Thesis (S.M. in Transportation)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2013. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 235-241). / Many city and regional transportation authorities, including the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) in Boston, offer a monthly pass to local employers which they can distribute to their employees. There are many ways in which an agency, employer or individual benefit from an employer pass program. There are financial benefits for all three parties, as well as increased convenience for employees, better travel demand management for employers, and increased ridership for agencies. The MBTA Corporate Pass Program was established almost forty years ago in an attempt to move away from inefficient fare collection methods while providing an avenue for employers to contribute to their employees' transit commutes and increase transit ridership generally. With these intentions in mind, this thesis aims to analyze the MBTA's employer pass program, and to quantify its benefit to the MBTA through program penetration, additional revenue captured, and reduced sensitivity to fare increases and seasonal fluctuations. Influencing factors such as company location, subsidies and local city policies are also analyzed to determine the effects of employer benefits policies on an employee's participation in the Corporate Pass Program and their transit ridership. The results show that the Corporate Pass Program is a very positive program for the MBTA, and accounts for 27% of their annual revenue. The MBTA receives an estimated additional $4.4 million in potentially foregone revenue from LinkPass Corporate pass holders annually. The program captures additional revenue by appealing to employees with lower transit usage than the average pass holder, many of whom do not use the aggregate ride "value" of the pass in most months and are attracted to the program because of the pretax or employer-provided subsidies. Furthermore, the Corporate Pass Program provides greater revenue stability month to month than other types of monthly passes as its users are less likely to cancel its purchase for vacation months than retail month to month users. This research also finds that certain employer characteristics, such as size, pass subsidy, location and parking availability have clear influences on employee participation and more subtle influences on average employee ridership. / by Dianne E. Kamfonik. / S.M.in Transportation

Thesis (S.M. in Transportation)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2013. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 169-172). / This thesis reviews a select group of transit environmental mitigation proposals through the application of ridership estimation methodologies. In recent years, rider demands and environmental concerns have led many transit agencies to explore options for increasing service even within constrained budgets. Anticipated state and metropolitan area climate change mitigation strategies are likely to result in the need for further transportation system changes in many cities. In response to environmental concerns raised during the construction of the Central Artery/Tunnel, Massachusetts committed to extending the Green Line light rail from its Cambridge terminal at Lechmere into Somerville and Medford. The Massachusetts State Implementation Plan requires that the Green Line be extended in two branches by the end of 2014. Massachusetts has delayed construction on the extension, and it must therefore undertake mitigation for the delay. Facing both financial constraints and pressure to increase service, transit agencies such as the MBTA need new ways to improve transportation systems with limited financial input and means by which to evaluate the impact of proposals. Several mitigation proposals focusing on transit services in the Lechmere Station area are presented in this thesis. Increasing service on the Green Line to Lechmere is found to be a good first step towards improving service in Somerville. Proposals for increasing bus feeder service to and from Lechmere and the surrounding areas include both increasing service on existing routes and introducing new routes. Partnerships with existing private providers could also help decrease the costs to the MBTA of introducing a new route. In order to analyze the mitigation proposals, several methodologies are explored including area wide transportation planning models, direct demand (regression) models and comparison equations. A rail elasticity of demand with respect to service is calculated based on a prior MBTA system experience, while elasticities from literature are used for buses. In addition, a direct demand model is estimated for the MBTA bus network, and the results are compared to elasticity analysis. Regional planning models are found to be important for predicting system-wide responses but often are too detailed and expensive to use to evaluate every proposal. Instead, direct demand models can help with initial rankings of proposals, and service elasticities can help further examine expected ridership changes due to service improvements. / by Jamie C. Rosen. / S.M.in Transportation

Thesis: S.M. in Transportation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2014. / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 101-102). / Transit agencies commonly increase fares to raise revenue, reduce service to lower costs, or combine the two strategies. Fare increases impact specific subsets of transit users in different ways based on their demographics and the transit system fare structure. Automated fare collection (AFC) systems enable increased fare structure complexity, such as fare differentials by user group or ticket medium. While AFC systems create the opportunity for more intricate fare scenarios, they also record transaction-level ridership data that can be used to better understand the impacts of such changes. This thesis presents a study of the 2012 Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) fare increase using AFC system data. Fares increased by an average of 23%, but the increases varied by fare type, which is based on the user type and medium type, and trip mode. Elasticities by fare type were developed using the ridership changes from April - June 2012 to April - June 2013. Variation of usage within the primary fare type categories was also analyzed before and after the fare increase. Two longitudinal panels were developed to study changes in individual behavior over time: a panel of cards active in April - June 2012 and 2013, to observe changes over the period of the fare increase, and a panel of cards active in September - November 2012 and 2013, to serve as a baseline for comparison in absence of a fare increase. Each panel contained approximately 40% of the cards used in the corresponding three-month period in 2012. The usage distribution of the cards in each panel was representative of the distribution of the general population of cards active during each time period, with the exception of very infrequent stored value users. A regression model was developed to attempt to separate the effects of the fare increase, internal factors such as frequency of use and participation in the corporate pass program, and external factors such as weather, employment, and gas prices on the usage changes within both panels. While the effect of the fare increase on change in usage was negative, low R-squared values for both models indicate that the heterogeneity in usage changes is due to additional factors other than those included in these models. / by Kate S. Pincus. / S.M. in Transportation

Thesis: M.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 1992 / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-67). / by Vandana Upadhyay. / M.S. / M.S. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management

Thesis: M.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 1992 / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 103-106). / by Tatsuo Udoh. / M.S. / M.S. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management

Thesis: M.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 1992 / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 107). / by Jerry Craig Usery. / M.S. / M.S. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management

Thesis: M.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 1992 / Includes bibliographical references. / by Dominique Valentiny. / M.S. / M.S. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management

Thesis: M.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 1992 / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 129). / by Bernard Donal Ussher. / M.S. / M.S. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management

Thesis: E. Eng, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, 1959 / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 53). / by John Virgil Blankenbaker. / E. Eng / E. Eng Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University