This synthesis will be of interest to transportation planners, environmental analysts, and government officials at the federal, state, regional, and local levels. It describes the state of the practice with respect to the procedures and methodologies used by planning agencies at all levels to plan and evaluate alternative multimodal passenger transportation and to integrate these plans with related land use and environmental issues. This report of the Transportation Research Board describes the federal studies and guidelines that are available and presents the findings of an extensive survey of state, regional, and local agencies to identify the evaluation methods that are being used in the practice. Selected case studies for five types of modal evaluation are presented: intercity corridor, regional study, regional screening, urban corridor, and regional programming.

The objectives of this project were to review currently used methods of evaluating the economics of alternative transportation systems, develop a framework within which to evaluate the economics of alternative multimodal metropolitan transportation systems, and develop quantification methods for such factors as accessibility and capacity that relate them to all modes. The research was to include sensitivity analysis to identify those aspects of a modal investment policy that have major impacts on the output variables and therefore should be included in the results presented to transportation decision makers.

Addresses the Challenges Facing Public Transport Policy Makers and OperatorsPublic Transit Planning and Operation: Modeling, Practice and Behavior, Second Edition offers new solutions for delivering both better services and greater efficiency, solutions which have been developed and tested by the author in over thirty years of research work with ma

This book shows how transit assignment models can be used to describe and predict the patterns of network patronage in public transport systems. It provides a fundamental technical tool that can be employed in the process of designing, implementing and evaluating measures and/or policies to improve the current state of transport systems within given financial, technical and social constraints. The book offers a unique methodological contribution to the field of transit assignment because, moving beyond “traditional” models, it describes more evolved variants that can reproduce:• intermodal networks with high- and low-frequency services;• realistic behavioural hypotheses underpinning route choice;• time dependency in frequency-based models; and• assumptions about the knowledge that users have of network conditionsthat are consistent with the present and future level of information that intelligent transport systems (ITS) can provide. The book also considers the practical perspective of practitioners and public transport operators who need to model and manage transit systems; for example, the role of ITS is explained with regard to their potential in data collection for modelling purposes and validation techniques, as well as with regard to the additional data on network patronage and passengers’ preferences that influences the network-management and control strategies implemented. In addition, it explains how the different aspects of network operations can be incorporated in traditional models and identifies the advantages and disadvantages of doing so. Lastly, the book provides practical information on state-of-the-art implementations of the different models and the commercial packages that are currently available for transit modelling. Showcasing original work done under the aegis of the COST Action TU1004 (TransITS), the book provides a broad readership, ranging from Master and PhD students to researchers and from policy makers to practitioners, with a comprehensive tool for understanding transit assignment models.

This synthesis report will be of interest to department of transportation ( DOT) administrators, planning supervisors, managers, and staffs, as well as to planning consultants that work with them. It provides information for practitioners interested in the results of attempts to apply multimodal considerations at the statewide level and identifies key research findings. It covers post-ISTEA (Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991) processes and projects and both passenger and freight activities. The report examines the application of three multimodal aspects: alternatives, modal mix, and integration into three statewide planning functions, which include state planning, corridor studies, and financing, budgeting, and programming. The emphasis is on implementation. This report of the Transportation Research Board documents processes and research currently under development, using three approaches: a literature review, results of a survey of state DOTs, and five case studies. It cites the following states with exemplary practices in multimodal/intermodal transportation based on a 1998 report by the policy research project at the University of Texas on Multimodal/ Intermodal Transportation: Florida, Minnesota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.