Personal Mobility

The Northern Virginia Transportation Commission recently conducted a study to inventory and review transit-related ITS projects in the region, evaluate the performance measurement approaches, research the benefits associated with these projects, and establish an ongoing performance monitoring process.  The project included interviews with transit managers and vendors, and an intercept/mailback survey of Northern Virginia transit riders.   
This paper summarizes the results of the survey conducted in April 2003.  Surveys were distributed to over 14,000 Northern Virginia transit riders at a number of large transit stations over the course of several weekdays.  Approximately 16% of the transit riders who received the questionnaire responded.  Specifically, the survey instrument addressed the following:

•  Demographic and socioeconomic characteristics;
•  Use of computers and the Internet;
•  Attitudes towards the current use of technology on transit;
•  Importance of various uses of technology;
•  Behavior changes as a result of transit ITS;
•  Familiarity with and frequency of use of various ITS applications in Northern Virginia; and
•  Usefulness and ease of use of ITS applications.

Overall, the survey respondents were widely supportive of the current use of technology on transit services in the region and to a large extent of expanded use of technology.  The currently offered transit ITS applications have generally been viewed as useful and there is widespread feeling that they are easy to use. This is an important accomplishment for the region.

TranSystems Corporation

Presented at the ITS America Annual Conference and Exposition, April 26 - 28, 2004 San Antonio, Texas

In recent years, a growing number of metropolitan areas around the world have
introduced electronic payment media, particularly smart cards, as a means of linking fare
payments among the various transit agencies – and in some cases with other entities as
well. In addition to transit fare payment, smart cards are being introduced for an
increasingly wide range of applications, including toll and parking payments, financial
services, mobile commerce, security/access/identification and loyalty purchase programs.
The processing and storage capabilities of these cards have made it possible to consider
multiapplication programs, including two or more of these uses on a single card. Such
arrangements offer the potential to increase customer convenience – for all participating
applications – as well as to spread card issuance costs. There is considerable potential to
link transit payment with one or more other types of function in a multiapplication
arrangement.  

The use of smart cards has thus created the opportunity for establishment of new types of
partnerships – while also facilitating the introduction of new (i.e., automated) fare media
distribution methods. This paper discusses smart card developments and impacts on
customers and agencies, also reviews related emerging applications and partnerships.

TranSystems Corp.

Presented at the ITS America Annual Conference and Exposition, April 26 - 28, 2004 San Antonio, Texas

The Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (Tri-Met) has entered into an agreement with the City of Portland, Oregon to enable its transit buses to use the low Transit Priority request of the signals within the City’s jurisdiction. The three primary goals for the use of transit priority are: 1) to increase throughput within specified traffic corridors; 2) to reduce transit running times; and 3) to improve transit schedule reliability. This paper will focus on methods Tri-Met will employ to evaluate the effectiveness of its transit signal priority effort on transit operations, and to determine if its goals have been met. The project was scheduled to commence in February 2001, and preliminary evaluation results are expected by June 2001.

Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (Tri-Met)

Presented at the 11th ITS Annual Conference and Exposition, June 4-7, 2001 Miami Beach, Florida

Transportation engineers and planners worldwide are faced with the challenge of improving transit services in urban areas using low cost means. Transit signal priority is considered to be an effective way to improve transit service reliability and efficiency. In light of the interest in testing and deploying transit signal priority on a major arterial in Northern Virginia, this research focuses on the impacts of transit signal priority along the U.S.1 corridor in Fairfax County, in terms of benefits to transit and impacts on other traffic. Using a simulation tool, VISSIM, these impacts were assessed considering a ten second green extension priority strategy. Also, this assessment is being supported by a field study giving researchers an opportunity to compare simulation and field study results. The results of the simulation analysis indicated that the Fairfax Connector buses benefit from the green extension strategy with little to no impact on the other non-transit traffic. Overall, improvements of 3.61% were found for bus service reliability and 2.64% for bus efficiency, while negative impacts were found in the form of increases in queue lengths on side streets by a maximum value of approximately one vehicle.Preliminary field results show a comparable improvement in bus efficiency of 2.38%. While evaluating the impacts of provision of priority to transit buses this research emphasizes that ‘green extension’ strategy provides constant benefits with little to no disbenefit to other traffic. This research tries to provide a comparative depiction of results consistent with past studies showing ‘green extension’ as aviable option, even in most congested corridors without disrupting non-transit traffic.

Wilbur Smith Associates

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Presented at the ITS America Annual Conference and Exposition, April 26 - 28, 2004 San Antonio, Texas

This paper describes the ongoing evaluation study of anonymous mobile call sampling for transportation applications underway in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The Universities of Maryland and Virginia, with support from their respective State Departments of Transportation, are investigating the potential of the RadioCamera technology invented by U.S. Wireless Corporation to provide critical data for traffic management applications. This method of data collection is contrasted with other probe and point detection mechanisms. Descriptions of prototype transportation management applications employing this technology are offered. Potential technical limitations are described, as well as means by which they might be obviated. The planned economic evaluation is outlined, including the economic measures to be quantified, the range over which valuation will be conducted, and the means by which benefits will be enumerated. Finally, some conclusions are offered.

University of Virginia

University of Maryland

Presented at the 11th ITS Annual Conference and Exposition, June 4-7, 2001 Miami Beach, Florida