Final Report - Pima Association of Governments

High Capacity Transit System Plan - Final Report June 2009
Transit Technologies Analysis
• Greater stop spacing
• Improved information at stations and/or on board
• Vehicles with enhanced design and capacity
• An enhanced image (reflected in vehicles, stations, and other components of the service)
Reducing Travel Time
One of the main goals of BRT is to improve service by reducing travel times. The components of
travel time include time getting to and from the transit stop, time waiting for the transit vehicle,
and time in the vehicle. If a transfer is needed, there is also additional walking and waiting time.
A central concept in BRT planning is to give priority to transit vehicles in order to make them an
attractive choice of transportation. Such techniques can greatly reduce in‐vehicle travel times and
improve service reliability.
One form of priority is to run service on exclusive rights‐of‐way such as busways and exclusive
lanes on expressways. Another form of priority is to designate bus lanes on arterial streets.
Providing transit signal priority (TSP) to transit vehicles can also speed operation on streets.
Reducing the number of stops, providing limited‐stop service, or relocating stops to areas where
there is less congestion can also increase service speeds, although potentially with the
disadvantage of increasing walk time.
These techniques not only reduce the overall travel time, but, by improving the reliability of
service, they can increase the quality of service and help develop BRT as a distinct mode of
transportation. Furthermore, automatic vehicle location (AVL) systems can be used to manage the
BRT service to provide more regular intervals between buses, thereby minimizing passenger
waiting time and improving reliability.
Changing fare collection policies to reduce or eliminate on‐vehicle fare purchase can also reduce
boarding times. An example of an off‐board fare collection application is shown in Figure 24.
Using vehicle designs that feature fewer steps and more or wider doors can also reduce dwell
times.
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