NTRAC Final Study - Nebraska Department of Roads - State of ...

Chapter 4
TECHNOLOGY OPTIONS
INTRODUCTION
As Nebraska continues to grow, traffic on the interregional highway network will become worse.
Increased traffic congestion in once rural areas is caused in part by urban sprawl. A growing
inter-dependency of the two largest cities in Nebraska has led to increased traffic in the Lincoln-
Omaha corridor. The increased use of automobiles for regional travel continues our dependence
on foreign sources of oil to fuel our mobility. Increasing recognition of the need for high-quality
transit service to alleviate these conditions has fueled growing demand for new or improved
transit services. Improved transit systems have in fact played an essential role in providing an
attractive and effective alternative to automobiles, by reaching into central cities, local
neighborhoods, and rural areas to meet the mobility needs of millions of people in other parts of
the country and throughout the world.
This chapter describes the family of high-capacity transit technology options or modes available
to meet estimated future demand for intercity public transportation services in Nebraska. The
chapter discusses the process of identifying and assessing appropriate groups of transit
technologies along with the evaluation criteria used to analyze them. It then discusses and
illustrates the candidate transit technologies’ site-specific requirements. The chapter concludes
with a summary of candidate mode characteristics. As an alternative, van-pools are briefly
discussed.
IDENTIFICATION OF HIGH CAPACITY MASS TRANSIT TECHNOLOGIES
A family of public transportation technologies has been designed to supply a range of public
transport system capacities that satisfy system demand. These technologies range from small
buses in rural areas to heavy rail rapid transit systems in very large cities. Each group of
technologies is designed to operate within a certain environment achieving capacities limited by
vehicle size, right-of-way requirements and scheduled speed. Each technology option satisfies a
particular level of travel market demand. The transit technology selected for a corridor therefore
is largely dependent on the capacities of the technology under investigation.
CAPACITY OF TRANSIT TECHNOLOGIES
The capacity of a transit line is measured by calculating the number of persons per hour per
direction (PHPD). This is achieved by simply multiplying vehicle capacity times the number of
buses or trains operating per hour passing a given station. For example, assuming buses seat 40
people and the public transport system maximum load factor is 125 percent of seated capacity,
the peak capacity of the bus is 50 passengers. With this load factor, a busway could theoretically
serve up to 12,000 PHPD. This would be the equivalent of operating 4 buses per minute during
the peak hour passing a station stop. Although buses passing a given point on a busway can
achieve this throughput, not all buses can stop unless fairly elaborate stations with multiple bus
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NEBRASKA TRANSIT CORRIDORS STUDY
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