In order to determine the most effective ways to increase ridership in their communities, bicycle planners require quality data on bicycling behavior. Traditional bicycle data collection methods, however, are limited by the large amount of time and expertise required to process and analyze the data, by their inability to provide information at the level of detail needed to understand the complexities of bicycling behavior, and by issues related to sampling bias and poor respondent trip recall. Fortunately, a relatively new method for collecting travel data has emerged that has the potential to provide higher quality and lower cost bicycle data to local planning agencies than has previously been possible with traditional data collection methods: the use of global positioning system (GPS) sensors in smartphones. Researchers at The University of Texas recently evaluated the usefulness of one such smartphone application - “CycleTracks” - to collect bicycle route data. Over 3,600 unique trips were collected from around 300 cyclists in Austin, Texas between May and October, 2011. While they found the CycleTracks app to be useful for collecting a large dataset, to this point there has been only limited analysis of the route data in terms of its usefulness in the planning field. This report will explore the ways in which GPS route data collected from smartphones can address some of the limitations of traditional data collection methods. Austin is used as a case study to show how the GPS route data can be used to plan for network connectivity, to identify barriers in the bicycle network, and to analyze cycling behavior before and after the installation of new facilities. The report finds that despite a number of limitations, smartphone-based GPS data collection has the potential to become an important part of local planning agencies’ regular data collection efforts. / text

No description available.

In order to determine the most effective ways to increase ridership in their communities, bicycle planners require quality data on bicycling behavior. Traditional bicycle data collection methods, however, are limited by the large amount of time and expertise required to process and analyze the data, by their inability to provide information at the level of detail needed to understand the complexities of bicycling behavior, and by issues related to sampling bias and poor respondent trip recall. Fortunately, a relatively new method for collecting travel data has emerged that has the potential to provide higher quality and lower cost bicycle data to local planning agencies than has previously been possible with traditional data collection methods: the use of global positioning system (GPS) sensors in smartphones. Researchers at The University of Texas recently evaluated the usefulness of one such smartphone application - "CycleTracks" - to collect bicycle route data. Over 3,600 unique trips were collected from around 300 cyclists in Austin, Texas between May and October, 2011. While they found the CycleTracks app to be useful for collecting a large dataset, to this point there has been only limited analysis of the route data in terms of its usefulness in the planning field. This report will explore the ways in which GPS route data collected from smartphones can address some of the limitations of traditional data collection methods. Austin is used as a case study to show how the GPS route data can be used to plan for network connectivity, to identify barriers in the bicycle network, and to analyze cycling behavior before and after the installation of new facilities. The report finds that despite a number of limitations, smartphone-based GPS data collection has the potential to become an important part of local planning agencies' regular data collection efforts.

No description available.

Over the past several years state departments of transportation (DOTs) have been faced with the challenge of mounting traffic congestion and dwindling transportation funds. It is against this backdrop that the need for optimal resource allocation decisions has become of utmost importance. Two emerging fields in transportation planning, performance measurement and multimodal planning, have the potential to assist agencies in investing transportation resources in the most effective manner. The confluence of these two fields at the strategic level, strategic multimodal performance measurement, is a promising approach for state DOTs looking to meet the public's growing transportation needs in spite of the dwindling financial resources available. Currently, many states are having difficulty developing performance measurement programs that incorporate a multimodal perspective to facilitate cross-modal comparisons. The objective of this research is to identify innovations and best practices at leading state DOTs in strategic multimodal performance measurement in order to assist other DOTs in the development or improvement of their strategic multimodal performance measurement programs. First, a review of literature examined the existing research related to performance measurement and multimodal planning. From this review of literature, a list of criteria was developed to evaluate strategic multimodal performance measurement programs. Additionally, a group of state DOTs with success in performance measurement or multimodal planning was identified. Next, a nationwide survey of multimodal practices at state DOTs was conducted to identify the current practices in strategic multimodal performance measurement. This survey, along with the literature review and discussions with practitioners, guided the selection of five state DOTs that case studies were performed on. Each of the case studies was organized and evaluated based on the criteria established in the literature review. The findings of this research suggest that performance measures for non-highway modes still lag behind those for highways, even in leading state DOTs. The findings also suggest that state DOTs have yet to develop a leading methodology for multimodal tradeoff analysis, but that performance measurement systems that are analogous across all modes have great potential for facilitating cross-modal comparisons.

Title page, table of contents and summary only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University of Adelaide Library. / With the advent of comprehensive transportation studies over the last several years in Australia, some inadequacies in land use p1anning have been high1ighted. In general there is seen to be a need for a more systematic approach and a greater use of models or analytical techniques. This thesis briefly reviews transportation studies and planning techniques and then discusses the development and current status of urban development mode1s, classifying them into three viz; (i) descriptive (ii) predictive models, and (iii) prescriptive models or planning models. It is noted that the models form on1y a part of the of the planning process and that they are really sub-models total system. Using a systems analysis approach, a planning framework or system model is then developed which forms the basis for the preparation of a planning strategy, within which detailed development and transport plans can be evolved. The framework is designed to facilitate the use of models as befits their operational status and to highlight areas where judgements and intuition are required. In developing the p1anning system model a discussion is given on forecasting techniques, problems relating to the definition of objectives and criteria, difficu1ties encountered in obtaining community goals and rational public participation, considerations relating to the formulation of plans, techniques of plan eva1uation inc1uding sensitivity analysis and flexibility tests, and implementation strategy. Two case studies are given to illustrate the efficacy of the procedures proposed. The first example related to the preparation of a strategic plan for a city with an expected population of 200,000 people, whereas the second case study concerns the hypothetical choice between two alternative forms of development over the next five years for metropolitan Adelaide. In the final chapter a brief discussion is given on worthwhile research items. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1523138 / Thesis (M.T.P.) -- University of Adelaide, Department of Architecture and Town Planning, 1971

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 102-106).

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1984. / Also available in print.

M.Com. (Business Management) / The purpose of the study is to examine the current state of public passenger transport in the area of Ekurhuleni and to make recommendations to improve the situation and in order to fulfil this, the assignment assesses current national, provincial and local government public transport plans. The primary objectives of the study are to illustrate the current scenario of public passenger transport in the area of Ekurhuleni and to make recommendations for the improvement thereof. The secondary objectives are to undertake research in the area to help establish the general sentiment of the public transport users towards public passenger transport. Primary and secondary research methodologies were applied in the research process. The primary research methodology encompassed personal interviews conducted with members of the general public as well as public officials whilst secondary research methodology contributed in the form of published and unpublished data sourced from official reports, the internet and other sources. The study is based on road and rail primary modes of public transport. From the rail mode perspective the study discusses the role that Metrorail and Gautrain fulfil within the research area and from the road transport mode perspective the study reviews the role that is being fulfilled by the taxi and bus operations in the area. The survey investigation undertaken in the study is done for the purposes of gaining an indication of the modal split by usage as well as passenger sentiments on the levels of service the study modes are offering. It must be mentioned though that the researcher is aware of other similar surveys that have been conducted and the intention of conducting this survey is for validation purposes. The survey conducted was done so in areas where due to the proximity of services there was an equal opportunity for a random sample selecting a road and/or rail public transport user for interviews. From the survey conducted as mentioned above the current situation is that there are noteworthy areas of improvement that need to be considered. These areas of improvements stem from both road and rail modes transport. In order to make sizeable improvements from the current state of affairs it is important according to world-renowned public transport expert Vukan R. Vuchic to “understand the inherent characteristics of different modes and that one must free oneself from those real-world...

Mid-block crosswalks present a challenging detection task when drivers are not familiar with the area, crosswalks are at locations with high traffic volume, or the visibility of the approaching crosswalk is obstructed. A major contributor to crashes at uncontrolled marked mid-block crosswalks on multilane roads is the presence of a motorist who is yielding to a pedestrian in the crosswalk, creating an additional threat from a motorist in the adjacent lane who may not see the pedestrian. Advance yield markings and sign prompts have been shown to be effective when there is no obstruction in either travel lane. The purpose of this research is to evaluate drivers' performance in response to multi-threat (obstruction in travel lane) and sight-limited (obstruction in parking lane) scenarios with and without advance yield markings and sign prompts. No direct evaluations of the effectiveness of this countermeasure in these scenarios have been undertaken. The methods used to evaluate drivers' performance include observations of drivers navigating virtual crosswalks on a driving simulator, field observations of drivers responding to staged pedestrian crossings, and observations of drivers in an actual vehicle on the open roadway navigating marked mid-block crosswalks. Dependent variables include yielding behavior and eye-fixations. It is hypothesized that at multi-threat and sight-limited scenarios drivers approaching a crosswalk are more likely to look for pedestrians, to yield and to yield sooner when advance yield markings and prompt sign are used than when the traditional markings are used. The extent of these benefits is highly dependent on visibility improvements at the site, providing real benefit only when sight distance is adequate. This comprehensive evaluation, limited to low speed approaches in an urban environment, provides data from sight-limited and multi-threat scenarios where the probability of seeing the pedestrian is low. This information can help traffic engineers make informed decisions when implementing pedestrian safety countermeasures. It also provides data from locations in the United States to add to the studies completed in Canada which served as the basis for inclusion of the advance yield markings and related sign as guidance in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices.