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Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil Engineering, 1979. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ENGINEERING. / Bibliography: leaf 76. / by Daniel Olivier Bursaux. / M.S.

The thesis presents an opportunity to study relationship between rapid rail transit system and urban development through measuring various changes caused by the rapid rail transit improvement in Washington, D.C., Beijing, China, and Vancouver, Canada. Due to the reason that the three systems are all well-planned systems, they are not only the important parts of urban public transit, but also tools for guiding urban and regional development. Three principal goals are identified for these systems: relieve traffic congestion; provide a transit alternative to the automobile drivers; and support a compact pattern of regional town centers out from an over-developed downtown area to form a polycentric urban pattern. The rapid rail transit is found to serve a majority of riders going to and from work. It attracts not only former auto drivers but also new riders from other modes due to the fact that the system is a time and cost-saving transportation tool for people. Joining other factors, rapid rail transit could shape land-use pattern, reduce decline of old downtown, and induce development. It influences society and economy positively in that region. Although there is no direct relation between the improvement and regional population growth, it influences the population re-distribution because it attracts new employment to its envelope and influence areas from other parts of the metropol is. A good transportation system in a metropolis should satisfy the variety of needs for mobility engendered by a very heterogeneous population. A system which mainly depends on automobiles cannot meet the needs. An rapid rail transit system could compensate for the insufficiency of automobile. As a critical and irreplaceable part of an urban transportation system, rapid rail transit plays an increasingly important role. / Master of Science

Automatic Passenger Counter (APC) systems can be very powerful tools for helping transit managers make important decisions about transit operations. Compared to the traditional method of manual data collection, they are a definite improvement. Not only can they collect data tirelessly for days at a time for far less cost, but they also provide very accurate information about the time and distance at which passenger activities occur. This information can be quickly processed into meaningful reports using specially developed software, reducing data turnaround time from months to minutes. This thesis describes the development and installation of an APC system for Valley Metro of Roanoke, Virginia. The research was carried out by the Departments of Civil and Electrical Engineering at Virginia Tech with funding provided by the Virginia Department of Highways and Transportation. The result is an integrated system of equipment, software, and operating techniques which will greatly improve the flow of information at Valley Metro, allowing management the time and resources to do more planning and less paperwork. The work is significant for the following reasons: The software is easy to learn and use and can be run on inexpensive personal computers. The project demonstrates that APC systems are feasible for small transit companies, and that accurate location referencing can be achieved without signposts. The system could be applied at other small transit companies with very little modification required. The following chapters describe the project, including the experiences (both good and bad) and insights gained along the way. / M.S.

Geographic Information System (GIS) address-matching combined with other GIS processing offers new analytical opportunities in the area of transportation planning and analysis. Address-matching, an automated method for generating geographically-referenced (geocoded) point locations on a map from common tabular databases, can facilitate transportation analysis by providing a planning tool based on individual rather than aggregated spatial distributions more common to transportation issues.