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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Using Archived AVL-APC Data to Improve Transit Performance and Management. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13907.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Using Archived AVL-APC Data to Improve Transit Performance and Management. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13907.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Using Archived AVL-APC Data to Improve Transit Performance and Management. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13907.
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TRANSPORTAT ION RESEARCH BOARD WASHINGTON, D.C. 2006 www.TRB.org T R A N S I T C O O P E R A T I V E R E S E A R C H P R O G R A M TCRP REPORT 113 Research sponsored by the Federal Transit Administration in cooperation with the Transit Development Corporation Subject Areas Public Transit Using Archived AVL-APC Data to Improve Transit Performance and Management Peter G. Furth NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY Boston, MA W I T H Brendon Hemily HEMILY AND ASSOCIATES Toronto, Canada Theo H. J. Muller DELFT UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Delft, The Netherlands James G. Strathman PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY Portland, OR

TRANSIT COOPERATIVE RESEARCH PROGRAM The nation’s growth and the need to meet mobility, environmental, and energy objectives place demands on public transit systems. Current systems, some of which are old and in need of upgrading, must expand service area, increase service frequency, and improve efficiency to serve these demands. Research is necessary to solve operating problems, to adapt appropriate new technologies from other industries, and to introduce innovations into the transit industry. The Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) serves as one of the principal means by which the transit industry can develop innovative near-term solutions to meet demands placed on it. The need for TCRP was originally identified in TRB Special Report 213—Research for Public Transit: New Directions, published in 1987 and based on a study sponsored by the Urban Mass Transportation Administration—now the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). A report by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), Transportation 2000, also recognized the need for local, problem- solving research. TCRP, modeled after the longstanding and successful National Cooperative Highway Research Program, undertakes research and other technical activities in response to the needs of transit service providers. The scope of TCRP includes a variety of transit research fields including planning, service configuration, equipment, facilities, operations, human resources, maintenance, policy, and administrative practices. TCRP was established under FTA sponsorship in July 1992. Proposed by the U.S. Department of Transportation, TCRP was authorized as part of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA). On May 13, 1992, a memorandum agreement outlining TCRP operating procedures was executed by the three cooperating organizations: FTA, the National Academies, acting through the Transportation Research Board (TRB); and the Transit Development Corporation, Inc. (TDC), a nonprofit educational and research organization established by APTA. TDC is responsible for forming the independent governing board, designated as the TCRP Oversight and Project Selection (TOPS) Committee. Research problem statements for TCRP are solicited periodically but may be submitted to TRB by anyone at any time. It is the responsibility of the TOPS Committee to formulate the research program by identifying the highest priority projects. As part of the evaluation, the TOPS Committee defines funding levels and expected products. Once selected, each project is assigned to an expert panel, appointed by the Transportation Research Board. The panels prepare project statements (requests for proposals), select contractors, and provide technical guidance and counsel throughout the life of the project. The process for developing research problem statements and selecting research agencies has been used by TRB in managing cooperative research programs since 1962. As in other TRB activities, TCRP project panels serve voluntarily without compensation. Because research cannot have the desired impact if products fail to reach the intended audience, special emphasis is placed on disseminating TCRP results to the intended end users of the research: transit agencies, service providers, and suppliers. TRB provides a series of research reports, syntheses of transit practice, and other supporting material developed by TCRP research. APTA will arrange for workshops, training aids, field visits, and other activities to ensure that results are implemented by urban and rural transit industry practitioners. The TCRP provides a forum where transit agencies can cooperatively address common operational problems. The TCRP results support and complement other ongoing transit research and training programs. TCRP REPORT 113 Price $34.00 Project H-28 ISSN 1073-4872 ISBN-10: 0-309-09861-0 Library of Congress Control Number 2006906799 © 2006 Transportation Research Board COPYRIGHT PERMISSION Authors herein are responsible for the authenticity of their materials and for obtaining written permissions from publishers or persons who own the copyright to any previously published or copyrighted material used herein. Cooperative Research Programs (CRP) grants permission to reproduce material in this publication for classroom and not-for-profit purposes. Permission is given with the understanding that none of the material will be used to imply TRB, AASHTO, FAA, FHWA, FMCSA, FTA, or Transit Development Corporation endorsement of a particular product, method, or practice. It is expected that those reproducing the material in this document for educational and not-for-profit uses will give appropriate acknowledgment of the source of any reprinted or reproduced material. For other uses of the material, request permission from CRP. NOTICE The project that is the subject of this report was a part of the Transit Cooperative Research Program conducted by the Transportation Research Board with the approval of the Governing Board of the National Research Council. Such approval reflects the Governing Board’s judgment that the project concerned is appropriate with respect to both the purposes and resources of the National Research Council. The members of the technical advisory panel selected to monitor this project and to review this report were chosen for recognized scholarly competence and with due consideration for the balance of disciplines appropriate to the project. The opinions and conclusions expressed or implied are those of the research agency that performed the research, and while they have been accepted as appropriate by the technical panel, they are not necessarily those of the Transportation Research Board, the National Research Council, the Transit Development Corporation, or the Federal Transit Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation. Each report is reviewed and accepted for publication by the technical panel according to procedures established and monitored by the Transportation Research Board Executive Committee and the Governing Board of the National Research Council. The Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, the National Research Council, the Transit Development Corporation, and the Federal Transit Administration (sponsor of the Transit Cooperative Research Program) do not endorse products or manufacturers. Trade or manufacturers’ names appear herein solely because they are considered essential to the clarity and completeness of the project reporting. Published reports of the TRANSIT COOPERATIVE RESEARCH PROGRAM are available from: Transportation Research Board Business Office 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 and can be ordered through the Internet at http://www.national-academies.org/trb/bookstore Printed in the United States of America

CRP STAFF FOR TCRP REPORT 113 Robert J. Reilly, Director, Cooperative Research Programs Christopher W. Jenks, TCRP Manager S. A. Parker, Senior Program Officer Eileen P. Delaney, Director of Publications Natalie Barnes, Editor TCRP PROJECT H-28 PANEL Field of Policy and Planning James W. Kemp, New Jersey Transit Corporation, Newark, NJ (Chair) Fabian Cevallos, University of South Florida, Weston, FL Thomas Friedman, King County (WA) Metro Transit, Seattle, WA Erin Mitchell, Metro Transit—Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minneapolis, MN Yuko Nakanishi, Nakanishi Research and Consulting, Rego Park, NY Gerald Pachucki, Utah Transit Authority, Salt Lake City, UT Kimberly Slaughter, S.R. Beard & Associates, LLC, Houston, TX Wei-Bin Zhang, University of California—Berkeley, Richmond, CA Sarah Clements, FTA Liaison Louis F. Sanders, APTA Liaison Kay Drucker, Bureau of Transportation Statistics Liaison Peter Shaw, TRB Liaison C O O P E R A T I V E R E S E A R C H P R O G R A M S

This report will be of interest to transit personnel responsible for planning, scheduling, and managing reliable bus transit services in congested areas. This report will also be useful to other members of technology procurement teams, representing operations, mainte- nance, information systems, human resources, legal, finance, and training departments. In response to growing traffic congestion and passenger demands for more reliable ser- vice, many transit operators are seeking to improve bus operations by investing in automatic vehicle location (AVL) technology. In addition, automatic passenger counters (APCs), which can collect passenger-activity data compatible with AVL operating data, are begin- ning to reach the mainstream. Many operators are planning, implementing, or operating AVL-APC systems. The primary application of AVL technology has been in the area of real- time operations monitoring and control; consequently, AVL data has not typically been stored or processed in a way that makes it suitable for subsequent, off-line analysis. In con- trast, APC data is generally accessed for reporting and planning purposes long after oppor- tunities for real-time use have expired. Beyond the area of real-time operations control, AVL technology holds substantial promise for improving service planning, scheduling, and performance analysis practices. These activities have historically been hampered by the high cost of collecting operating and passenger-activity data; however, AVL and APC systems can capture the large samples of operating data required for performance analysis and management at a fairly low incremen- tal cost. Compared to real-time applications of AVL data, off-line analysis of archived data has different demands for accuracy, detail, and ability to integrate with other data sources. Operators and vendors need effective strategies for designing AVL-APC systems to capture and process data of a quality needed for off-line analysis, and for archiving and taking advantage of this promising data source. The objective of TCRP Project H-28 was to develop guidance for the effective collection and use of archived AVL-APC data to improve the performance and management of tran- sit systems. This report offers guidance on five subjects: • Analyses that use AVL-APC data to improve management and performance • AVL-APC system design to facilitate the capture of data with the accuracy and detail needed for off-line data analysis • Data structures and analysis software for facilitating analysis of AVL-APC data • Screening, parsing, and balancing automatic passenger counts • Use of APC systems for estimating passenger-miles for National Transit Database reporting F O R E W O R D By S. A. Parker Staff Officer Transportation Research Board

Tools for (1) analyzing running times and (2) designing scheduled running times using archived AVL and APC data were created as an extension of the existing software TriTAPT (Trip Time Analysis in Public Transport), a product of the Delft University of Technology. In addition, TriTAPT was used to demonstrate one of the advanced data structures recom- mended, that of a “virtual route” consisting of multiple overlapping routes serving the same street. Under the terms of this project, TriTAPT is available without license fee to U.S. and Canadian transit agencies through 2009. To request TriTAPT, please send an email to Tri- TAPT@neu.edu. From the TRB website (http://www4.trb.org/trb/crp.nsf/All+Projects/TCRP+H-28), the following items can be accessed: (1) an electronic version of this report; (2) spreadsheet files with prototype analyses of passenger waiting time (using AVL data) and passenger crowd- ing (using APC data); and (3) case studies (as appendixes to TCRP Web Document 23: Uses of Archived AVL-APC Data to Improve Transit Performance and Management: Review and Potential).

C O N T E N T S 1 Summary 8 Chapter 1 Introduction 8 1.1 Historical Background 9 1.2 Research Objective 10 1.3 Research Approach 12 1.4 Report Outline 14 Chapter 2 Automatic Vehicle Location 14 2.1 Location Technology 14 2.2 Route and Schedule Matching 17 2.3 Data Recording: On- or Off-Vehicle 19 2.4 Data Recovery and Sample Size 21 Chapter 3 Integrating Other Devices 21 3.1 Automatic Passenger Counters 21 3.2 Odometer (Transmission Sensors) 22 3.3 Door Switch 22 3.4 Fare Collection Devices 22 3.5 Other Devices 23 3.6 Integration and Standards 25 Chapter 4 Uses of AVL-APC Data 25 4.1 Becoming Data Rich: A Revolution in Management Tools 29 4.2 Key Dimensions of Data Needs 29 4.3 Targeted Investigations 29 4.4 Running Time 33 4.5 Schedule Adherence, Long-Headway Waiting, and Connection Protection 35 4.6 Headway Regularity and Short-Headway Waiting 36 4.7 Demand Analysis 39 4.8 Mapping 39 4.9 Miscellaneous Operations Analyses 40 4.10 Higher Level Analyses 41 Chapter 5 Tools for Scheduling Running Time 41 5.1 Running Time Periods and Scheduled Running Time 43 5.2 Determining Running Time Profiles Using the Passing Moments Method 45 Chapter 6 Tools for Analyzing Waiting Time 45 6.1 A Framework for Analyzing Waiting Time 46 6.2 Short-Headway Waiting Time Analysis 48 6.3 Long-Headway Waiting Time Analysis

51 Chapter 7 Tools for Analyzing Crowding 51 7.1 Distribution of Crowding by Bus Trip 51 7.2 Distribution of Crowding Experience by Passenger 54 Chapter 8 Passenger Count Processing and Accuracy 54 8.1 Raw Count Accuracy 55 8.2 Trip-Level Parsing 58 8.3 Trip-Level Balancing Methods 63 Chapter 9 APC Sampling Needs and National Transit Database Passenger-Miles Estimates 63 9.1 Sample Size and Fleet Penetration Needed for Load Monitoring 63 9.2 Accuracy and Sample Size Needed for Passenger-Miles 66 Chapter 10 Designing AVL Systems for Archived Data Analysis 66 10.1 Off-Vehicle versus On-Vehicle Data Recording 66 10.2 Level of Spatial Detail 68 10.3 Devices to Include 69 10.4 Fleet Penetration and Sampling 69 10.5 Exception Reporting versus Exception Recording 70 Chapter 11 Data Structures That Facilitate Analysis 70 11.1 Analysis Software Sources 72 11.2 Data Screening and Matching 73 11.3 Associating Event Data with Stop/Timepoint Data 74 11.4 Aggregation Independent of Sequence 75 11.5 Data Structures for Analysis of Shared-Route Trunks 75 11.6 Modularity and Standard Database Formats 77 Chapter 12 Organizational Issues 77 12.1 Raising the Profile of Archived Data 77 12.2 Management Practices to Support Data Quality 77 12.3 Staffing and Skill Needs 78 12.4 Managing an Instrumented Sub-fleet 78 12.5 Avoiding Labor Opposition 79 Chapter 13 Conclusions 81 References 83 Appendixes

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TRB's Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Report 113: Using Archived AVL-APC Data to Improve Transit Performance and Management explores the effective collection and use of archived automatic vehicle location (AVL) and automatic passenger counter (APC) data to improve the performance and management of transit systems. Spreadsheet files are available on the web that provide prototype analyses of long and short passenger waiting time using AVL data and passenger crowding using APC data. Case studies on the use of AVL and APC data have previously been published as appendixes to TCRP Web-Only Document 23: Uses of Archived AVL-APC Data to Improve Transit Performance and Management: Review and Potential.

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