vol 2673 (3) ◽  
pp. 97-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai Monast ◽  
Charlie Stanfield
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
Customer Service ◽  
Internal Consistency ◽  
Public Transportation ◽  
Performance Metrics ◽  
Mission Statement ◽  
Transit System ◽  
Transit Systems ◽  
North Carolina Department ◽  
The North

Performance measurement and funding allocation based on these measurements are becoming increasingly popular in public transportation. Understanding what is important to transit systems is critical to properly assess them on their operational and administrative performance. The research goals were to determine how rural transit systems in North Carolina define success, what performance metrics the systems select for themselves, and why they selected those metrics. Each transit system was required by the North Carolina Department of Transportation to create a Success Plan for themselves that consisted of a mission statement, vision statement, values, and a scorecard that contained performance metrics. The analysis of these Success Plans shows that rural transit systems broadly define their values based on customer service, safety, and reliability. However, aside from safety, the specific metrics that the systems use for evaluating their performance are not well connected to these values. This lack of internal consistency within the Success Plans means that rural transit systems are not selecting performance metrics that complement their stated goals. This lack of internal consistency could have many causes and interviews were conducted with public transit administrators in North Carolina to try and understand the causes. From these interviews, it was determined that the lack of internal consistency in the plans could be partially attributed to the following: (1) system administrators were not aware of the importance of internally consistent plans; (2) system administrators had difficulty creating metrics; and (3) system administrators included metrics that they felt the state wanted to see.

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.

scholarly journals Rationalizing Urban Transportation using Smart Card Data

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (11S) ◽  
pp. 507-515
Keyword(s):  
Smart Card ◽  
Public Transport ◽  
Public Transportation ◽  
Urban Population ◽  
Transport Systems ◽  
Living Standard ◽  
Transit System ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Smart Card Data ◽  
The Impact

The urban population in 2014 accounted for 54% of the total global population, up from 34% in 1960, and continues to grow. The global urban population is expected to grow approximately 1.84%, 1.63% and 1.44% between 2015 and 2020, 2020 and 2025, and 2025 and 2030 respectively. This growing population puts pressure on government not only to accommodate the current and potential citizens but also provide them facilities and services for a better living standard. Providing a sustainable growing environment for the citizens is the biggest challenge for the government. As the populations increase, complexity network of transportation, water and sanitation, emergency services, etc. will increase many folds. SMART CITY Mission is being implemented to resolve this issue. As the cities turn smart, so should the transportation facilities. India on June 2018 had only 20 cities with populations of over 500,000 have organized public transport systems, pointing to the large gap to be bridged in their journey to turn smart. The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of smart card data from public transport for improving the predictions and planning of public transport usage and congestions. The mobile apps like M-Indicator, Google Maps don’t interlink, do not have a real time tracking of vehicles, fare distribution, congestion-based route mapping for public transportation. These factors are addressed in the paper with its advantages and disadvantages. This paper also talks about how information from smart card is to be extracted, how Big Data is to be managed and finally come to a smart, sustainable Urban Transit System. This paper also brings into light the data security issues and measures to curb those issues. This paper proposes and emphasizes on a single smart card for all modes of public transport

scholarly journals Fare inequities in public transit system in Costa Rica

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 80-97
Author(s):  
Cristhian Santiago Quirós Calderón ◽  
Jonathan Agüero-Valverde
Keyword(s):  
Costa Rica ◽  
Public Transport ◽  
Public Transportation ◽  
Multilevel Modelling ◽  
Random Coefficients ◽  
Operational Parameters ◽  
Transit System ◽  
Operational Characteristics ◽  
Operational Variables ◽  
In Transit

Problems in transit fare equity affect the daily commute of specific groups that depend mostly on public transportation. Previous studies showed that some routes present operational characteristics that increased the price charged to the users. To address this issue, a methodology to identify the routes that have fares much higher than expected, after considering operational parameters, is developed. This paper presents a methodology implemented to evaluate fare inequities in public transport networks. The case study is the bus public transport network in Costa Rica. The evaluation is performed using fare per kilometer as independent variable and operational variables, such as route length, monthly ridership and vehicle occupancy by using cluster analysis and Bayesian multilevel modelling. The results indicate that random coefficients models perform better than independent models for clustered data. Furthermore, the routes with higher differences between observed and estimated (i.e. expected) fares are the ones to be addressed first in individual audits, because these are the routes who charge higher operational costs into the fare, increasing inequity among the population.

scholarly journals Old People’s Fear of COVID-19 Infection and Public Transportation Avoidance : Korean Subway Evidence

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Byungjin Park ◽  
Joonmo Cho
Keyword(s):  
Public Transportation ◽  
Public Transit ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Fixed Effect Model ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Mass Transportation ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Transit System ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background: With the spread of the coronavirus worldwide, a principal policy implemented by nations was restrictions on movement of people. The effect of governments’ mobility restriction measures has been analyzed after the COVID-19 outbreak. However, there is lack of studies on the impact of voluntary restriction that significantly affects the decrease of the mobility. This research aims to analyze mass transportation use after the COVID-19 outbreak by age group to explore how the fear of infection affected the public transit system. Methods: Mass transportation big data of Seoul Metro transportation use in the capital city of South Korea was employed for a panel analysis. To control the environmental characteristics of each district of Seoul Metropolitan City, the fixed-effect model was employed. Results: The analysis results showed that in both the period of the highest infections and the period of the lowest infection of COVID-19, users aged 65 and over reduced subway use more than people aged between 20 and 64. The decrease of subway use caused by the sharp increase of COVID-19 cases was the most prominent among people aged 65 and over. The elasticity of change of subway use demand to change in cases in Seoul was about 0.08 for people aged 65 and over, higher than 0.06 for people aged between 20 and 64. Conclusion: The voluntary restrictions driven by fear of the COVID-19 infection have led to the decrease of public transit demand in Seoul. Although the subway use demand decreased both in the age group of 20 to 64 and the age group of people 65 and older, the elderly responded more sensitively to COVID-19. The results suggest that the fear of COVID-19 pandemic varies with age. It seems that the elderly’s higher death rate from COVID-19 has significantly impacted their behavioral change. This study imply that the elder’s fear of infection has affected their daily lives, consumption, and production activities and their mobility using public transportation.

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