Final Report - Pima Association of Governments

Highway Capacity Transit System Plan - Final Report June 2009
Development of Updated HCT System Plan
• One streetcar park‐and‐ride lot on Broadway Boulevard: $300,000
• No streetcar park‐and‐ride lots on 6th Avenue and Campbell Avenue North
Refined Operating Costs
The operating costs estimation methodology from Section 5.0 was also used for Section 6.0. The
BRT operating cost estimates for are based on Sun Tran’s bus operating cost per revenue hour
(which represents driver wages, fuel, and administrative costs) as reported in the 2006 National
Transit Database (NTD). Operating costs for streetcar were estimated based on a ratio obtained
through a comparison of NTD data for transit agencies in areas similar to Tucson and currently
operating both fixed‐route bus service and LRT/streetcar service. Other relevant assumptions for
the operating cost estimates are as follows:
• The service span duration for the peak period was assumed to be 6 hours, and the service
span duration for the off‐peak period was assumed to be 12 hours.
• The headways for weekdays, Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays were assumed to be 10
minutes during peak hours and 15 minutes during off‐peak hours.
• An average travel speed was assumed for each alternative by adjusting the existing
average local bus speed from the NTD to reflect BRT or streetcar station spacing,
implementation of TSP, and/or operation in a dedicated lane as appropriate. The basis for
the adjustments is the Transit Capacity and Quality of Service Manual (TCQSM).
• For the routes that partially have exclusive transit lanes, a weighted average speed (with
and without exclusive lanes) was calculated to estimate the running times.
• The two‐way length of the alternative (i.e., “track miles”) was divided by the
corresponding average travel speed to calculate the average round‐trip travel time for
each alternative. To this average round‐trip travel time, the project team added a fiveminute
layover.
• Given the average round‐trip travel time and the planned weekday headways, the
number of vehicles needed to provide peak period service on a typical weekday was
calculated. The number of daily vehicle‐hours needed to maintain planned headways
throughout a typical weekday was also calculated.
• Weekday daily vehicle‐hours were annualized to reflect a full year of vehicle‐hours using
an annualization factor of 310, which reflects less transit service on weekends and
holidays than on weekdays. The transit service provided on Saturdays was assumed to be
65% of that provided on weekdays, and the transit service provided on Sundays and
holidays was assumed to be 20% of that provided on weekdays. (The annual vehiclehours
estimate calculated in this manner reflects only the vehicle‐hours needed to provide
service at the planned headways.)
• The number of annual revenue hours was multiplied by the assumed operating cost per
revenue hour to estimate annual operating costs for the alternative.
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