Elements Needed to Create High-Ridership Transit Systems (2007)

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

TRANSPORTAT ION RESEARCH BOARD WASHINGTON, D.C. 2007 www.TRB.org T R A N S I T C O O P E R A T I V E R E S E A R C H P R O G R A M TCRP REPORT 111 Research sponsored by the Federal Transit Administration in cooperation with the Transit Development Corporation Subject Areas Public Transit Elements Needed to Create High Ridership Transit Systems TranSystems Medford, MA W I T H Planners Collaborative, Inc. Boston, MA Tom Crikelair Associates Bar Harbor, ME

TCRP REPORT 111 Project H-32 ISSN 1073-4872 ISBN: 978-0-309-09885-4 Library of Congress Control Number 2007927801 © 2007 Transportation Research Board COPYRIGHT PERMISSION Authors herein are responsible for the authenticity of their materials and for obtaining written permissions from publishers or persons who own the copyright to any previously published or copyrighted material used herein. Cooperative Research Programs (CRP) grants permission to reproduce material in this publication for classroom and not-for-profit purposes. Permission is given with the understanding that none of the material will be used to imply TRB, AASHTO, FAA, FHWA, FMCSA, FTA, or Transit Development Corporation endorsement of a particular product, method, or practice. It is expected that those reproducing the material in this document for educational and not-for-profit uses will give appropriate acknowledgment of the source of any reprinted or reproduced material. For other uses of the material, request permission from CRP. NOTICE The project that is the subject of this report was a part of the Transit Cooperative Research Program conducted by the Transportation Research Board with the approval of the Governing Board of the National Research Council. Such approval reflects the Governing Board’s judgment that the project concerned is appropriate with respect to both the purposes and resources of the National Research Council. The members of the technical advisory panel selected to monitor this project and to review this report were chosen for recognized scholarly competence and with due consideration for the balance of disciplines appropriate to the project. The opinions and conclusions expressed or implied are those of the research agency that performed the research, and while they have been accepted as appropriate by the technical panel, they are not necessarily those of the Transportation Research Board, the National Research Council, the Transit Development Corporation, or the Federal Transit Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation. Each report is reviewed and accepted for publication by the technical panel according to procedures established and monitored by the Transportation Research Board Executive Committee and the Governing Board of the National Research Council. The Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, the National Research Council, the Transit Development Corporation, and the Federal Transit Administration (sponsor of the Transit Cooperative Research Program) do not endorse products or manufacturers. Trade or manufacturers’ names appear herein solely because they are considered essential to the clarity and completeness of the project reporting. TRANSIT COOPERATIVE RESEARCH PROGRAM The nation’s growth and the need to meet mobility, environmental, and energy objectives place demands on public transit systems. Current systems, some of which are old and in need of upgrading, must expand service area, increase service frequency, and improve efficiency to serve these demands. Research is necessary to solve operating problems, to adapt appropriate new technologies from other industries, and to intro- duce innovations into the transit industry. The Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) serves as one of the principal means by which the transit industry can develop innovative near-term solutions to meet demands placed on it. The need for TCRP was originally identified in TRB Special Report 213—Research for Public Transit: New Directions, published in 1987 and based on a study sponsored by the Urban Mass Transportation Administration—now the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). A report by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), Transportation 2000, also recognized the need for local, problem- solving research. TCRP, modeled after the longstanding and success- ful National Cooperative Highway Research Program, undertakes research and other technical activities in response to the needs of tran- sit service providers. The scope of TCRP includes a variety of transit research fields including planning, service configuration, equipment, facilities, operations, human resources, maintenance, policy, and administrative practices. TCRP was established under FTA sponsorship in July 1992. Pro- posed by the U.S. Department of Transportation, TCRP was autho- rized as part of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA). On May 13, 1992, a memorandum agreement out- lining TCRP operating procedures was executed by the three cooper- ating organizations: FTA, the National Academies, acting through the Transportation Research Board (TRB); and the Transit Development Corporation, Inc. (TDC), a nonprofit educational and research orga- nization established by APTA. TDC is responsible for forming the independent governing board, designated as the TCRP Oversight and Project Selection (TOPS) Committee. Research problem statements for TCRP are solicited periodically but may be submitted to TRB by anyone at any time. It is the responsibility of the TOPS Committee to formulate the research program by identi- fying the highest priority projects. As part of the evaluation, the TOPS Committee defines funding levels and expected products. Once selected, each project is assigned to an expert panel, appointed by the Transportation Research Board. The panels prepare project state- ments (requests for proposals), select contractors, and provide techni- cal guidance and counsel throughout the life of the project. The process for developing research problem statements and selecting research agencies has been used by TRB in managing cooperative research pro- grams since 1962. As in other TRB activities, TCRP project panels serve voluntarily without compensation. Because research cannot have the desired impact if products fail to reach the intended audience, special emphasis is placed on dissemi- nating TCRP results to the intended end users of the research: tran- sit agencies, service providers, and suppliers. TRB provides a series of research reports, syntheses of transit practice, and other support- ing material developed by TCRP research. APTA will arrange for workshops, training aids, field visits, and other activities to ensure that results are implemented by urban and rural transit industry practitioners. The TCRP provides a forum where transit agencies can cooperatively address common operational problems. The TCRP results support and complement other ongoing transit research and training programs. Published reports of the TRANSIT COOPERATIVE RESEARCH PROGRAM are available from: Transportation Research Board Business Office 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 and can be ordered through the Internet at http://www.national-academies.org/trb/bookstore Printed in the United States of America

CRP STAFF FOR TCRP REPORT 111 Christopher W. Jenks, Director, Cooperative Research Programs Crawford F. Jencks, Deputy Director, Cooperative Research Programs Gwen Chisholm Smith, Senior Program Officer Eileen P. Delaney, Director of Publications Hillary Freer, Senior Editor TCRP PROJECT H-32 PANEL Field of Policy and Planning David A. Lee, Connecticut Transit, Hartford, CT (Chair) Alan Castaline, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, Boston, MA Richard L. Dreyer, Tindale-Oliver & Associates, Inc., Tampa, FL Eric T. Hill, Metro Plan Orlando, Orlando, FL Douglas Holcomb, Greater Bridgeport Transit Authority, Bridgeport, CT Ronald Kilcoyne, Greater Bridgeport Transit Authority, Bridgeport, CT David M. Luskin, University of Texas - Austin, Austin, TX Jan Maynard, Utah Transit Authority, Salt Lake City, UT John F. McGee, Jr., Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, Philadelphia, PA Rosie Sanford, Loxley, AL Richard F. Stevens, Fairfax County (VA) DOT, Fairfax, VA Elizabeth Day, FTA Liaison William B. Menczer, FTA Liaison Richard Weaver, APTA Liaison Karen Wolf-Branigin, Other Liaison Peter Shaw, TRB Liaison AUTHOR ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The research described in this report was performed under TCRP Project H-32 by TranSystems Corp., with assistance from Planners Collaborative, Inc., and Tom Crikelair Associates. Daniel Fleishman of TranSystems was the Principal Investigator for the project and the primary author of this Guidebook. Also contributing to the research and preparation of the Guidebook were James Wens- ley, Rick Halvorsen, Larry Englisher, Stephen Falbel, Carol Schweiger, Bruce Kaplan and Kathleen Fay of TranSystems; Scott Hamwey, Dan Rabinowitz, Nicole Buxton and Don Kidston of Planners Collaborative; and Tom Crikelair. The guidance of Gwen Chisholm Smith, the TCRP Program Officer for the project, and the Project Panel is also acknowledged. C O O P E R A T I V E R E S E A R C H P R O G R A M S

TCRP Report 111: Elements Needed to Create High Ridership Transit Systems describes the strategies used by transit agencies to create high ridership and includes case studies of success- ful examples of increased or high ridership. The case studies focus on the internal and exter- nal elements that contributed to successful ridership increases and describe how the transit agencies influenced or overcame internal and external challenges to increase ridership. This report includes a companion interactive CD-ROM that contains a database of indi- vidual transit agency ridership strategies linked to the strategies and examples presented in the report. The CD-ROM also contains a brochure that outlines the key elements identified in this report for increasing and sustaining ridership. These materials have been designed to assist transit managers and staff, as well as policymakers and other regional stakeholders, by identifying strategies that can be used to increase ridership. Increasing ridership is a national goal of the Federal Transit Administration and a high pri- ority for all transit systems. Increasing ridership is important to sustain public investment in transit, particularly in a resource-constrained environment. Ridership is generally used by public authorities as the basis for measuring the effectiveness of public transportation invest- ments. In addition, strong transit ridership supports a wide variety of public policy goals, including energy conservation; air-quality improvement; congestion relief; mobility for trans- portation-disadvantaged groups; and promotion of livable communities, economic develop- ment, and sustained growth initiatives. Increasing transit ridership also improves the effi- ciency of the overall transportation system by using available capacity. Transit agencies throughout the United States and abroad have had success at generating higher-than-usual rates of ridership growth, through innovative use of service improvements, marketing tech- niques, fare policy and technology initiatives, and partnerships with other entities. This report identifies transit ridership “success” stories that can be emulated and describes the types of actions that can be taken to sustain or increase transit ridership. Daniel Fleishman of TranSystems was the principal author of this report. Also contribut- ing to the research and preparation of the reporreport and CD-ROM were James Wensley, Rick Halvorsen, Larry Englisher, Stephen Falbel, Carol Schweiger, Bruce Kaplan, and Kath- leen Fay of TranSystems; Scott Hamwey, Dan Rabinowitz, Nicole Buxton, and Don Kidston of Planners Collaborative; and Tom Crikelair of Tom Crikelair Associates. Under TCRP Project H-32, “Determining the Elements Needed to Create High Ridership Transit Sys- tems,” the research team conducted a comprehensive review of literature, practice, and find- ings related to producing and sustaining high transit ridership. Based on the information gathered, this report provides information on the effective use and effects of a broad range of strategies on ridership and provides guidance on selecting appropriate strategies to sus- tain or increase ridership. F O R E W O R D By Gwen Chisholm Smith Staff Officer Transportation Research Board

1 Chapter 1 Introduction and Overview 1 Introduction 2 Industry Research/Dissemination Efforts 2 Industry Research 3 Information Dissemination Efforts 4 Case Studies 4 The Guidebook 6 Chapter 2 Factors Affecting Ridership 6 Introduction 6 Factors Affecting Ridership 7 Previous TCRP Studies 11 Mineta Institute Study 13 Other Studies 14 Findings from the Case Studies 17 Categorization of Factors Affecting Ridership 22 Chapter 3 Identification of Service Needs and Opportunities 22 Introduction 22 Evaluation of Existing Services 22 Service Evaluation 27 Needs Assessment of Marketing/Information and Fare Systems 28 Identification of Needs & Potential Markets 28 Conducting Demographic and Travel Pattern Analysis 29 Conducting Market Research 32 Identifying Market Segments 37 Chapter 4 Selection of Strategies 37 Introduction 37 Service Environments and Strategies 37 Identifying Types of Service Environments 39 Identifying Strategies for Different Service Environments 41 Identifying Relative Cost-Effectiveness of Potential Strategies 41 Evaluating Ridership Impacts 43 Elements of Successful Strategies 43 Characteristics of Successful U.S. Examples 50 Successful Examples from Abroad 51 Conclusions 52 Chapter 5 Operating/Service Adjustments 52 Introduction 52 Design/Implementation Guidelines 52 Applicable Settings 52 Planning/Research Activities C O N T E N T S

53 Design and Performance Measures 56 Cost Estimation Considerations 57 Expected Ridership Response 58 Routing/Coverage Adjustments 58 Increased Route Coverage 61 Route Restructuring 62 Improved Schedule/Route Coordination 65 Scheduling/Frequency Adjustments 66 Increased Service Frequency and Increased Span of Service 67 Improved Reliability/On-time Performance 68 New Types of Service 68 Improved Travel Speed 70 Targeted Services 72 Improved Amenities 73 Passenger Facility Improvements 75 New/Improved Vehicles 76 Increased Security and Safety 78 Chapter 6 Partnerships/Coordination Initiatives 78 Introduction 78 Guidelines and Examples 78 Partnerships 79 University/School Pass Programs 81 Travel Demand Management Strategies 84 Subsidized Activity Center Service 85 Coordination Initiatives 86 Consistent Regional Operating Policies 87 Coordination with Social Services Agencies 88 Coordination with Other Transportation Agencies 90 Promotion of Transit-Supportive Design and TOD 92 Chapter 7 Marketing & Information Initiatives 92 Introduction 92 Design/Implementation Guidelines 92 Applicable Settings 94 Planning Activities 94 Expected Ridership Response 95 Marketing/Promotional Initiatives 95 Targeted Marketing/Promotions 97 General Marketing/Promotions 101 Information Improvements 101 Improved Printed Informational Materials 103 Improved Customer Information and Assistance 103 Automated Transit Traveler Information 109 Chapter 8 Fare Collection/Structure Initiatives 109 Introduction 109 Design/Implementation Guidelines 109 Applicable Settings 110 Planning Activities 110 Fare Collection System Design Process 112 Fare Structure Development Process

113 Cost/Revenue Considerations 114 Expected Ridership Response 114 Fare Collection Improvements 114 Improved Payment Convenience 120 Regional Payment Integration 121 Fare Structure Changes 121 Fare Structure Simplification 123 Fare Reduction