Frederick P Salvucci

NEW MODEL FOR APPLIED UNIVERSITY RESEARCH AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: TREN URBANO PROGRAM

In preparation for operating its first modern urban rail transit system, Puerto Rico faces the challenge of creating the human resources knowledgeable in rail transit as well as the construction of the physical infrastructure itself. Because a rail transit system takes a generation or more to build, typically over several phases, professional development is aimed at the students currently in college at the start of their careers. Professional development and academic research have been implemented on the Tren Urbano program through technology transfer activities that develop local expertise in rail transit design, construction, and operations; promote research applicable to Tren Urbano and public transportation; and provide real work experience to university students supervised by practicing professionals. These goals have been pursued over the past 7 years through two programs: the Tren Urbano University of Puerto Rico–Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professional Development and Research Program, and the Tren Urbano Student Internship Program. These programs are described and their potential to become a model for applied university research in the public transportation field featuring collaboration between universities, public agencies, and private companies is discussed. Although the initial impetus for the program was driven by the unique Puerto Rican situation, its design, implementation, and evolution have pursued multiple goals that are potentially much more broadly applicable.

Automated, Data-Driven Performance Regime for Operations Management, Planning, and Control

As public transit agencies install new technology systems, these agencies are gaining increasing amounts of data. These data have the potential to change how transit agencies operate by generating better information for decision making. Deriving value from these data and applying it to improve service requires changing the institutional processes that developed when agencies had little reliable information about their systems and customers. This research used the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority as a case study. The research assessed how the agency measured performance and then redesigned and advanced the agencys daily performance reports for rapid transit through a collaborative and iterative process with the operations control center staff. These reports were used to identify poor performance, to implement pilot projects to address the causes of poor performance, and to evaluate the effects of these pilots. Through the case study, this research found that service controllers’ trust and interpretation of performance information determined the impact the information had on operations. The results showed that new data would be most effective in producing service improvements if measurements accurately reflected human experience and were developed in conjunction with their intended users. Developing small pilot projects during this collaborative process would also enable new performance information and results in sustainable service improvements.

Applications of Inferred Origins, Destinations, and Interchanges in Bus Service Planning

A growing number of researchers and transit agencies are using fare card and vehicle location data to infer passengers’ origins, destinations, and transfers. A number of researchers have suggested that these new data sets provide valuable information for transit network design, but few concrete applications have been developed to address bus network design and service planning problems. This paper proposes new service planning procedures to aggregate these automated data to examine travel patterns to specific locations of interest to propose needed improvements. The data from existing passengers’ trips are then analyzed to assess the benefits of the proposed service changes. In particular, the number of existing passengers who would likely experience shorter travel times with the service changes is calculated according to the geometry of how a proposed new or extended route intersects with the existing transit network. The results of this analysis provide planners with better information than is currently available to support decisions on how to allocate the scarce resources typically available for service changes. Several case studies from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority are presented to illustrate these analytical techniques.

Rising Costs of Transit and Baumol’s Cost Disease

This paper describes analysis of whether the public transit sector suffers from Baumol’s cost disease. The evolution of labor productivity and average labor costs across transit agencies in the United States was assessed compared with other industries. It was found that (a) labor productivity in the transit sector was mostly stagnant over the period 1997 to 2013, more so in bus operations than in rail operations (0.0% and 0.7% average labor productivity growth rates, respectively), and even more so when output was measured as vehicle revenue miles rather than as passenger miles traveled; (b) the transit sector was highly labor-intensive, because it represented on average 64% of total costs (operating and capital) for bus and 40% for rail; (c) compensation per employee rose at a faster pace than inflation in 85% of the agencies analyzed; and (d) compensation per employee rose at a faster pace than the average local wage rate in 65% of the agencies analyzed. These findings support the hypothesis that not only does the transit sector suffer from Baumol’s cost disease but also that additional factors contribute to spiraling labor costs. Although no antidote to the disease is clear, policy makers should recognize that, as the economy becomes more productive overall, it can continue to support growing levels of transit service in recognition of the growing external benefits, despite the sector’s inherently stagnant productivity growth.

Agglomeration Benefits and Transportation Projects: Review of Theory, Measurement, and Application

Traditional project appraisal assesses benefits from a number of sources, including improvements in safety and reductions in noise levels, travel cost, and travel time. In most cases, benefits are primarily based on travel time savings. Project appraisal based primarily on travel time savings systematically underestimates the benefits of projects that create economic benefits beyond travel time savings and thereby introduces systematic bias against investment in an important subset of initiatives, particularly in projects large enough to alter the time–space geography of a metropolitan area. Recent research has developed methodologies to capture some of these previously overlooked benefits of transportation projects, most notably agglomeration benefits. While methodologies now exist to measure agglomeration benefits, their inclusion in project appraisal is limited, partly because agglomeration and its sources are not well understood. This work explains agglomeration through a review of previous research on the sources of transportation benefits and appraisal methodologies. This study also reviews the agglomeration calculations of a number of projects and specifically highlights projects in London; Melbourne, Australia; and Tel Aviv, Israel.