Introduction: What is Transit Planning

  • Transit service planning is a key management function involving the formulation of one or more detailed plans to achieve the optimum balance of needs or demands with the available resources
  • Planning process:
    • Identifies goals/objectives to be achieved
    • Formulate strategies to achieve them
    • Arranges or creates the means required
    • Implements, directs, and monitors all steps in proper sequence

Transit and Transportation Planning

  • Hybrid discipline involving aspects of transportation engineering and urban planning
  • Transit planners are involved in different transport modes including:
    • Bus
    • Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)
    • Streetcars
    • Light Rail Transit (LRT)
    • Commuter Rail
    • Heavy Rail
    • Paratransit
    • Pedestrian
    • Bike
  • Transportation decisions use a comprehensive planning process including:
    • The public
    • Land use
    • Development
    • Safety
    • Security
  • Planners examine past, present, and future trends and issues associated with transportation at local, state, national, and international levels
  • Transportation planning is a cooperative process involving stakeholders such as:
    • Businesses
    • Community groups
    • Environmental organizations
    • Traveling public
    • Transportation operators
    • General public
  • In urban areas, the transportation process is conducted by a Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO)

Long-Range Transportation Plan (LRTP)

  • The LRTP includes:
    • A horizon of over 10 years
    • Identifies future needs based on population projections and travel demands
  • Projects must be included in the LRTP to receive federal funding
  • Involves the technical process and public involvement process
  • The technical process includes:
  1. Developing transportation models to project future travel demands
  2. Identifying broad transportation needs and available funding
  3. A list of projects that are financially feasible by prioritizing current and future transportation needs
  • Also includes community feedback
  • LRTP projects address long-term transportation issues although they require considerable analysis and funding commitments before moving forward to environmental assessment, preliminary design, final design, and construction

Medium-Range Transportation Plan (MRTP)

  • Key areas include:
    • Livability
    • Economic Development
    • Land Development Interaction
    • Social Equity
    • System Performance
    • System Implementation
    • Public Accountability
  • Covers a horizon of 3 to 10 years
  • Most of these projects originate in congestion or safety studies

Short-Range Transportation Plan (SRTP)

  • Typically involves preparing a list of potential routes and service levels up to a period of three years
    • Addition/elimination of routes
    • Changes in route frequency/alignment
    • Changes in service span
  • Establish a coordinated action strategy to guide future investments, monitor progress, and respond to changing conditions

Service Planning

  • Developing routes and networks of routes for transit systems
  • Transit service planners focus on short-term planning issues, and their work is interconnected with the work of schedulers
  • Transit service planners also deal with other tasks such as providing input for budgeting and cost analysis to offer the best transit service based on available resources
  • Ridership data is used extensively to ensure that agency resources are used in the most efficient way possible

  • There are a number of interrelated activities associated with service planning and scheduling:
    • Network design
    • Route design and stop layout
    • Service level determination
    • Timetabling
    • Vehicle scheduling
    • Crew scheduling
  • Network and route design and frequency determination tend to be more strategic in nature and may only be considered less frequently by transit planners
  • The activities of timetabling and vehicle and crew scheduling are considered more tactical decisions