Guidebook: Managing Operating Costs for Rural and Small Urban Public Transit Systems (original) (raw)
Related papers
2016
15. Supplementary Notes Project performed in cooperation with the Texas Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration. Project Title: Identifying Best Practices for Managing Operating Costs for Rural and Small Urban Public Transportation Systems URL: http://tti.tamu.edu/documents/0-6694-1.pdf 16. Abstract Rural and small urban transit providers across the United States face fiscal challenges caused by the growing gap between the cost of providing transit service and available federal, state, and local funding. In Texas, the fiscal challenges facing rural and small urban transit providers are compounded by an increasing population and growth in urbanization in some counties and declining population with increasing demand for transit service for an aging population in other counties. The research report examines the drivers of operating costs, approaches to containing costs, transit agency priorities for tools needed to better contain costs, and methodology used ...
Evaluating Public Transit Benefits and Costs Best Practices Guidebook
This guidebook describes how to create a comprehensive framework for evaluating the full impacts (benefits and costs) of a particular transit service or improvement. It identifies various categories of impacts and how to measure them. It discusses best practices for transit evaluation and identifies common errors that distort results. It discusses the travel impacts of various types of transit system changes and incentives. It describes ways to optimize transit benefits by increasing system efficiency, increasing ridership and creating more transit oriented land use patterns. It compares automobile and transit costs, and the advantages and disadvantages of bus and rail transit. It includes examples of transit evaluation, and provides extensive references. Many of the techniques in this guide can be used to evaluate other modes, such as ridesharing, cycling and walking.
Performance Measures for the Analysis of Rural Public Transit in Alabama
Journal of Public Transportation, 2014
As rural public transit systems are vital to the livelihood of rural Americans, improving the operations of these systems is the focus of this work. The use of performance measures to evaluate operation is essential to maintain growth and avoid becoming stagnant. The main goal of this study was to examine existing performance measures (PM) and modify them to allow for comparison of performance among rural transit agencies in Alabama. The tasks presented in this paper are a review of performance measures, data collection, and data analysis for agencies in Alabama. The report concludes that performance measures can be developed that balance external factors in the analysis and allow for a fair comparison of agencies.
Measuring Cost Variability in Provision of Transit Service
Transportation Research Record, 2000
The cost of producing public-transit service is not uniform but varies by trip type (e.g., local or express), trip length, time of travel, and direction of travel, among other factors. However, the models employed by publictransit operators to estimate costs typically do not account for this variation. The exclusion of cost variability in most transit-cost-allocation models has long been noted in the literature, particularly with respect to time-of-day variations in costs. This analysis addresses many of the limitations of cost-allocation models typically used in practice by developing a set of models that account for marginal variations in vehiclepassenger capacity, capital costs, and time-of-day costs. FY 1994 capital and operating data are used for
Computerized Management Information Systems for Transit Services in Small Urban and Rural Areas
Transportation Research Record, 1983
The needs assessment technique discussed in this paper determines unmet transportation needs using a method that is low-cost and expedient, provides a basis for fair distribution of resources countywide, and makes it possible to present the results to local legislators in a clear, concise form. The use of secondary data reduces both cost and time. The use of proportions, as well as total numbers, of transit dependent within a subarea for assigning priorities to areas of need encourages a fair distribution of funds countywide. A one page profile for each geographical subarea provides an effective method of communicating the results to local legislators. The approach also provides an extensive ,. Transportation Research Record 936 data base for use in futur.e planning efforts as well as in implementing the proposecl service. The data profiles are also well suited to periodic updating for reintroduction at the next legislative session, if necessary. ACKNOLWEDGMENT This paper is based on work conducted by Ecosometr ics, Inc. under contract to Wisconsin DOT to provide technical assistance through the Federal Highway Administration's Section 18 rural transportation program. The author wishes to thank Kathy Hicks and Jim Beckwith of the Wisconsin DOT for their guidance on the contract and Dave Fodroczi of the Rock County Planning Department for his insights on planning for rural and small urban areas. Jon E. Burkhardt, Sue F. Knapp, and Jeffrey I. Riese were the other authors on the Rock County Study.
Model To Minimize Nonrevenue Costs in Bus Transit Operations
Transportation Research Record, 1999
This paper derives from feasibility studies for a proposed Bus Division of the Mass Transit Administration (MTA) to serve northeastern Baltimore. The study objective was to determine the comparative savings or additional costs between using existing versus new locations. The focus of the analysis was non-revenue operating costs which are affected by location because of vehicle deadhead travel, associated operator travel and other operator travel for relief purposes. Based on the premise that "the optimal location of a storage facility is that which minimizes pullout and pullin distances and times plus relief travel time between the facility and various terminal points", the model was constructed with detailed data on existing operations and applied to each candidate site. The procedure involved microscopic calculation of each individual pullout and pull-in which mark the beginning and end respectively of bus transit operations. Compared to existing operations data, the model projected deadhead operations to within 4 percent of actual data and relief travels to within 10 percent. When components were aggregated, the overall margin of error was 1 percent. Various operating scenarios were tested by distributing combinations of services to existing and proposed facilities with the objective of minimizing non-revenue operations costs. One existing and one new site were identified as the two top choices. An analysis involving the combined cost of construction and operation subsequently aided in the final choice of a site. The model can serve as a tool for both site selection and distribution of units among various locations. Beyond transit operations, the model is extendable to governmental and municipal facilities.
Transit in the Nation's Capital: What Lies Ahead?, 1986
This study was done by an Interagency Task Force of private, local, State and Federal government officials under the auspices of the Federal City Council of Washington, D.C. The principal goal of this study is to achieve a regional consensus regarding what the Washington Metropolitan Area's total transit costs and revenues are likely to be through the year 2000. In addition, the study looks at how well prepared the area's jurisdictions will be to assume their respective shares of the operating deficits and capital costs. The report points out that currently, there is no single set of projects of future transit costs upon which decision makers at all levels of Government (local, State and Federal) can agree. The study calls for a commonly agreed upon objective set on numbers, and especially in the light of proposed cutbacks in Federal transit assistance. This report projected transit service, patronage, costs, revenues and financial impacts for the Washington Metropolitan Area. Data was developed for the two years that represent major milestones in the development of the metrorail system: 1993-when the metrorail system is assumed complete and 2000-when 102 miles are assumed open to service. The study assessed financial burden by comparing projected growth in the local jurisdictions' property values and non-transit expenditures. The key findings of this study are that: 1) the financial burden of subsidizing transit operations will be essentially the same in 2000 as it is today; 2) the burden picture changes in 1993 when assistance for construction, rehabilitation and replacement costs are added to operating assistance payments; 3) ridership demand is not expected to increase in the future as high as earlier studies had forecasted; 4) operating costs and deficits will increase 24 and 22 percent, respectively, as rail service doubles and bus service remains nearly constant; and 5) annual rehabilitation and replacement costs will increase from 42millionin1986to42 million in 1986 to 42millionin1986to150 million by the year 2000.
Trends Affecting Public Transit's Effectiveness: A Review and Proposed Actions
2004
This paper reviews a wide range of information, including demographic and socio-economic trends, changes in land use and mobility patterns, societal changes and concerns, emerging professional practices in urban planning, etc. The objectives of the study are to distill from these medium-to-longer trends, the challenges they create for transit system effectiveness and for the industry as a whole, and to identify some questions, opportunities, and potential actions for consideration in the formulation of future strategic directions for transit in the community. The study also provides in the Appendices, a discussion of concepts, and a listing of many accessible resources on various specific topics.
Conducted for the Public Transit Office
1999
iForeword The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) administers block grants to public transportation agencies throughout the state for the purpose of providing alternatives to private passenger transportation for use by the general public. It also administers the delivery to Florida public transportation agencies of federal funds pursuant to Section 5307 of the Mass Transit Act and intended for the same purposes as the state block grant funds. In recent years as previously rural counties attained urban status, agencies that had been created to provide specialized transportation for disadvantaged persons became eligible to receive block grants and Section 5307 funds in exchange for providing general public transportation services in addition to their original missions. The Florida Department of Transportation commissioned this study to learn the various ways in which five of the new Section 5307 transit agencies have been providing public transportation services for the genera...