SPONSOR: Federal Transit Administration, University of Alabama

BUDGET: $221,435

ABSTRACT: The objective of this project has been to establish a test bed for the evaluation and testing of innovative uses of Advanced Public Transportation Systems (APTS) data in multimodal corridors. In several corridors in Portland, Oregon, techniques have been developed for fusion and analysis of data from various sources and sensors in order to maximize person-throughput, improve transit and traffic operations and ultimately enhance customer satisfaction in the corridor. This Theme 7 project has formed a coalition to establish an APTS testbed using archived and real-time transit and traffic flow information, showcasing the benefits of advanced technologies to improve transit operations, short term and long term planning. In the Portland corridor, methods were developed for warehousing, integration, fusion, and validation of relevant public transit and traffic-related data from diverse sensors and sources. At present, the Portland metropolitan area transit provider, the Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (TriMet) is unique in that it archives a rich, detailed database comprised of Automated Vehicle Location (AVL) and passenger boardings and alightings for nearly all buses in its system. In partnership with TriMet, Portland State University's Center for Transportation Studies has been extracting these valuable data in order to improve scheduling, transit operations and service planning. This project has continued this successful work by leveraging existing traffic surveillance data (from video and inductive loop detection) along a freeway/arterial corridor to generate performance indicators that will "inform" the TriMet bus dispatch system (BDS).

Access the project web archive here

PRODUCTS:

report Bertini, R.L., Strathman, J., Kimpel, T., El-Geneidy, A., Tantiyanugulchai, S., Malik, S., and Callas, S. , "Evaluation of Innovative Uses of Advanced Public Transportation Systems Data in Multimodal Corridors." Portland State University, Center for Transportation Studies, Great Cities University Transportation Consortium Research Report, December 2005.

report Kimpel, T., Strathman, J., and Callas, C., "Improving Scheduling Through Performance Monitoring Using AVL/APC Data." Local Innovations in Transit Project Report, Great Cities Universities Consortium Transportation Initiative, April 2004.

journal Bertini, R.L. and El-Geneidy, A.M., "Using Archived Data to Generate Transit Performance Measures." Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 1841, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington D.C., 2003, pp. 109-119.

report Strathman, J.G., Kimpel, T.J., and Callas, S., "Headway deviation effects on bus passenger loads: analysis of Tri-Met's archived AVL-APC data." Portland, OR: Portland State University, Center for Urban Studies.

report Strathman, J.G., "Tri-Met's Experience With Automatic Passenger Counter and Automatic Vehicle Location Systems." Portland, OR: Portland State University, Center for Urban Studies.

report Bertini, R.L., Leal, M., and Lovell, D.J., "Generating performance measures from Portland's archived advanced traffic management system data." Portland, OR: Portland State University, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

report Strathman, J.G., Kimpel, T.J., Dueker, K.J., Gerhart, R.L., and Callas, S., "Evaluation of Transit Operations: Data Applications of Tri-Met's Automated Bus Dispatching System." Portland, OR: Portland State University, Center for Urban Studies.