Florida Transit Research Articles

Toolkit for the Assessment of Safety at Bus Stops

Safety at bus stops is a major concern of transit agencies. This research aimed to develop a data-driven method for estimating bus stop safety scores that will assist transit agencies in ranking and prioritizing bus stops for improvement considerations. This study presents a bus stop scoring methodology that uses a data-driven approach based on multiple data sources. The methodology was developed using six criteria: bus stop characteristics inventory, roadway characteristics inventory (RCI), land use and demographics, pedestrian crash frequency, annual average daily traffic, and annual ridership. Crash data were collected from SignalFour Analytics, and roadway characteristics data were retrieved from the Florida Department of Transportation RCI database. The Florida Geographic Data Library was used for retrieving census and land use data, while the Florida Transit Information System was employed to extract information on transit stops. A data-driven method was used to develop a priority list for improvements among the selected bus stops. The methodology was implemented in a case study including three transit agencies: Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority, Jacksonville Transportation Authority, and Miami-Dade Transit. A bus stop priority list was generated for each agency, with the highest-ranking bus stop location having the greatest need for safety improvements. Based on the analysis, safety measures that could improve safety at the highest-ranking bus stop locations include: installing a shelter, installing pedestrian safety features, conducting pedestrian safety outreach programs, and/or conducting further site investigation.

More money, fewer lives: the cost effectiveness of welfare reform in the United States.

We evaluated the economic benefits of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) relative to the previous program, Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). We used pooled mortality hazard ratios from 2 randomized controlled trials-Connecticut Jobs First and the Florida Transition Program, which had follow-up from the early and mid-1990s through December 2011-and previous estimates of health and economic benefits of TANF and AFDC. We entered them into a Markov model to evaluate TANF's economic benefits relative to AFDC and weigh them against the potential health threats of TANF. Over the working life of the average cash assistance recipient, AFDC would cost approximately $28000 more than TANF from the societal perspective. However, it would also bring 0.44 additional years of life. The incremental cost effectiveness of AFDC would be approximately $64000 per life-year saved relative to TANF. AFDC may provide more value as a health investment than TANF. Additional attention given to the neediest US families denied cash assistance could improve the value of TANF.

Carbon Footprints for Public Transportation Agencies in Florida

Under sponsorship of the Florida Department of Transportation, a study was conducted to measure the carbon footprint for Florida's public transit agencies. The state's 31 public transportation agencies were contacted to obtain data. With the Climate Registry's general reporting protocol (GRP), the research team calculated emissions on the basis of the provided data. The research team found that carbon dioxide emissions from revenue vehicles accounted for 82.5% of a typical agency's emissions (86.5% if weighted by footprint size). The balance of the footprint included trace emissions from vehicle operations; emissions from purchased electricity; emissions from operating nonrevenue vehicles; emissions from fuel used to heat, operate, and maintain facilities; and refrigerants lost from vehicle and building air-conditioning systems. Refrigerant losses accounted for about 5% of a typical agency's footprint. Data on losses were the most difficult to collect. The collected data were estimated to account for 75% to 80% of the total carbon footprint of Florida's transit agencies, and the data total footprint accounted for less than 1% of the state's surface transportation carbon footprint. This research also examined how Florida's transit agencies could help reduce the state's transportation carbon footprint by providing service that encourages people to ride public transportation instead of driving. The study also provides lessons for conducting similar inventories elsewhere, including data collection, constraints on agencies' abilities to provide data on a voluntary basis, some limitations of the GRP, and possibilities for simplifying the process in some circumstances.

Ridership Accuracy and Transit Formula Grants

The accuracy of annual unlinked passenger trips reported to the National Transit Database (NTD) at the agency level is examined by using a two-step approach. The first step compares ridership reported to the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) with ridership reported to NTD. NTD ridership can be as high as 50% more than APTA ridership, and such significant positive deviation exists persistently over time across many agencies. The second step explores potential sources of these deviations by examining their components. Random errors, including both sampling errors and some of the nonsampling errors, do not help explain these one-sided deviations, nor do occasional annual adjustments, such as special-events ridership in the NTD ridership. Much of this deviation appears to be attributable to systematic nonsampling sources that result from undercounting in direct counts, from unintentional biases in procedures, or perhaps from intentional manipulation. Although mechanisms and incentives exist for these sources, there is little evidence for any one specific source. How systematic errors could affect the allocation of two formula grants to Florida transit agencies—the Urbanized Area Formula Grant Program and Florida's Transit Block Grant Program—is quantitatively examined. A strategy for reducing systematic errors is also discussed.

Analysis of Florida Transit Bus Crashes

Through its National Center for Transit Research, and under contract with the Florida Department of Transportation, the Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) was tasked with reviewing a sample of data on transit bus crash occurrence from selected Florida transit systems. The purpose of this review is to analyze changes in crash occurrence over time in relation to the effectiveness of training programs and capital safety improvements in reducing bus crashes. To this end, CUTR conducted two case studies utilizing occurrence data from Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority in Tampa (which implemented a refresher training course for bus operators) and LYNX Transit in Orlando (which replaced standard rear-end brake lights and turn signal and emergency flasher lights with high-density LED lights). The case studies examined the effect that these two particular safety campaigns had on postimple-mentation bus crash occurrence for the two properties. In addition to the promotion of safety, it is anticipated that this effort will be a preliminary step in the process of establishing a general list of safety campaigns, along with related costs and “rule of thumb” occurrence prevention effectiveness levels for each. A list of this nature will aid transit systems in Florida, the United States, and elsewhere in the selection of safety campaigns that will meet financial and safety goals.