A GTFS-Based Dataset for the US Intercity Bus Network

Research Notes: Design for MobilityIntercity Bus Terminals in the Puget Sound Region Jeffrey Karl Ochsner (bio) and David A. Rash (bio) Intercity buses were significant in transportation networks serving American cities and towns during much of the twentieth century. Bus terminals were once an important building type, an element of the vernacular urban landscape. In the twentieth century, intercity buses offered a new form of mobility, and bus terminals showed how this new technology was manifested in place, both architecturally and urbanistically. American architectural journals occasionally published designs for bus terminals along with other types of transportation facilities.1 Yet surprisingly little scholarship has been published about this building type.2 Part of the reason for the lack of attention is that bus companies only occasionally employed leading architects and built facilities that were recognized for design achievement.3 In recent years, evidence of this part of American urban and architectural history has begun to disappear, making the story of bus terminals more difficult to uncover. Daniel Bluestone notes the buildings historians choose to analyze are often the ones that are preserved. In turn, buildings by their presence, or absence, are often included in, or omitted from, the histories that scholars choose to address.4 The investigation of a building type will draw attention to it, but the absence of examples may make its detailed study unachievable. With the increasing demolition of bus terminals, it becomes harder to understand their forms and contributions to the urban landscape. This essay begins to fill this gap by exploring this building type as it developed in the Puget Sound region. In the early twentieth century, entrepreneurs established independent bus companies in markets that were not well served by steam railroads and electric interurban lines. Early bus companies were most competitive in areas of the United States that grew rapidly in the first decades of the twentieth century—places where rail networks were relatively incomplete, including parts of Minnesota, Texas, California, and the Pacific Northwest.5 Because the Puget Sound region was one of the places where bus transportation developed rapidly, examining bus stations here offers an opportunity to discuss the development of bus terminals over more than half a century while also suggesting some ways in which the changing fortunes of bus companies shaped the form, style, and location of bus terminals (Figure 1). We hope this regional study presents a typology that may support additional examinations of these understudied buildings nationally. Buildings for Intercity Bus Transportation: Program and Design Intercity bus transportation in the United States began with many small operators. Unlike conventional railroads or electric interurbans, bus companies did not need to invest significantly in costly infrastructure, because the construction and improvement of roads were understood as a public or governmental responsibility.6 The first federal aid to highways legislation was enacted in 1916, and state and local governments also approved funding for roads and highways. By the late 1910s, improvements allowed for the initiation of the intercity trucking and bus industries. [End Page 67] Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. Advertisement on opening of Central Stage Terminal, Seattle, Washington, 1927. This map shows the extensive intercity bus route network that linked western Washington State. From Seattle Times, September 10, 1927. [End Page 68] Early bus lines typically provided service between major cities and nearby towns and villages. The industry grew rapidly, and by the mid- to late 1920s, bus lines linked most major cities. The threshold for entry into the market for intercity bus service was low, as capital investment was restricted to the costs of buses (called "stages" in the early years) plus limited passenger and maintenance facilities. Unlike both conventional railroads and interurban electric lines, bus operators could easily change their routes, and this flexibility initially allowed bus companies to respond quickly to competition and to expand service to towns and villages not well served by rail.7 The 1920s witnessed significant growth of intercity bus transport, especially as interurban electric railway ridership began to decline after 1919.8 Although most early bus companies served local or regional markets and remained small, some companies began to offer long-distance service through agreements with other...

The analysis contained in this report is taken from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics' Transportation Statistics Annual Report. Data includes: extent of the U.S. transportation system, recent trends, bridge condition by age group, moving people and moving goods, system performance, percent of congestion by time of day, billion-dollar weather and climate disasters, transportation economics, fatalities, energy use and environmental impacts, and the state of transportation statistics.

As required by the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991, a percentage of each state's public transportation funds must be spent on intercity bus transportation development and support, unless the governor certifies intercity bus needs are being adequately met. A study was initiated to produce data necessary to define the current state of the intercity bus industry in Texas. To accomplish this objective, surveys were developed and distributed to the general population, bus riders, and bus companies in the state. A review of cities currently being served by the intercity bus industry was also made. General-population respondents indicated that they would be more likely to ride a bus if there were more express bus service, better station locations, and higher air and train fares. Bus riders indicated they would ride more often if there were improved security measures at stations and on buses, more leg room, more comfortable seats, adherence to schedules, and lower bus fares. Government-owned multimodal transportation facilities, operating subsidies for rural routes, and billboards and signs for advertising intercity service were suggested by bus companies as ways to aid the industry. The review of cities currently served by the intercity bus industry revealed that only 21 Texas cities with populations over 5,000 were further than 16.1 km (10 mi) from intercity bus service, and that most of these cities had access to transit service to an intercity bus stop.

As required by the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991, a percentage of each state's public transportation funds must be spent on intercity bus transportation development and support, unless the governor certifies intercity bus needs are being adequately met. A study was initiated to produce data necessary to define the current state of the intercity bus industry in Texas. To accomplish this objective, surveys were developed and distributed to the general population, bus riders, and bus companies in the state. A review of cities currently being served by the intercity bus industry was also made. General-population respondents indicated that they would be more likely to ride a bus if there were more express bus service, better station locations, and higher air and train fares. Bus riders indicated they would ride more often if there were improved security measures at stations and on buses, more leg room, more comfortable seats, adherence to schedules, and lower bus fares. Government-owned multimodal transportation facilities, operating subsidies for rural routes, and billboards and signs for advertising intercity service were suggested by bus companies as ways to aid the industry. The review of cities currently served by the intercity bus industry revealed that only 21 Texas cities with populations over 5,000 were further than 16.1 km (10 mi) from intercity bus service, and that most of these cities had access to transit service to an intercity bus stop.

The SafeOCS 2016 Annual Report, produced by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), summarizes blowout prevention (BOP) equipment failures on marine drilling rigs in the Outer Continental Shelf. It includes an analysis of equipment component failures and other key information such as failure causes, operational impacts, and opportunities to improve data quality. The report is based on information collected through SafeOCS, a data program initiated in response to recommendations by the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. The commission recommended that the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) develop requirements to collect more accurate data on leading indicators of potential risk to all offshore activities. BTS, a principal federal statistical agency, entered an interagency agreement with BSEE in 2016 to operate the SafeOCS program. BTS began collecting notifications of equipment component failures as required by BSEE's Well Control Rule, which went into effect July 28, 2016. All SafeOCS data are collected under the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act of 2002 and protected from legal discovery and FOIA. The data are precursor safety information, and none of the events were associated with loss of well containment, adverse environmental impact, or negative effect on personnel safety. To review the notifications, BTS retained subject matter experts in drilling operations, equipment testing, equipment design and manufacturing, root cause failure analysis, quality assurance and control, and process design. BTS also consulted with an external technical review team including representatives of the International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC), contractors, and operators.

With the increment of transport demands, new construction and improvement of roads are being progressed. At the same time, traffics have been increased in periods of the rapid economic growth since 1962 in Korea. With the increment of automobiles, regional connection by the flow of automobiles is recognized as important research theme. Inter-city bus service as public transportation is the important means of passenger transport to serve for short and middle distance in Korea.As regional characteristics are clarified by passenger transport business of inter-city bus, it is very important for us to explain the regional structure by the progression of transport industry.Through this study, I attempt to clarify spatial patterns of the development of service network and competition among inter-city bus firms in Chungchong buk-do.I used the data of Inter-city Bus Service published by the Ministry of Transportation and the data of the Lists of membership published by the Association of National Bus Transportation Business in 1990. The number of firm in this study is 6 in Chungchong buk-do and 32 in other provinces.The analysis runs as follows: (1) Bus service network of inter-city bus was analysed to classify intra-province service and inter-province service. (2) The comparison with an inter-city bus and a cross-country bus of Chungchong buk-do and those of the others was analysed to understand the competition of route networks.The results are as follows:1. Route networks of intra-province bus service are concentrately established between Chongju (the largest city and the seat of provincial government in Chungchong buk-do) and Chongju (secondary city). Service network between Poun and Okchon county, between Poun and Youngdong county is established by intra-county bus in southern Chungchong buk-do, because service route network by inter-city bus is nearly not established in southern Chungchong buk-do.2. Service network by inter-city bus between Chungchong buk-do and other provinces largely means that the extension of intra-province route to major city and town of contiguous provinces. And the extension of service route toward Chungchong buk-do by the bus firms of other provinces is based on the alienation among firms. And each firm has the vested rights with the relationship to service route in the time acquisition of permission and license in given route.3. In Chungchong buk-do, the competition among buk firms between Chongju and Chungju is embarked by bus firms in Chungchong buk-do. And in southern Chungchong buk-do, the competition of bus routes appeared between bus firms of Chungchong nam-do (southern province) and Chungchong buk-do, and in northern Chungchong buk-do, the competition of bus routes appeared among Kyunggi do, Kyungsang buk-do and Chungchong buk-do. These phenomena are based on following reasons i) the geographical site of Chungchong buk-do, ii) route extension of cross-country bus firm of Kyunggi do which has many passengers demand, iii) neighboring Taejeon, and iv) decreasing population in Chungchong buk-do.

A total of 3,378 bike-share stations operate in 104 U.S cities. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics’ (BTS’) Intermodal Passenger Connectivity Database (IPCD) provides the locations of U.S. bike-share stations and their connectivity levels to scheduled public passenger transportation modes. Of the 3,378 bike-share stations, 77.0 percent (2,600) connect to another scheduled public transportation mode within 1 block. These connections extend the transportation network by offering a means for reaching places with scheduled public transportation and a means for reaching destinations not served by scheduled public transportation. Transit bus is the most typical connection, with 74.9 percent (2531) of bike-share stations located a block or less from a transit bus stop. This document also looks at bike-share stations' connectivity to commuter rail, heavy rail, light rail, and transit ferry.

In 2007 the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), the statistical agency of the U.S. Department of Transportation, published a report entitled: Transportation Services Index and the Economy, on the relationship of the freight portion of the Transportation Services Index (TSI) to the growth cycles in the U.S. economy. Since that time, BTS has reengineered the TSI to improve processing of the monthly data and to improve the methodology and data sources used in the calculation of the index. This report provides details on the updated methodology and data, along with the resultant changes in the turning points of the TSI due to these improvements. The TSI is the broadest monthly measure of U.S. domestic transportation services and, as such, provides the best snapshot available of the current state of these services. As an index, the TSI reflects real monthly changes in freight and passenger services in the United States. The TSI consists of three component indexes: a freight index, a passenger index, and a combined (or total) index. Figure 1 shows the freight and passenger indexes as recently displayed on the BTS website. After development of the TSI, it became clear that the index moved in conjunction with other indicators of the national economy. Cycles of various kinds, depths, and durations occur frequently in the U.S. economy. Of these, the business cycles of recession and expansion and the growth cycles are of particular interest to economists. The TSI, as presently published on the BTS website, spans the time period from 2000 to the present and covers two recessions. Extending the TSI back to 1979 allows coverage of five recessions and numerous growth cycles. By comparing the turning points in the extended TSI with other economic data series, it is possible to ascertain whether and how transportation services relate to movement in the overall economy. The freight component of the TSI, which encompasses five modes of transportation, shows a strong leading relationship to the economy. When the accelerations and decelerations of the freight TSI (the turning points in the detrended series) are compared to the growth cycles of the economy, the freight measure leads by an average of approximately 4 months. The passenger TSI exhibits fewer turning points, which were then identified as leading the business cycles of recession and expansion, also by approximately 4 months.

The Michigan Department of Transportation (DOT) supports a state-wide network of intercity bus services, including five routes operated under the FTA Section 5311 (f) program. To assist with planning activities for the state's intercity bus network, the Michigan DOT conducted an onboard survey of intercity bus passengers in the state in spring 2011. The Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) was retained to analyze the 533 surveys obtained from this effort. This paper presents the results of the TTI analysis of the Michigan DOT spring 2011 intercity bus surveys. The survey results showed that three-quarters of the intercity bus passengers were from urban areas and the remaining one-quarter were from rural areas. Most passengers were traveling for personal reasons such as visits to family or friends or vacation. One-third of the surveyed passengers were from zero-vehicle households. If the bus service were not available, 59% of the passengers would drive, 19% would use an airplane, and 22% would not make the trip. Of zero-vehicle households, 31% of passengers would not make the trip; this result indicated a key role for the intercity bus service in supporting personal mobility. Other demographic groups that benefitted from the service included females and persons with annual household income less than $20,000; both groups had a higher propensity not to make the trip in the absence of the bus service. The findings from the survey suggested that the Michigan intercity bus network was a critical transportation option for residents and visitors in the state and that bus passenger onboard surveys provided valuable information to support planning efforts.

The paper complied and structured data to construct a correlation model. The reasons for flight delays and cancellations between 2009 from 2019 are examined, based on the statistical electronic source "Bureau of Transportation Statistics". The normalized data are calculated from the primary data. Based on the data collected, a primary histogram was constructed (outliers were not checked). In addition, significant and weak influencing factors have been identified for the constructing of a correlation table, this table helps to identify an additional factor influencing a flight delay or cancellation. Based on the data from the table, a new histogram was built and a correlation table was constructed, allowing regression analysis to be started. At the beginning of the regression analysis, regression statistics are used and an analysis of variance is performed, then the regression analysis is performed directly and the results of the regression are summed up. Based on the summed-up results, a histogram was built, which takes into account all the statistics and calculations, showing the predicted number of delays or cancellations of flights and their actual number.

In the Mexican Transportation Institute, multiproduct truck traffic assignment models have been developed over the past 15 years to assess improvements to the infrastructure and the transborder transport services between Mexico and the United States. A basic input of those models is the multiproduct (by product type) origin–destination (O-D) matrix. A better prediction of flows from the assignment models is obtained if the O-D matrix input contains the flows from the origin states in Mexico, toward the border crossings, and from these to the destination states in the United States for the Mexican exports and vice versa for the Mexican imports. To obtain this matrix, the information of transborder crossings of the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) is combined with O-D information that has been gathered in Mexico for more than 15 years from field stations installed in different places of the Federal Road Network. A two-step procedure is used to combine the two previous sources (a) to escalate the Mexican flows so that what arrives at each border site (Mexican information) equals what leaves that border site toward each state of the United States (BTS Database 11) and (b) to use a gravitational procedure to distribute what arrives at the border sites for a certain product type (Mexican information) in what arrives at each state of the United States of that product type (BTS Database 9). A similar methodology has been applied for the imports from the United States.

The intercity bus sector in the United States (US) has experienced a dramatic recovery in recent years due to the expansion of new curbside operators—express operators linking major cities that do not use traditional stations. Curbside operators such as BoltBus, DC2NY Bus, and Megabus are infusing new life into this once-struggling sector, particularly in the Midwest and Northeast. This study explores two aspects of the changing role of the intercity bus. First, it evaluates the extent to which intercity bus service diminished after 1960 and its subsequent recovery starting in 2006. Drawing on newly collected data from 11,400 arrivals and departures from a representative sample of US cities between 1960 and 2010, it shows that US cities lost more than three quarters of their intercity bus services before the recovery began. Secondly, it shows how recent growth of curbside-bus operators is reducing fuel consumption by about 11 million gallons annually and reducing carbon emissions by an estimated 242 million pounds. This is the equivalent benefit of removing 23,114 vehicles from the road or having 66,041 people convert from conventional to hybrid cars. These findings suggest that the sector's recovery has significant and perhaps underappreciated environmental benefits. It also suggests that further expansion by the sector, nurtured by public policy, could be an effective strategy to promote more energy-efficient intercity travel.

The effectiveness and efficiency of transportation relies heavily on sound information. In response to the growing information gap, the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) resurrected several key data-collection programs, created the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), and required BTS to identify information needs on an ongoing basis. This report summarizes key transportation information needs based on the Bureau's experience in responding to requests for statistics from decision makers, and on surveys, research, and conferences that BTS has held or co-sponsored with other organizations. The reauthorization of ISTEA provides an opportunity to reinforce the usefulness of the benchmark data programs established in 1991, expand those programs where warranted to address emerging critical issues, develop approaches for less burdensome data collection, and renew efforts to enhance the organization and sharing of information through the National Transportation Library. These elements, which are contained in the Administration's surface transportation reauthorization bill, are discussed in the Strategic Responses section of this report.

Exploration of Designing Short-Range High-Capacity Aircraft

Intercity Bus Service Funding and Assessment Methodology