A Research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Development Planning, Johannesburg 2019 / As cities continue to experience rapid urban growth there are opportunities which exist in linking transport planning with dynamic land uses within the city. The main planning approach which stands out in achieving this is transit-oriented development planning. This form of planning is essential as it connects people with services and employment opportunities located in cities and urban areas. Transit-oriented development of a higher quality has the potential to generate revenue which can be used to improve the quality in transit-oriented systems and ultimately boost economic growth and development. Inclusive to this statement is the idea that transit systems are associated with societal benefits; congestion relief, social equity improvement, reductions in dangerous gas emissions and economic development. This study explores the importance of TOD and especially the prescribed linkages between proximity to a railway station and the influence this has on nearby commercial property prices. The study discusses the possible effects of other amenities found around close to the commercial properties and determines. The aim being to find out if these other amenities also have an impact on commercial property values in the study area. This is done through unpacking relatable discourse associated with transit-oriented development and through a research process which investigates whether there are other factors influencing commercial property values around the railway station in Jeppestown. The study will contribute towards the broader body of literature around TOD nodes, rail transit stations and commercial property values by providing empirical evidence provided by a quantitative study. The study uses multiple regression models to determine whether commercial property values are influenced by their proximity to a railway station or by other factors. It was initially expected that proximity would have an impact on commercial property values, but at the same time there was an argument for other factors and conditions located nearby to the commercial properties having an influence too. The empirical evidence collected showed that the proximity to the railway station was not statistically significant. The determinants of commercial property value which were significant were distance to school’s property age, retail, industrial and unidentified property. The limited impact of a railway station on commercial property value has been discussed in the analysis section of this thesis. The discussion has shed some light on the gaps associated with the way in which railway stations relate to commercial real estate property values in Metropolitan cities, across the developing world and beyond. The findings of the study will contribute towards better transit oriented development policies to be formulated as well as a better understanding of how public sector investments can help create value for properties. / PH2020

Recent progress in technology has facilitated the design, testing, and deployment of traffic signal priority strategies for transit buses. However, a clear consensus has not emerged regarding the evaluation of these strategies. Each agency implementing these strategies can have differing goals, and there are often conflicting issues, needs, and concerns among the various stakeholders. This research attempts to assist in the evaluation of such strategies by presenting an evaluation framework and plan that provides a systematic method to assess potential impacts. The results of the research include the development of specific measures corresponding to particular objectives, with descriptions to facilitate their use by agencies evaluating traffic signal priority. The use of this framework and plan is illustrated on the Columbia Pike corridor in Arlington, Virginia with the use of the INTEGRATION simulation package. In building upon prior efforts on this corridor, this work presents a method of simulating conditional granting of priority to late buses in an attempt to investigate the impacts of priority on service reliability. Using the measures developed in this research, statistically significant improvements of 3.2% were found for bus service reliability and 0.9% for bus efficiency, while negative other traffic-related impacts were found in the form of increases in overall delay to the corridor of 1.0% on a vehicle basis or 0.6% on a person basis. Areas identified for future research include extensions to INTEGRATION to permit consideration of real-time conditional priority, further exploration of the relationship between components of bus travel times, and examination of the role of passenger loads on priority operation and impacts. / Ph. D.

Boarding, alighting and seating maneuvers were monitored on selected Arlington Transit (ART) bus routes in order to determine the link between passenger demographics, seating preferences and boarding and alighting times within the system. The data collection methodology employed digital stopwatch timings of boardings and alightings in conjunction with a coordinate-based spreadsheet seating chart tracking system in order to document passenger movements and seating occupancies. Passengers were visually profiled according to their ethnicity, sex, general age group and bulkiness. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to develop boarding and alighting models, and t-tests were used to isolate statistically significant differences between profiled groups in terms of their seating preferences and inter-group separation distances aboard the buses. It was observed that female passengers tend to sit closer to other passengers than males do, and that older female passengers have a preference for sitting in aisle seats and towards the lower level front of the bus - each of these preferences is linked with shorter boarding times. Males, in general, tend to prefer window seating to aisle seating, and this preference is linked with longer boarding and alighting times. It was also observed that younger passengers prefer less efficient upper level seating to lower level seating and that white passengers, on average, tend to sit closer to other white passengers on routes where whites are a minority in terms of passenger composition. Monetary fare payment was observed to contribute to longer boarding times than the use of a swipe card (e.g., SmarTrip® card). / Master of Science

<p> In the spring of 1983, when this project was in its most preliminary stages, a simple hypothesis was put forward. This hypothesis suggested that auto users would react to rising retail gasoline prices by switching to an alternative mode of transportation, such as public transit. It was thought that, since any increase in fuel costs could be spread out among all transit users, public transit would become an attractive alternative to the private automobile in an individual's transportation mode decision as retail gasoline prices increased. Therefore, a positive relationship was anticipated-to exist between public transit ridership and retail gasoline prices. </p> <p> Having established the hypothesis to be investigated, an extensive review of current literature associated with the hypothesis was completed. This review presented conflicting opinions concerning the hypothesis, and also suggested that other variables were more important than the price of retail gasoline in affecting an individual's transportation mode decision. </p> <p> Unfortunately, the literature review did not suggest any relevant method of analysis for this project. It was decided that, for reasons to be discussed later, linear regression would be the method of analysis. The results of the application of a number of linear regression models to data obtained for the Hamilton study area indicated that no definitive statement could be made with respect to the hypothesis of this project. This lack of significant results was attributed to extraneous variance created by certain variables that could not be controlled. </p> <p> However, as a contribution to knowledge, this project provides a basis on which future studies can be built. If the extraneous variance that is discussed in this project can be eliminated in future studies, then- it may be possible to obtain more significant results with respect to the hypothesis that public transit ridership is positively related to retail gasoline prices. </p> / Thesis / Bachelor of Arts (BA)

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The Internet has a loosely hierarchical structure. At the top of the hierarchy are the backbones, also called Internet Access Providers (hereafter IAPs). The second layer of the hierarchy is comprised of Internet Service Providers (hereafter ISPs). At the bottom of the hierarchy are the end users, consumers, who browse the web, and websites. To provide access to the whole Internet, the providers must interconnect with each other and share their network infrastructure. Two main forms of interconnection have emerged — peering under which the providers carry each other's traffic without any payments and transit under which the downstream provider pays the upstream provider a certain settlement payment for carrying its traffic. This dissertation develops three game theoretical models to describe the interconnection agreements among the providers, and analysis of those models from two alternative modeling perspectives: a purely non-cooperative game and a network perspective. There are two original contributions of the dissertation. First, we model the formation of peering/transit contracts explicitly as a decision variable in a non-cooperative game, while the current literature does not employ such modeling techniques. Second, we apply network analysis to examine interconnection decisions of the providers, which yields much realistic results. Chapter 1 provides a brief description of the Internet history, architecture and infrastructure as well as the economic literature. In Chapter 2 we develop a model, in which IAPs decide on private peering agreements, comparing the benefits of private peering relative to being connected only through National Access Points (hereafter NAPs). The model is formulated as a multistage game. Private peering agreements reduce congestion in the Internet, and so improve the quality of IAPs. The results show that even though the profits are lower with private peerings, due to large investments, the network where all the providers privately peer is the stable network. Chapter 3 discusses the interconnection arrangements among ISPs. Intra-backbone peering refers to peering between ISPs connected to the same backbone, whereas inter-backbone peering refers to peering between ISPs connected to different backbones. We formulate the model as a two-stage game. Peering affects profits through two channels - reduction of backbone congestion and ability to send traffic circumventing congested backbones. The relative magnitude of these factors helps or hinders peering. In Chapter 4 we develop a game theoretic model to examine how providers decide who they want to peer with and who has to pay transit. There is no regulation with regard to interconnection policies of providers, though there is a general convention that the providers peer if they perceive equal benefits from peering, and have transit arrangements otherwise. The model discusses a set of conditions, which determine the formation of peering and transit agreements. We argue that market forces determine the terms of interconnection, and there is no need for regulation to encourage peering. Moreover, Pareto optimum is achieved under the transit arrangements. / Ph. D.

Bus transit driving is an occupation that requires high concentration in driving and is demanding due to work overload, time pressure, and responsibility for lives. In 2006, there were 103 fatal crashes involving transit buses. As the number of distraction-related crashes increases, it is important to conduct a transit distraction study to reduce future crashes. This thesis focused on the analysis of the likelihood of the operator distraction behaviors and the analysis to find a predictive model to classify different distraction categories. An ordinal logistic regression was carried out to evaluate how age, gender, driving experience of the operators, and their driving frequencies accounts for the likelihood of 17 potential distracted driving behaviors. The results of this analysis showed that there were only 5 best models (p-value of model fit less than 0.005 and p-value of parallel line test more than 0.005) that could be constructed, including: listening to the radio/ CD/DVD/MP3 player (D1); picking Up and Holding 2-way Radio (D5); listening to the Dispatch Office broadcast (D6); adjusting switches/controls on dashboard (D15); and utilizing mentor ranger (D16). On the other hand, a discriminant analysis was performed to predict how different transit operator driving behaviors when exposed by 10 different distraction activities and 16 predictors were considered in this analysis. The final results showed that there are 4 predictors that seem to be able to classify distraction groups across all 4 models; those include segment length, average duration of idling time/stop delay at speed interval 0—4 km/hr, frequency of speed transitions that deviate by ± 0 to 4 km/hr from its speed, and frequency of speed transitions that deviate by ± 8 to 12 km/hr from its speed. / Master of Science

As city dwellers, we are students of our environment, continuously learning how to interact with and contribute to the urban realm and to the world at large. This thesis explores how a school can expand the culture of a neighborhood, how a neigborhood can shape the identity of a city, and how a city can cultivate the growth of a person. The project consists of a master plan for a community college, mixed-use neighborhood, traffic circle, and streetcar station. Within the larger plan sits a Library and Student Center, which emerges as the iconic piece of architecture for the school and the neighborhood. / Master of Architecture