Business Logistics 420 Public Transportation

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Business Logistics 420Public Transportation

• Lecture 17
• Transportation Planning Overview

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Lecture Objectives

• Understand the scope of planning activities
  applicable to public transportation
• Understand the legal background and institutional
  framework within which planning is practiced
• Identify specific planning activities that are
  commonly related to public transit

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Transportation Planning

• Theoretical definitions vs. institutionalized
  practice
• Definition planning is the orderly process of
  preparing a detailed scheme or program for
  accomplishment of an objective or goal worked out
  in advance.
• Example what is the best way to relieve
  congestion between State College and 7 Mountains
  that is safe, efficient, and environmentally
  sound?
• Example what is the best way to reduce the need
  for parking spaces on PSUs central campus?
• Example what is the best way to provide
  mobility for persons who are physically or
  mentally disabled?

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Transportation Planning

• Explicit within the previous definition are that
  planning
• Is an orderly process
• Specific goals and objectives are known
• The end product is defined
• Implicit within the definition are
• The acceptance of change
• Ability to deal with uncertainty and risk
• The ability to accept errors

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The Theoretical Planning Process

• Rarely practiced because
• Hard to set goals
• Goals conflict
• Different groups and individuals have different
  goals
• Assumes a change to the status quo
• Typical approach does not include feedback
  mechanism to determine if plan accomplishes goal
• Failure to include and account for uncertainty

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The Institutions of Planning

• Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO)
• Locally controlled
• Elected and appointed officials from region, also
  representatives of transit system and other
  organizations
• Must approve long-range and short-range plans and
  specific projects in order to obtain federal
  funds
• Transportation Improvement Program (TIP)

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US Transportation Planning Process

• State and federal government funds most planning
  costs
• Each metropolitan area has a planning staff
  devoted specifically to transportation planning
• State DOTs have major input into planning
  decisions

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Transportation Planning in Practice

• Long range plans
• Typically 10-20 year projection
• Multimodal, at least highways and transit, now
  also bike and pedestrian, also freight
• Designed to evaluate major projects such as major
  new highway links, rail transit
• Fairly general, not detailed design or location
  plans

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Transportation Planning in Practice

• Typical Approach to Long Range Planning
• Federal Government requires that each urban area
  have a long range plan as condition of receiving
  federal funds
• 3C Planning Process followed
• Continuing, Comprehensive, Cooperative
• Involves modeling of land use, demographic
  projections and transportation demand
• Involves significant local government and citizen
  participation

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Transportation Planning in Practice

• Short Range Plans
• 3-5 year planning horizon
• Usually for a single mode, e.g., highway, transit
• Look at specific facilities (highway link,
  transit station), service design (routes and
  schedules)
• Includes a plan plus capital and operating
  expense forecasts

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Transportation Planning in Practice

• Operations Planning
• Immediate needs
• Service evaluations, new routes, new policies
• Example, how CATA should modify its routes to
  serve the new Target store
• Example, how to relieve overcrowding on Campus
  Loop

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Typical Short Range Transit Plan

• Inventory of existing services
• Operations trends
• Fare structure
• Physical property
• Management structure
• Routes and service evaluation
• Ridership characteristics (usually an on-board
  survey

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Typical Short Range Transit Plan (Continued)

• Analysis and Recommendations
• Data analysis
• Recommendations on transit operations
• Specification of equipment and facility
  requirements
• Fare structure recommendation
• Marketing plan
• Financial feasibility analysis including capital
  and operating expense estimates (3-5 years)
• Management and organization recommendations
• A five-year summary/business plan

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Four Major Planning Activities to be Covered in
Subsequent Lectures

• System design
• System concepts
• Route planning
• Demand Forecasting
• Cost Estimation
• Performance Evaluation

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Study Questions

• What is transportation planning?
• Why is it so difficult to plan transportation
  facilities and services?
• What are the three different planning horizons
  typically used in transportation planning and
  what kinds of activities fall into each category?
• What are the typical elements of a short-range
  transit plan?