Transit Authority Research Articles

Assimilation of the Anglo-Saxon System of Education in the Conflicted Ambazonia: Delinking from Colonial Language Ideologies

Education is a mind builder and should be taken as a matter of importance in any nation. Following this, the curriculum designer is responsible for building learners’ minds. Seen through this lens, this theoretical article intends to project the importance of community schools in conflict-stricken Ambazonia against the backdrop of the French curriculum. Education guidelines are addressed with reference to language planning, policy, and implementation. Additionally, the paper seeks to explain the current situation in Ambazonia and make arguments regarding the community schools’ guidelines that aspire for multilingualism, where indigenous languages are taken seriously in teaching and learning. Another point discussed is the transitional authority (Ambazonia Transitional Authority), which was put in place to deal with implementing education guidelines and administrative issues. The paper concludes with the argument that what we think must be transformed into what we do and be shown by what we have done.

EXPLORING STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVED COORDINATION AND INNOVATION IN TRANSPORTATION FOR OLDER PEOPLE

Abstract Communities across the nation have outgrown their capacities to meet the transportation needs of older people. While a struggle in the past, for many communities it now is a crisis given an increase in older people with impairments in critical driving skills that lead to driving cessation and/or limitations that preclude them from successfully navigating public transit. It is time for new strategies and innovations to meet these growing challenges. Jansen will describe a pilot study of a regional transit authority’s use of customized software with four Councils on Aging to increase riders’ trips and destinations, improve efficiencies in reporting and dispatching, and increase shared rides across the communities. Gleason will present results of a qualitative study of paratransit managers across the U.S. and their attempts to innovate and adapt to evolving market expectations spurred on by the emergence of transportation network companies (TNC) like Uber and Lyft. Schwartz describes a mixed-methods study of Project TRIP, a rural transportation program designed to increase access to healthcare and other locations for low income and vulnerable populations in rural eastern North Carolina. Lynott introduces AARPs RideSheet, an open-source ride scheduling software application designed for small, demand-responsive transportation providers that incorporates a transactional data specification (TDS) enabling two or more providers to interoperate more efficiently, improving service for their clients. Bayne concludes as discussant bringing in her own work with the CDC on barriers and facilitators to ride sharing and reflecting on the themes presented. Transportation and Aging and Qualitative Research IGs collaboration.

ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN COVID-19 VACCINE HESITANCY AND SOCIOSPATIAL FACTORS IN NYC TRANSIT WORKERS 50 YEARS AND OLDER

Abstract This analysis aimed to investigate how age, race/ethnicity, and geographical location contributed to vaccine hesitancy in a sample of New York City (NYC) Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) workers. Transport Workers Union, Local 100 members completed online surveys in August 2020 about their COVID-19 history, workplace protections and policies, fear of COVID-19 exposure, vaccination attitudes, and sociodemographic and health characteristics. We conducted univariate and bivariate analyses, followed by multivariate logistic regression, to determine the association between respondent age (younger than 50 vs. 50+) and vaccine hesitancy (willing vs. unwilling/unsure). We also produced spatial visualizations to examine these factors by participants’ zip codes. Of 645 respondents, 59% were 50 years or older, 53% were non-White, and 71% expressed vaccine hesitancy. MTA workers ages 50+ were 46% less likely to be vaccine hesitant than their younger counterparts (OR 0.64; 95% CI 0.42, 0.97). Compared to Whites, non-Whites (OR 3.95; 95% 2.44, 6.39) and those who did not report their race (OR 3.10; 95% CI 1.87, 5.12) were significantly more likely to be vaccine hesitant. Those who were not concerned about contracting COVID-19 in the community had 1.83 greater odds (95% CI 1.12, 2.98) of being vaccine hesitant than those who were concerned. Spatial visualizations revealed that the oldest respondents tended to reside in Queens. Zip codes with high vaccine hesitancy were clustered in Brooklyn, where non-White respondents tended to reside. The trends observed in COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy based on race and age persist in a population of high risk, non-healthcare essential workers.

Driver Assisted Lane Keeping with Conflict Management Using Robust Sliding Mode Controller

Lane-keeping assistance design for road vehicles is a multi-objective design problem that needs to simultaneously maintain lane tracking, ensure driver comfort, provide vehicle stability, and minimize conflict between the driver and the autonomous controller. In this work, a cooperative control strategy is proposed for lane-keeping keeping by integrating driving monitoring, variable level of assistance allocation, and human-in-the-loop control. In the first stage, a time-varying physical driver loading pattern is identified based on a relationship between lateral acceleration, road curvature, and the measured maximum driver torque. Together with the monitored driver state that indicates driver mental loading, an adaptive driver activity function is then formulated that replicates the levels of assistance required for the driver in the next stage. To smoothly transition authority between various modes (from manual to autonomous and vice versa) based on the generated levels of assistance, a novel higher-order sliding mode controller is proposed and closed-loop stability is established. Further, a novel sharing parameter (which is proportional to the torques coming from the driver and from the autonomous controller) is used to minimize the conflict. Experimental results on the SHERPA high-fidelity vehicle simulator show the real-time implementation feasibility. Extensive experimental results provided on the Satory test track show improvement in cooperative driving quality by 9.4%, reduction in steering workload by 86.13%, and reduced conflict by 65.38% when compared with the existing design (no sharing parameter). These results on the cooperative performance highlight the significance of the proposed controller for various road transportation challenges.

BRIDGING SILOS: EVALUATION OF AN INNOVATIVE REGIONAL SENIOR TRANSPORTATION SERVICE

Abstract A pilot study was conducted for a regional transit authority (RTA) to evaluate the implementation of a customized software to increase ridership, trips, destinations and coordination of rides among four Councils on Aging (COA) using RTA vans to serve rural communities in north central Massachusetts. Baseline and follow up ride data were collected from each COA from Fall 2019 (N= 178 riders; N= 4,230 trips) and Fall 2021 (N= 131 riders; N= 2,020 trips) and from 59 stakeholder interviews with riders, drivers, dispatchers, and staff from the COAs, RTA, and software company. The evaluation found after 6 months that while the goals of the pilot were not yet achieved, due in part to external factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic and driver shortage, valuable lessons were learned including the importance of balancing provider goals of efficiency and reporting with rider needs of driver hands-on assistance and friendly scheduling support.

Passenger's perception about city buses in the aftermath of COVID 19: Experience from Guwahati city, India

The COVID-19 epidemic has affected public transport in various cities worldwide, including Guwahati city in India, where a 59.09% decline in the ridership of city bus services occurred in autumn 2021. The present work aims to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on travelers' perception and identify the parameters associated with the user's dissatisfaction for improving bus service in Guwahati city. In addition, the study also estimated the revenue loss of bus services due to this pandemic. This was carried out based on survey data from travelers in pre-covid (January 2019) situation, unlocked with 50% seating capacity (November 2020), and unlocked with 100% seat capacity plus some limited amount of standee (January 2021) situation. Results showed an increase in the number of users' priorities in post covid compared to pre covid conditions. Factors such as comfort, fairness, reliability & convenience, and safety are the priority areas of users' pre covid. Whereas bus service attribute such as vehicle condition & hygiene emerged as an additional priority of users post covid. Unfortunately, the bus service in the city performed poorly in terms of hygiene, leading to the shifting of the user to other modes of transport. The poor condition of the vehicles is another major factor that made the users to discard the bus service. This led to huge financial losses of the public transit authorities. The cost analysis result showed that the city bus operators faced a financial loss due to the COVID19 outbreak. The average wage of the drivers reduced from 780 Rs./day to 339 Rs./day in the first unlock phase and 476 Rs./day in the second unlock phase. The present study discusses the introduction of the new route in the city, regular cleaning, regular servicing of the buses, and other recommendations to improve the bus service in Guwahati city.

Geographic Access to Primary Healthcare Services among Latinos/as/x in Western Alabama.

Alabama's Latino/a/x population grew 278% from 2000 to 2018. Tuscaloosa County, located in the largely rural region of western Alabama, also experienced a significant influx of Latino/as/x during this time frame. Geographic healthcare access (GHA) to primary care and hospitals is crucial for immigrant Latino/as/x to care for their health, but few studies have characterized it. The goals of this article were to describe the availability (defined as number of provider locations) and accessibility (defined as travel impedance between potential patients and provider locations) of primary healthcare services and to discuss potential strategies to address these healthcare access challenges. We drew data from the US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, Blue Cross Blue Shield national doctor and hospital finder database, the Alabama Department of Public Health, and Tuscaloosa Transit Authority. We used geographic data, geographic information systems, and spatial analyses to characterize the availability and accessibility of primary care services and hospitals for Latinos/as/x in Tuscaloosa County using ESRI, ArcGIS 10.6.1. We showed the distribution of Latinos/as/x by census tract with choropleth mapping and mapped primary healthcare providers alongside public transit routes and hospital driving times to support our findings. This work demonstrated that Latinos/as/x in Tuscaloosa County were concentrated in more rural areas surrounding the county's city center, presenting significant barriers to GHA. These areas had fewer primary care providers and limited public transit. Many Latinos/as/x in this county had to travel ≥45 minutes to a hospital. Outreach and technology-based approaches, including home visit programs, mobile health units, and telemedicine, may be particularly important in bridging the GHA gaps for this and other largely rural populations the southeastern United States. Some of this potential was unlocked during the coronavirus disease 2019 crisis. These gains should be leveraged toward sustainable healthcare access initiatives for rural Latino/a/x populations.

Land Premium Effects of Urban Rail Transit and the Associated Policy Insights for TOD: A Case of Ningbo, China

With considerable investments, mainly from local government budgets, the construction and operation of urban rail transit (URT) can exert significant spillover effects on the surrounding land use and land prices. In particular, China’s local governments are actively committed to developing their URT systems and promoting large-scale transit-oriented development (TOD) projects under the public land leasing policy. However, the connection between the land premium effects and TOD policy and practice is still lacking, particularly in the local government contexts, which exhibit significant policy and spatial heterogeneity. Thus, this research represents an attempt to better address this issue using the city of Ningbo as a case study. First, the premium effects of URT on land prices are examined, after which three crucial policy insights (land value capture [LVC], public–private cooperation [PPC], and urban regeneration) are proposed to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of TOD, demonstrating its strong connection with the potential premium effects. The findings demonstrate that (1) local governments have adopted different innovative policies—with the ambition—to implement LVC; (2) assisted by PPC, the local rail transit authority can significantly amplify the premium effects, although it must still address the fair distribution of premiums across multiple stakeholders; and (3) transit-oriented urban regeneration can significantly influence land prices/land rents and subsequently generate significant gentrification, which will be further addressed by the TOD policy and practice.

Youth inclusion in peace processes: the case of the Bangsamoro transition authority in Mindanao, Philippines

ABSTRACT Drawing on the post-accord case of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) in the region of Muslim Mindanao, this research examines how far youth’s vertical integration in formal political institutions is influenced by both structural association and youth’s agential capacity. While association with the formal structural elements enables elite youth’s entry into the formal space, the latter’s agential capacity shapes the nature of that inclusion over the long-term. Positive intergenerational collaboration and interdependence between Moro elders and the Moro youth supports this process, although inclusion remains limited to only a minority of the youthful population. New empirical data collected through primary research with the elders and young Moro ministers in the BTA is used to demonstrate the workings of our argument around the importance of intergenerational collaboration and support from the elders, for a wider inclusion of young people’s skills and voices into post-conflict governance institutions.

Short report: An algorithm based on the Canadian survey on disability to propose paratransit eligibility of the Quebec's population

BackgroundParatransit is a mobility alternative provided to PWDs (people with disabilities) facing issues using the regular transit network. In Montreal (Canada), the demand for this type of service is growing due to population aging. Admissibility to paratransit services is based on various eligibility criteria. ObjectiveThe aim of this research is to estimate the share of people residing in Quebec which is eligible for paratransit services and to estimate the latent demand (number of eligible people) for the STM (Montreal transit authority) paratransit service. MethodsTo determine the share of people eligible for the paratransit services, a filter algorithm has been developed based on eligibility criteria of the Quebec Ministry of Transportation. This algorithm is used to filter the results of the 2017 CSD (Canadian Survey on Disability). The results are applied to the Montreal's population and compared with the current use of the STM paratransit service to estimate a latent eligible population. ResultsIn Quebec, 5% (296,130) of the population is considered eligible for paratransit services based on the filter algorithm. In Montreal, 1.7% (23,787) of people are STM paratransit users. This represents only 33% of the eligible population. So, the latent eligible population of the STM paratransit service amounts to more than 50,000 people. ConclusionMobility of PWDs has an important impact on social inclusion and access to opportunities. Therefore, it is essential to identify the eligible population and to understand why eligible people are not using the provided services.

Transit Customer Acceptance of Automated Fare Collection Systems

The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) inaugurated an Automated Fare Collection (AFC) system in Fall 1997. More than 1 million daily rides now utilize AFC to access CTA’s bus and rail service networks. While this represents about three-fourths of all CTA riders, many have stayed with cash or tokens (though the latter are now being phased out); monthly passes have been fully integrated with the farecard technology.This article provides a one-year perspective on customer reactions to, acceptance of, and problems with the new AFC system. It examines “before” and “after” shifts among the various fare media options available, and discusses major differences for bus and rail customers regarding ease of purchasing automated farecards and the resultant greater usage levels for rail as compared to bus. This article also reviews behavior in purchasing precoded, fixed-value farecards; buying variable-value farecards at automated vending machines (AVMs) located at rail stations; and recharging previously purchasedfarecards at those AVMs. Systemwide customer satisfaction surveys conducted in 1995 and 1997 found that satisfaction ratings, particularly among bus riders, significantly improved for several different fare-related service attributes. Transactions handled by rail station customer assistants, the CTA customer service hot line, and its AFC express unit desk, in dealing with customer questions/problems regarding the new AFC equipment, are also discussed. Typical weekday complaint levels related to AFC—especially those involving refund requests—are quite modest, but require sustained levels of courtesy and quick response.

Assessing Transit Station Area Redevelopment: A Case Study of the Lindbergh Station in Atlanta

This article assesses the land-use, demographic, circulation, and economic development attributes of transit station area development. Findings from this assessment are applied to the Lindbergh Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) Station area in Atlanta, Georgia, for which a private-public partnership is currently being negotiated. Recommendations for the redevelopment of the Lindbergh Station area are provided, including a schematic design that integrates those recommendations. The resulting recommendations are intended to maximize the likelihood for transit ridership and economic benefit while offsetting traffic congestion and vehicle emissions—in keeping with the objectives of the Federal Transit Administration’s Livable Communities Initiative. A safe and inviting walking environment throughout a station area—extending well beyond the area of physical redevelopment itself—is fundamental to achieving these objectives. Existing barrier effects and lack of pedestrian connectivity associated with major transportation corridors within the Lindbergh Station area will significantly offset transportation and environmental benefits on which public investment in the redevelopment is predicated. Solutions are required that provide not only safer street crossings, but a larger proportion of rights-of-way devoted to pedestrian movement and the development of a “street life. “ Priority should be given to pedestrian improvements that increase access to transit for traditionally underserved populations. Finally, open space is required to effectively compete with other more auto-dependent areas and to draw higher income populations to transit station areas.

Transit Stations and Commercial Property Values: A Case Study with Policy and Land-Use Implications

There is little research about the association between rail transit station proximity and commercial property values. There is even less research on the role of public policy in influencing commercial property markets near transit stations without resorting to supply-side constraints. The research reported in this article helps close these gaps in research.This article develops a theory on commercial property value with respect to both transit station proximity and the role of policies that encourage commercial development around transit stations without discouraging commercial development elsewhere. The theory is applied to the universe of commercial property sales in the area of Atlanta known as “Midtown, “ which is located about 1 kilometer north of the downtown edge. Midtown is served by three heavy rail transit stations operated by the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA). To encourage development around MARTA stations, Atlanta waives parking and floor area ratio requirements in Special Public Interest Districts (SPIDs) located around rail stations. Research shows that commercial property values are influenced positively by both access to rail stations and policies that encourage more intensive development around those stations. This article explores both theoretical and policy implications.

The Characteristics of Shopping Trips by Bus Transit

This paper presents a summary of the findings of a one-year research project that was sponsored by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and conducted on the characteristics of shopping trips using bus transit. The study involved the collection of extensive amounts of data on shopping trips and on the shoppers themselves in a large sampling area in California. It describes the integrated environment a shopper faces starting from his or her home and ending at the entrance of a mall. This includes analyzing the distances from home to bus stops, travel time on the bus, frequency of transfers, and the walking environment from bus stops to mall entrances. Also characterized are the distributions of shoppers and bus users on the basis of gender and age and the implications of these distributions in regard to what should be improved in bus service. Several other attributes of shoppers and shopping trips were collected, analyzed, and included in the recommendations. A total of 45 malls, 22 transit authorities and more than 1,000 shoppers were surveyed through relatively lengthy questionnaires for their opinions and for data on a wide range of issues. The most important finding of this work is that no organized or significant efforts exist between mall operators and transit authorities, to continuously monitor and improve shopping by bus, especially in regard to the location of bus stops around malls and the safety and convenience of the walking environment for a shopper who uses the bus and walks to and from the mall entrance.

Influence of the Rail Program on Bus Transit in Los Angeles

In November 1980, voters in Los Angeles County, California, approved Proposition A, which stipulated a one-time, three-year rollback of bus fares to 50¢. Afterwards, at least 35 percent of the revenues had to be used for rail construction and operation (with a stated emphasis on construction). The program moved forward as called for, and by the early 1990s the Blue Line to Long Beach was in operation. The subway and an additional light rail line would both open by 1995.In the early 1990s, however, opponents of rail began a campaign to discredit the program using premature, distorted, and sometimes simply false information about rail s effectiveness. Embarrassed by construction problems and confused by internal issues, the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) found it difficult to defend the new rail system. In 1994, a suit was filed by the Bus Riders Union, a small group of bus riders. In 1996, even though most of the basic assertions of the suit were proven to have been either premature or false, the MTA agreed to a settlement it is now trying to live up to.In truth, the MTA fully supported the bus system well after falling ridership would have called for service cutbacks. The number of buses in service stayed high, the bus-miles of service dropped far less than ridership, and the number of empty bus seats actually rose. The bus system lacked for neither operating funds nor subsidies. Even the average fare paid by the transit user (in constant 1999 dollars) changed very little since the early 1980s. Whatever the reasons for the slide in bus ridership, the rail system cannot be blamed.The new rail system continues to grow in importance. Less than 10 years after the Blue Line was inaugurated, the two light rail lines, the still incomplete subway, and the Los Angeles portion of the regional Metrolink commuter rail system together carry 11 percent of all MTA transit riders and 22 percent of its passenger-miles. Rail is also proving to be faster than the bus option even including a bus-to-rail transfer. And rail‘s operating cost effectiveness, already better than that of the bus, keeps improving.

Design and Development of a Bus Stop Inventory to Support an Intelligent Transportation System: The MARTA Experience

Bus stops are a critical element in any transit system. The advent of Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) technologies in the area of transit has developed a need for transit agencies to keep an up-to-date inventory of bus stop data. Unfortunately, most transit agencies do not have a bus stop inventory that can adequately support Advanced Public Transportation System (APTS) applications, and many other transit agencies do not have an inventory at all. The design, development, and maintenance of a bus stop inventory that will support an array of available APTS applications is described in this paper. Procedures used in the development of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority bus stop inventory are highlighted. The lessons learned from MARTA’s experience should be valuable to other transit agencies that are planning to or are in the process of implementing an APTS.

Transit Itinerary Calculation on the Web: Based on a Transit User Information System

Transit path calculation is not yet widely available on transit authority websites. This is because the calculation of complete transit itineraries requires the integration of underlying components such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and operational database and, unlike a simple road application, involves a complex transportation network. In this article, a hybrid algorithm based on heuristics and optimization is presented for the calculation of urban transit itineraries including information on pedestrian access and egress paths, route sequences, schedules, and stops. The use of the Transit User Information System (TUIS) to support the calculations is emphasized. The TUIS uses the Totally Disaggregate Approach (TDA) and Transportation Object-Oriented Modeling (TOOM) in transportation to gather data on territory (for origin and destination specifications and for the pedestrian network) and transit operation (route geometry, schedules). Websites that have been implemented are referenced to demonstrate the applicability of the hybrid algorithm. These websites make use of some special techniques for disseminating user information over the Internet.

A Novel Transit Rider Satisfaction Metric: Rider Sentiments Measured from Online Social Media Data

The goal of this paper is to demonstrate the use of an innovative social media-based data source, Twitter, to evaluate transit rider satisfaction. Transit authorities have access to vast amounts of performance metrics that measure ridership, timeliness, efficiency, safety, cleanliness, and service, to name a few. These performance metrics, however, are generally one-sided; they represent the interests of the business and are not customer-based. This paper recognizes the limitations of standard performance metrics and attempts to gauge transit rider sentiments by measuring Twitter feeds. Sentiment analysis is used to classify a population of rider sentiments over a period of time. Conclusions are drawn from totals of positive and negative sentiments, normalized average sentiments, and the total number of Tweets collected over a time period.

Evaluating and Enhancing the Operational Performance of Public Bus Systems Using GIS-based Data Envelopment Analysis

In this paper, the baseline performance level of Al Ain Public Bus Service is evaluated using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) based on some selected input (travel time per round trip, total number of stops, total number of operators, total number of buses) and output (daily ridership and vehicle-kilometer) variables. Two types of scenarios were developed and tested. The first set of scenarios aimed at investigating the possibility of reducing the operating cost while maintaining the same performance levels (efficiency and effectiveness) for the routes. The second set of scenarios was used to demonstrate how the baseline performance levels can be improved by slightly altering the route alignment (and subsequently input and output variables). Sensitivity analysis was then conducted to measure the efficiency and effectiveness of each route. Conclusions on how the transit authority can reduce daily operating hours while maintaining the existing performance level are made. Also, suggestions are presented on how to improve the overall performance level of the bus service by changing some route characteristics.

Determinants of Bicycle-On-Bus Boardings: A Case Study of the Greater Cleveland RTA

Transit agencies around the country have made significant investments since the late 1990s to provide improved service to cyclist-transit users (CTUs), that is, transit riders who bring bicycles with them by using bicycle racks installed on buses. Use of these bus bicycle racks appears to vary significantly from transit system to transit system. It is unclear, however, what specific factors contribute most to bicycle-on-bus boardings (BoBBs). Using multi-variate regression analysis and a detailed data set of 2008–2011 BoBBs for Northeast Ohio’s Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA), this study compared daily BoBBs to general ridership (measured by unlinked passenger trips) in light of key weather, transit service, and travel cost variables. Rates of BoBBs rose during the study’s time period and were strongly associated with weather conditions, though even in wet and cold weather, dozens of transit users traveled with their bicycles. To a lesser extent, BoBBs are also associated with transit service levels and travel costs.