This is an archived course. A more recent version may be available at ocw.mit.edu.

Readings

Relevant Readings

Transit Capacity and Quality of Service Manual. 2nd ed. TCRP Report 100. Transportation Research Board, 2003.

Public Transportation Fact Book. American Public Transportation Association, 2010.

Buy at Amazon Ceder, Avishai. Public Transit Planning and Operation: Theory, Modeling and Practice. Burlington, MA: Elsevier, 2007. ISBN: 9780750661669.

Buy at Amazon Vuchic, Vukan. Urban Transit: Operations, Planning and Economics. New York, NY: Wiley, 2005. ISBN: 9780471632658.

Buy at Amazon Bruun, Eric. Better Public Transit Systems: Analyzing Investments and Performance. Washington, DC: American Planning Organization, 2007. ISBN: 9781932364484.

Buy at Amazon Fielding, Gordon. Managing Public Transit Strategically: A Comprehensive Approach to Strengthening Sales and Monitoring Performance. New York, NY: Jossey-Bass, 1987. ISBN: 9781555420680.

Readings by Session

Readings marked with (S) are supplementary readings.

LEC # TOPICS READINGS
1-2

Introduction to public transportation planning

Alternative services and modes

 Bruun, chapter 2.
3 Cost characteristics Bruun, chapter 8.
4 Organizational models and contract structure Bruun, chapter 11.

Halvorsen, R., and Wilson, N. H. M. "The Role of Contract Structuring in Contracted Public Transport Performance: Theory and Practice." Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Competition and Ownership in Land Passenger Transport. Rotorua, New Zealand, July 1995.

(S) Blakely, T. Designing Transit Concession Contracts to Deal with Uncertainty. Master of Science in Transportation Thesis, MIT, 2006.
5-6 Service planning process

Benn, H. "Synthesis of Transit Practice 10: Bus Route Evaluation Standards." Transportation Research Board, 1995. (This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader.PDF)

Service Delivery Policy. Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, 2006. (This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader.PDF)

Wilson, N. H. M., D. Nelson, A. Palmere, T. Grayson, and C. Cederquist. "Service Quality Monitoring for High-Frequency Transit Lines." Transportation Research Record 1349 (1992): 3-11.

Dawson, W. R. "Optimizing Transit Service Decisions Based on Ridership – Good for Passengers and the Community." Paper presented at UITP Congress, Toronto, May 1999.

Fielding, chapter 3.

"A Summary of TCRP Report 88: A Guidebook for Developing a Transit Performance-Measurement System." Transportation Research Board, 2003. (PDF)
7-8

Service standards and performance measurement

Data collection: needs and techniques

Furth, P., B. Hemily, T. Muller, and J. Strathman. "TCRP Report 113: Using Archived AVL-APC Data to Improve Transit Performance and Management." Transportation Research Board, 2006. (This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader.PDF - 1.6MB)

Zhao, J., A. Rahbee, and N. Wilson. "Estimating a Rail Passenger Trip Origin-Destination Matrix Using Automatic Data Collection Systems." Computer-Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering 22, no. 5 (2007): 376-387.

Furth, P. G., J. Attanucci, I. Burns, and N. H. M. Wilson. "Transit Data Collection Design Manual." U.S. DOT Report DOT-I-85-38, 1985, pp. 1-121.

Furth, P. "Synthesis of Transit Practice 34: Data Analysis for Bus Planning and Monitoring." Transportation Research Board, 2000. (This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader.PDF - 1.4MB)
9 Design of data collection programs

Toronto Transit Commission. "Ridership Forecasting Methods." Service Standards Process Technical Background Papers no. 1, January 1991.

Peng, Z., K. Dueker, J. Strathman, and J. Hopper. "A Simultaneous Route-level Transit Patronage Model: Demand, Supply, and Inter-route Relationship." Transportation 24, no. 2 (1997): 159-181.
10 Cost modeling

Fare Policies, Structures, and Technologies (Project A-01), R-10.

(S) Yi, H. "Transition to Smart Card Technology: How Transit Operators Can Encourage the Take-up of Smart Card Technology." Master of Science in Transportation Thesis, MIT, 2006.

Vuchic, chapter 7, pp. 374-402.
11 Ridership forecasting

A Handbook of Proven Marketing Strategies for Public Transit (Project B-13), R-50, introductory chapter.

"TCRP Web Document 8: Marketing Transit Services to Business." Executive Summary. Transportation Research Board, 1998.

A Handbook: Integrating Market Research into Transit Management (Project B-02), R-37.
12-13

Fare policy and technology

Marketing

Bruun, chapters 9-10.

Herzenberg, A. "Methods of Estimating the Costs of Drivers' Wages for Bus Service." Transportation Research Record 947 (1983): 7-14.
14 Performance of a single route

Chapman, R. A., and J. F. Michel. "Modeling the Tendency of Buses to Form Pairs." Transportation Science 12, no. 2 (1978): 165-175.

Wilson, N. H. M., and T. Lin. "Dwell-Time Relationships for Light Rail Systems." Transportation Research Record 1361 (1993): 296-304.

Furth, P. G., and A. B. Rahbee. "Optimal Bus Stop Spacing Using Dynamic Programming and Geographic Modeling." Transportation Research Record 1731 (2000): 15-22.
15-17

Dwell time models

Analysis methods for a single route

Frequency determination

Salzborn, F. J. M. "Optimum Bus Scheduling." Transportation Science 6 (1972): 137-148.

Furth, P. G., and N. Wilson. "Setting Frequencies on Bus Routes: Theory and Practice." Transportation Research Record 818 (1981): 1-7.

Buy at Amazon (S) Ceder, A. "Public Transport Scheduling." In Handbook of Transport Systems and Traffic Control, Volume 3. Edited by K. J. Button and D. A. Hensher. Oxford, UK: Pergamon, 2001, pp. 539-558. ISBN: 9780080435954.

Buy at Amazon (S) Ceder, A. "Public Transport Timetabling and Vehicle Scheduling." Chapter 2 in Advanced Modeling for Transit Operations and Service Planning. Edited by W. Lam and M. Bell. Oxford, UK: Pergamon, 2002, pp. 31-57. ISBN: 9780080442068.

Furth, P. G., and T. H. J. Muller. "Service Reliability and Optimal Running Time Schedules." Transportation Research Record 2034 (2007): 55-61.
18-19

Vehicle scheduling

Crew scheduling

Blais, J., J. Lamont, and M. Rousseau. "The HASTUS Vehicle and Manpower Scheduling System at the Société de transport de la Communauté urbaine de Montréal." Interfaces 20, no. 1 (1990): 26-42.
21 High ridership corridor strategies

Ceder, A., and N. H. M. Wilson. "Bus Network Design." Transportation Research 20B, no. 4 (1986): 331-344.
22 Network and route structure

Bruun, chapter 3.

(S) Becker, J., and J. Bakker. "The Design of Timed Transfer Networks." Proceedings of Operations and Service Planning Symposium, Washington, DC, 1993.

Vuchic, sections 4.1-4.6, pp. 185-247.
23 Transit signal priority

Transit Reliability Workshop. "The Transit Service Reliability Problem and Potential Solutions." Technical Report UMTA-NY-06-0097-83-01, 1983.

Wilson, N. H. M., R. A. Macchi, R. E. Fellows, and A. A. Deckoff. "Improving Service on the MBTA Green Line Through Better Operations Control." Transportation Research Record 1361 (1992): 296-304.

(S) Uniman, David. "Service Reliability Measurement Framework Using Smart Card Data: Application to the London Underground." Master of Science in Transportation Thesis, MIT, 2009.

(S) Carrel, Andre. "Diagnosis and Assessment of Operations Control Interventions: Framework and Applications to a High Frequency Metro Line." Master of Science in Transportation Thesis, MIT, 2009.
24 Labor relations

Koutsopolos, H. N., and N. H. M. Wilson. "Operator Workforce Planning in the Transit Industry." Transportation Research 21A, no. 2 (1987): 127-138.

Shiftan, Y., and N. H. M. Wilson. "Absence, Overtime, and Reliability Relationships in Transit Workforce Planning." Transportation Research Record 1402 (1993): 98-106.
25 Real-time control strategies

Furth, P., and T. Muller. "Conditional Bus Priority at Signalized Intersections: Better Service Quality with Less Traffic Disruption." Transportation Research Record 1731 (2000): 23-30.