CE 574 - Public Transportation
Fall 2008

The Administration page includes information on meeting times, instructor information, office hours, prerequisites, requirements, expectations, learning styles, communications, and students assessments.

The Course Materials page includes information on the schedule for class topics, assignments, and examinations.

The Resources page includes links to websites, reports, and other resources that you will find useful.

What is Public Transportation?
The role of public transportation has changed dramatically in the past century. Before the automobile, in the 1920's, public transportation (and walking) was the primary means for commuters to reach their jobs. Public transportation again became important during the 1940's when gasoline and other materials needed for the automobile were in short supply. Since the 1970's, energy and environmental concerns have motivated more cities to consider how public transportation can serve the needs of more travelers. Recent increases in gasoline prices and concern about global warming have made more travelers consider how public transit might meet more of their travel needs.

Today, public transportation plays a variety of roles in cities across the U.S. In  New York City, residents make more than 80 percent of their trips on buses and subway lines. After decades of decline, public transit in Portland, Oregon, increased dramatically in recent years. Light rail transit is now a critical part of the city's transportation cities and more than 40 percent of all trips made to the downtown core area are made on transit. Yet, less than five percent of all trips made in the Portland region are made using transit. In Moscow, Idaho, minimal service is provided with two loop routes centering on the University of Idaho.

Public transportation systems are complex. They include a variety of vehicles that travel along interconnected routes, with drivers that are scheduled according to complex union work rules, serving travelers with a variety of travel and personal needs, in cities with diverse land use patterns, and with funding from the fare box and other sources.

This Course
During this semester, you will learn about several aspects of public transportation. These aspects reflect my own experiences during the eight years that I worked with the public transit system in Portland, Oregon. In particular, we will focus on the following six topics:

• Service and scheduling
• Capacity and quality of service
• Operations
• Network and system characteristics
• Performance
• Policy and planning

Within these six topics, I have identified a set of skills and abilities that I hope that you will have by the end of this semester. These skills and abilities, phrased in terms of learning objectives, are listed below:

Service and scheduling

• Understand characteristics of transit lines
• Design a transit line
• Design a transit schedule based on specified demand or other guidelines
• Determine resource requirements for a given level of service
• Apply time-space diagrams to design, analyze, and visualize transit line operations

Capacity and quality of service

• Determine capacity of vehicles, lines, trains, track segments
• Determine capacity of rail line
• Understand and be able to apply quality of service concepts
• Apply measures from Transit Capacity and Quality of Service Manual

Operations

• Evaluate bus freeway and arterial operations
• Design and evaluate transit signal priority and railroad preempt operations at signalized intersections
• Design light rail transit operations between Moscow and Pullman

Network and system characteristics (didn't do)

• Understand types of transit networks and implications of networks to users and market segments
• Design timed-transfer sub-networks including schedules and functional station design
• Design ultimate bus network for Moscow including lines, schedules, run-cuts, resources requirements, and public timetables.

Performance (didn't do)

• Understand and apply line and system performance measures
• Design and conduct surveys to measure performance and system usage
• Measure service performance and schedule reliability using field data
• Measure system usage, passage travel patterns, and rider characteristics
• Determine and portray performance of lines and systems using passenger data, travel time data, and cost data.

Policy and planning (didn't do)

• Estimate travel demand resulting from service level and fare changes
• Understand how transit fares are determined and how transit is financed
• Understand and apply transit service standards
• Understand land use issues that affect transit including transit-oriented development
• Understand and synthesize transit's role in addressing environmental and energy issues
• Understand and apply union work rules
• Understand transit mode characteristics

Closing Thoughts
I will make every effort to make this course both challenging and enjoyable.  I will try to create experiences that invite you to learn new things and to apply what you learn to real situations. I hope that you enjoy the material that we will cover during this semester and it helps to broaden your skills and experiences in transportation.  I look forward to working with each of you.