Transportation Management Associations Research Articles

Transportation Management Associations: A Reappraisal

This article reviews the results of eight national transportation management association (TMA) surveys conducted between 1989 and 2003 using meta-analytical techniques. TMAs became popular as vehicles for dealing with traffic congestion and related problems in the late 1980s. Despite their initial popularity, however, many TMAs struggled in the 1990s, and by 2002 almost half of all TMAs formed in previous years had disappeared. Median TMA annual budgets bottomed out in 1991, but have since rebounded to a new high in 2003. TMAs today are more diverse in terms of organizational structure, offer a wider variety of products and services, and have better financial security. With higher gasoline prices and a heightened awareness of the security issues related to foreign oil dependence, the market for TMA programs and services seems likely to grow, if perhaps at a modest pace, during the foreseeable future.

Employer Perceptions and Implementation of Commute Alternatives Strategies

Employer-based trip reduction (EBTR) strategies are the transportation demand management elements of commute options programs that target commute travel. This article reports the results of two surveys conducted in the Atlanta metropolitan area of implementation of EBTR strategies and employer perceptions of associated costs and benefits. On average, less than a quarter of the employers surveyed utilized EBTR strategies. Survey results indicate that employers commonly perceive that EBTR strategies provide minimal benefits for the company, that employers believe their employees lack interest in such measures, and that upper management does not provide support. Employers regard the distance between work location and transit as a significant barrier to implementing EBTR programs, and onsite sale of transit passes is associated with cost, equity, and operational concerns. However, members of transportation management associations and Atlanta’s Clean Air Campaign report higher levels of implementation.

Replicable Methodology for Transportation Agencies to Identify Priority Areas for First and Last Mile Solutions at the Regional Level

First and last mile (FLM) solutions that enhance connections to fixed-route transit offer multifaceted benefits, yet relatively few transportation agencies have developed comprehensive regional strategies or plans to support implementation. There is a lack of guidance and replicable methodologies that transportation agencies can use to conduct regional spatial analysis or screening for priority areas to invest in FLM solutions at a regional scale. This paper presents a replicable, step-by-step methodology and accompanying visual aids for metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), transportation management associations (TMAs), and transit agencies to identify priority areas for investment in FLM solutions. This methodology was developed through two related studies conducted in 2021 by the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (NJTPA), the MPO for the 13-county northern New Jersey region. This methodology can be replicated using readily available data from the U.S. Census Bureau and transit agencies, along with simple analytic processes in geographic information systems (GIS) software including buffers, spatial difference, intersection, and filtering. Agencies can tailor this methodology based on the types of fixed-route transit facilities under consideration, the distances that FLM solutions may cover, and whether agencies are seeking to prioritize employment clusters, residential clusters, and/or transit hubs for future investment. The paper concludes with a discussion of the various applications and limitations of regional analyses and planning for FLM solutions.

The World Can Be Flat: Case Study of Flat-Rate Pricing for Vanpool Operations

Many metropolitan areas have experimented with fare pricing to encourage greater use and participation in vanpools. To increase significantly the rate of participation in vanpools, one transportation management association (TMA) in the Atlanta, Georgia, area implemented a flat-rate pricing program to provide a simplified and tangible subsidy to potential riders and to encourage employer participation in vanpooling. This paper provides a case study of this flat-rate pricing program for the Cumberland Community Improvement District. The case study shows significant increases, greatly exceeding the initial forecasts, in the rates of vanpool utilization and participation. However, certain issues remain for other communities looking to replicate TMA's program.

The World can be Flat

Many metropolitan areas have experimented with fare pricing to encourage greater use and participation in vanpools. To increase significantly the rate of participation in vanpools, one transportation management association (TMA) in the Atlanta, Georgia, area implemented a flat-rate pricing program to provide a simplified and tangible subsidy to potential riders and to encourage employer participation in vanpooling. This paper provides a case study of this flat-rate pricing program for the Cumberland Community Improvement District. The case study shows significant increases, greatly exceeding the initial forecasts, in the rates of vanpool utilization and participation. However, certain issues remain for other communities looking to replicate TMA's program.

Transportation Management Associations: Prospects and Problems for Public Administration

Transportation management districts (TMAs) are nonprofits formed by local business owners to solve transportation problems in their immediate areas. They have grown in numbers since the early ‘80s and have also expanded their influence on transportation policy, especially when affiliated with business improvement districts (BIDs). Both TMAs and BIDs reflect the increasing role of private business organizations in public policy; they are part of the increasing privatization since the early ‘80s, promoted by public choice theorists. Their growth and increasing policy influence requires us to expand our notion of public administration and see these organizations as full-fledged agents in the governance of metropolitan areas.

Results of 2003 Transportation Management Association Survey: Analysis of Evolving Characteristics of Transportation Management Associations

The 2003 Transportation Management Association Survey was conducted to collect and analyze survey data to better understand national and international trends in the development and operation of transportation management associations (TMAs). TMAs provide a unique organizational structure for the delivery of mobility management services. They serve as a public-private forum for those who are directly affected to address localized transportation issues through partnership efforts. Comparisons were made with data from similar surveys conducted in 1993 and 1998. With the exception of the Netherlands, transportation management efforts in European nations are implemented through organizational structures different from TMAs as we know them in the United States and Canada. During the past 10 years TMAs have been moving toward less formalized organizational structures and fewer members but with a greater diversification in the way in which service areas are defined and in the types of members. TMAs rely less on member dues and more on federal grants. They are offering a broader range of services, reflecting efforts to tailor services to meet the needs of a greater variety of travel markets, in addition to commuters. In contrast to 1993 most TMAs now conduct employee and program evaluations. However, approximately 65% of TMAs do not have a strategic plan and 40% do not use an annual or biennial work plan. Canadian TMAs have formed to accomplish missions similar to those of their U.S. counterparts. The first Canadian TMA began in 1995, and the largest member group across all Canadian TMAs is government employers.

Suburban Silver Bullet: Personal Rapid Transit Shuttle and Wireless Commuting Assistant with Cellular Location Tracking

In a hypothetical year 2008 scenario, a personal rapid transit (PRT) circulator shuttle system and comprehensive door-to-door, new-mobility service transform the major employment center of Palo Alto, California, into a 2-mi transit village, complementing and significantly increasing the attractiveness of rail, carpool, vanpool, bicycle, and bus commutes for the center's 20,000 employees. Of utmost importance, PRT is faster than a person driving alone in the last mile. A transportation management association enables a supportive commuting culture. A larger candidate pool accesses the personal, web-based ride-matching service, MatchRide and increases carpool formation. New applications of cellular location-tracking technology and wireless-enabled handsets are proposed to increase the competitiveness of suburban commuting alternatives. Cellular phones evolve to become a commuter's command center, an integral part of the workday. The following applications are proposed: (a) TrakRide to improve the reliability of carpool rendezvous and increase courteous, punctual behavior; (b) NextTrain to improve the reliability of train-shuttle connections; (c) HomeSafe to ensure that carpools of strangers operate safely; (d) QuickCar to provide 5-min access to cars for centralized carsharing and emergency ride home with wireless door key; (e) SpyKids to maintain secure custody of children during unaccompanied shuttle trips; and (f) NextSpace to direct commuters to available parking spaces, with wireless access to automated, shared parking lots. A central database, known as Big Sister, maintains personal data to support these applications.

Growing To Meet the Challenges: Emerging Roles for Transportation Management Associations

Widely varying in organizational form and function, transportation management associations (TMAs) offer the flexibility—and increasingly, the expertise—to assist local residents and businesses with emergency transportation problems (e.g., caused by a transit strike). With departments of transportation and metropolitan planning organizations, TMAs can plan for long-term and regionwide transportation needs. The public-private sector partnerships embodied by many TMAs provide several potential benefits, including a ready organizational structure for a closer dialogue between government agencies and transportation users; familiarity with local needs and problems, a knowledge of technical issues; and a broad base of human, financial, and technical resources with which to devise and implement solutions to transportation needs and problems. TMAs have come a long way from being merely employee organizations oriented to trip reduction. Today, TMAs engage in everything from public education, to working with local economic development organizations on enhancing a region’s attractiveness and competitiveness, to running local transportation systems. In the 21st century, the geographic information system and intelligent transportation system capabilities many TMAs already possess will enable them to take on greater roles in improving the transportation networks in their regions and in integrating transportation planning with land-use and economic-development planning. Typical and innovative activities currently undertaken by TMAs are described and some of the valuable roles TMAs can play in the future are discussed.

Privatization as choice probability, policy process and program outcome: The case of transportation management associations

Privatization of travel demand management products and services in urban and suburban activity centers is analyzed using data on transportation management associations. Private sector participation in transportation management is affected by both time and space. Private sector financial support is related to a priori participation. Implementation is influenced more by space at first, and more by time later on. Initiators play a key role in choosing transportation management products and services. Transportation management associations have moderate effects on individual travel behavior.

Evaluating Ride‐Sharing Programs: Massachusetts' Experience

This paper presents the major results of an evaluation of Massachusetts' effort to promote ride‐sharing. The results suggest that serious consideration be given to refocusing the state's ride‐sharing activities. An attempt should be made to work more closely with major employers in order to develop site specific, employer ride‐sharing programs, and, wherever appropriate, the state should use the assistance of Transportation Management Associations (TMAs). It is also pointed out that carpooling is increasingly unpopular, and that to reverse this trend nationally (and in Massachusetts) under existing economic conditions will challenge transportation professionals. Qualitative and quantitative data were secured through personal interviews with participating government agencies; in addition, some 100 employers and over 2,500 commuters were interviewed. Survey instruments designed and employed in this evaluation may be of interest and use to other statewide and metropolitan ride‐sharing agencies.

Private Government Formation in the DC Metropolitan Area

ABSTRACT This paper examines a variety of quasi‐governmental organizations, mandatory homeowners' associations, special service districts, and transportation management associations, recently established in the urban region. Using the Washington, DC metropolitan area as a case study, this paper explores reasons for their development and implications of them for urban governance. It is argued that these organizations marry the concepts of public special districts and public‐private partnerships in a process of private government formation. Private governments, it is suggested, are not wholly a private response to the shedding of services by the public sector, the dominant notion of privatization and local state restructuring, but the result of demands emerging in the private sector stimulated by social and spatial change. This signals the need to add to the concept of public‐driven privatization the process of private initiated change where the resulting goods and services are more fully shaped by the needs of private interests. The evidence suggests these institutions do not represent a scaling back of the local state as privatization implies, but an extension of state structures in a fundamentally new direction, an extension which could be labeled the parallel state.

Transportation‐Demand Management for Quality Development

In recent years, widespread traffic congestion has provided a new impetus to initiate transportation-demand management (TDM) actions. Across the nation, dozens of grass-roots transportation management associations (TMAs) have been formed as private-public partnerships to address mobility problems in localized areas. Many of the successful transportation-demand management programs have been created by private development organizations, interested in promoting their marketability by assuring high levels of mobility. Results have been impressive, with peak-period traffic reductions ranging between 10% and 20%, and higher for specific developments. The potential savings in new construction can be sizable and well worth the modest costs associated with optimizing the efficiency of existing transportation investments. Successful application of TDM can save developers money, when contrasted to exactions typically associated with traffic mitigation through capacity additions. TDM can also provide positive marketing opportunities. As we plan for new projects, the development community should aggressively pursue TDM as an important element of traffic mitigation programs. In addition, local governments should be receptive to TDM, as it offers major benefits to the general public.

Transportation Demand Management Planning, Development, and Implementation

Abstract Transportation demand management (TDM) is the art of modifying travel behavior, usually to avoid more costly expansion of the transportation system. TDM is not a panacea, but it can help ease some transportation problems. TDM requires the cooperation of many actors, who may include developers; landowners; employers; business associations; and municipal, county, regional, and state levels of government. This article reviews new TDM organizational forms, including transportation management associations, trip reduction ordinances, and negotiated public-private agreements. More flexible approaches appear to work best. TDM evaluation is difficult, because reductions in trip generation rates, i.e., relative changes in travel demand, are not easy to measure. Evidence suggests that TDM can be applied in a wide variety of situations, with equally variable, and sometimes quite good, overall results. TDM strategies that often have proven to be effective include on-site employee transportation coordination, parking management provisions, and alternative work schedules.