Browsing by Subject "Public transit"
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Item Bus stop attributes and perception of safety : case study Huston Tillotson University(2010-12) Gomez Sanchez, Ana Julita; McCray, Talia; Mueller, ElizabethThis professional report examines the degree to which the perception of safety shapes travel behavior in Austin, Texas, using Huston Tillotson University (HT) students as our case study. Focus groups are used to explore and identify what elements of the public transit experience are considered safe and unsafe. The report explores what “frightens” HT participants away from using the bus. A quantitative study is then used to measure environmental variables and their relation to bus stops and perceptions of safety. Austin crime data are used to locate bus stop crimes and develop a real context for bus riders’ perceptions of crime. After describing the conditions of bus stops based on physical, environmental, and criminal attributes, the study develops scenarios for the study areas. This report closes by summarizing the empirical findings and gives design and policy recommendations for transportation planners, agencies, and policy makers.Item Ideologies of the everyday : public space, new urbanism, and the political unconscious of bus rapid transit(2012-12) Zigmund, Stephen Michael; Mueller, Elizabeth J.; Sletto, BjornThis research uses the recent development of bus rapid transit (BRT) on Cleveland, Ohio’s Euclid Avenue corridor as a case-study to explore the links between public transit, public space, and urban planning. Using Fredric Jameson’s (1981) method of textual analysis from The Political Unconscious, I explore the ways the BRT provides access to a buried class consciousness in the city as well as a “symbolic resolution” between conflicting agendas of development and equity. Contextualizing the new spaces of the BRT using a synthesis of Jameson’s (1984) theorization of postmodernism, Mike Davis’ (1990) militarization of public space, and Michel de Certeau’s (1984) spatial practices, I discuss the ways these spaces are remade by individual users as a vital public space despite the BRT’s embedded market ideology and repressive security apparatus. Additionally, I explore what BRT’s ‘ideology of form’ can tell us about the ideology of the dominant paradigm of planning today, New Urbanism, and use it as departure for a closing discussion of Utopian desires in planning.Item Reliable routing in schedule-based transit networks(2014-12) Beduhn, Tyler James; Boyles, Stephen David, 1982-A framework is proposed for determining the least expected cost path in a schedule-based time-expanded public transit network where travel times, and thus bus arrival and departure times at stops, are stochastic. Transfer reliability is incorporated in a label-correcting algorithm with a penalty function for the expected waiting time when transferring that reflects the likelihood of making a successful transfer. The algorithm is implemented in transit assignment on an Austin, Texas test network, using actual bus arrival and departure time distributions from vehicle location data. Assignment results are compared with those of a deterministic shortest path based on the schedule and from a calibrated transit assignment model. Simulations of the network and passenger paths are also conducted to evaluate the overall path reliability. The reliable shortest path algorithm is found to penalize transferring and provide paths with improved transfer and overall reliability. The proposed model is realistic, incorporating reliability measures from vehicle location data, and practical, given the efficient shortest path approach and application to transit assignment.Item The impact of light rail transit on residential rental market : case study of Dallas Area Rapid Transit(2016-08) Haque, Antora Mohsena; Zhang, Ming, 1963 April 22-; Wegmann, JakeThis research was undertaken to quantify the relationship between residential rent and proximity to light rail transit in Dallas, an auto-oriented city. This correlation is of importance to real estate developers and transportation planners as they seek to make the most efficient use of developable land and to decide on the allocation of funding for future transportation projects. This study shows that proximity to DART rail stations is associated with residential rent up to half mile radius area of the stations. Hedonic regression models in simple Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and semi log form were used for the analysis. The semi log model showed that light rail stations have the strongest relationship with rent in the 0.1 mile to 0.2 mile distance buffer, where the rent/sq. ft. is 20.92% higher than for units between 0.4 and 0.5 miles distance from stations. After 0.2 miles distance from the stations, the rent starts to drop and continues to go down till 0.5 miles distance from a station. The simple OLS model showed similar results and according to this model within 0.1 to 0.2 mile buffer area the rent is 27.6 cents/sq. ft. higher than the rent/sq. ft. in the 0.4 to 0.5 mile buffer area. This result will help to manage the extent of investment in light rail in Dallas in the future.Item Utilizing aggregate transit demand with dynamic transit assignment models : a guide for metropolitan planning organizations(2016-12) Jordan, Patrick Todd; Machemehl, Randy B.Activity based models and dynamic traffic assignment models have begun to emerge in the transportation planning industry as an alternative method to the traditional four-step model by more realistically representing trip tours on a finer time scale and depicting the effects of time-dependent traffic flow throughout the network. A barrier, however, for many MPOs across the country to developing ABMs and DTA models is the immense amount of resources required to produce and validate a complete network. Having the capability of using trip tables produced using the four-step model allows MPOs to benefit from the advantages of using a dynamic model while accepting some inaccuracies due to inherent incompatibilities between model methodologies. DTA models have predominately lacked the ability to represent transit apart from pre-specified dwell times, yet current initiatives are focused on developing FAST-TrIPs as a dynamic transit assignment model capable of integrating with DTA software packages to better account for variations in transit ridership. This thesis seeks to act as a guide for MPOs looking to implement existing transit trip tables from a four-step model in conjunction with FAST-TrIPs dynamic transit assignment software to analyze the affects of transit vehicle congestion and schedule reliability at the passenger level. Due to innate assumptions made when modeling transit in the four-step model such as transit schedule and accessibility, modelers must take particular care in characterizing inputs for the dynamic model. Proposals are made related to developing the transit network, processing transit demand, and creating configuration settings for the model. A case study set in Austin, TX uses the regional transit network and transit demand to emphasize particular inputs that are susceptible to causing passengers to go unassigned due to the inconsistency of the models while suggesting opportunities to limit such issues. Due to the high variability in current four-step model structures, the goal of this thesis provides readers with the proper knowledge necessary to develop unique processes applicable to their own region.Item Walking the walk : an assessment of the 5-minute rule in transit planning(2013-08) Moran, Maarit Marita; Kahn, Terry D.Public transportation and other alternatives to the private automobile are receiving increased attention for their potential to decrease congestion, reduce environmental damage and support healthier lifestyles. In particular, bus transit increases mobility and provides an opportunity for increased physical activity. In light of a scarcity of research on the subject, this report investigates a common rule of thumb used in transit planning that suggests riders will only walk five minutes to access a bus stop. A review of existing research shows that many transit riders walk longer than five minutes to reach a bus and that transit-access walking behavior is far more varied than implied by the 5-minute assumption. An effort was undertaken to estimate walking distances of bus riders in Austin, Texas using data from a 2010 survey administered to riders on local buses. The analysis estimated transit walks of unreasonable distances for some respondents, suggesting that the starting location address or access mode responses were inaccurately reported. Flaws in the data collection process interfered with a clear analysis of the relationship of walking distances to rider behavior, but the data showed that many riders walked considerably farther than 1/4 mile. The Austin data and reports from others summarized in the literature review of this report indicate that the 5-minute walk is not an accurate representation of transit access behavior and that further evaluation of the 5-minute assumption should be undertaken. Moreover, innovative approaches should be developed to more accurately predict bus commuter behavior to design a more effective transit system. Analysis of the survey data suggests that implementation of improved data collection methods in future studies could provide more useful and accurate data on walking behavior associated with transit use.