TTE 4274:

Transportation Engineering Systems

Instructor: Sabreena Anowar, PhD

Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering
University of Central Florida

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Today’s Outline
• Mass transit/Public passenger transportation

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Introduction
• Three categories of urban
transportation:
• Private transportation: Privately
owned vehicles operated by owners -
private cars, motorcycle, bicycles
• For-hire or paratransit: Service
provided by an operator and available to
all parties who pay prescribed fares or
rates (taxi, Uber, Lyft, dial-a-ride)
• Public transit (mass transit, public
transportation): System with fixed
routes and schedules, available for all
users who pay the established fare (bus,
light rail transit, metro)
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Introduction
• Public transportation is shared transportation service
• It consists of
• regularly scheduled vehicle trips,
• open to all paying passengers,
• a common carrier with the capacity to carry multiple
passengers whose trips may have different origins,
destinations, purposes.

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A Glimpse at History
Date Mode or Event
Pre-1800s Foot + Horse + Ferry
Early 1800’s Horse-Drawn Omnibus (~20 people)
Mid 1800’s Horse-Drawn Tramways (rails)
Late 1800’s Mechanical revolution
Steam-power
Cable cars
Horse drawn tram

Horse-drawn Omnibus 5
A Glimpse at History
Date Mode or Event
1882 American Street Railway Association
1888 First Electric US Streetcar (Richmond, VA)
1897 First US subway (Boston, MA)
1920’s Rise of the automobile
1945 - 1965 Transition to bus as predominant mode
1974 Only 7 US street railways in operation
The trial run of Boston’s subway
in August 1897

One of the First Electric Streetcars

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in Cincinnati, Ohio 1888
Trends in Transit Ridership in US
Transit passengers in the US
(000,000 passengers)

1 2 3 4 5 6

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Modal Split Change

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Cycle of Automobile Dependency

The magic-vicious-circle of Automobile Dependency

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Cycle of Automobile Dependency

The magic-vicious-circle of Automobile Dependency

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Cycle of Automobile Dependency

The magic-vicious-circle of Automobile Dependency

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Cycle of Automobile Dependency

The magic-vicious-circle of Automobile Dependency

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Commuting Mode Choice

76.4
Length of commute % of commuters

60+ minutes 8.4

30-59 minutes 28

10-29 minutes 50.6

1-10 minutes 13.1

9.4
5.2 4.4 2.8 1.3 0.6

Drive alone Carpool Public Work at home Walk Cab, motorcycle, Bicycle
transportation others

Source: https://www.statista.com/chart/2767/types-of-commuters-in-the-us/
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Commuting Mode Choice: Florida
90
79.6
80 76.4
US Florida
70
60
50
40
30
20
9.4 9.4
10 5.2 2.8 1.5
2.1 0.65 0.7 1.3 1.5
0
Drive alone Carpool Public Walk Bike Other means
transportation

http://www.fdot.gov/planning/trends/special/acs012816.pdf

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Trends in Transit use in Florida

http://www.fdot.gov/planning/trends/special/acs012816.pdf

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Transportation Issues
Negative impacts of automobile dependency

Reduced saving Health risks Traffic Acute GHG emissions

crashes congestion

Many of these can be solved by public transportation

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Benefits of Public Transit
• Mitigate congestion
Cost of Congestion Additional Cost of Congestion without Transit
$100
$90
10.2
$80
Billions of Dollars

$70 9.5
$60 8.2
$50
7.0
$40 6.9 78.2

$30 63.9
5.0 53.2
$20 41.9
4.9 35.5
$10 23.1
16.2
$0
1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2005
Congestion delay cost: $78.2 billion
If no public transit: additional $10.2 billion (TTI)
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Benefits of Public Transit
• Decreases dependence on foreign fuels

Households near public transit

drive an average of 4,400 fewer
miles annually -
an individual household
reduction of 223 gallons per year

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Benefits of Public Transit
• Efficient use of land

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Benefits of Public Transit
• Efficient use of land
https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/954709976248971264

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Benefits of Public Transit
• Environmental benefit

https://twitter.com/urbanthoughts11
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Benefits of Public Transit
• Environmental benefit

https://pollutionfree.wordpress.com/2010/05/12/transit-ridership-and-emissions-per-mile/

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Benefits of Public Transit
• Safety

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Benefits of Public Transit
• Provides access to people of all ages and abilities

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Benefits of Public Transit
• Increases real estate values and development

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Benefits of Public Transit
• Equity and Savings

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Benefits of Public Transit
• Quality of life

Walking to and from

transit helps inactive
persons attain a
significant portion of the
recommended minimum
daily exercise they need

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Elements of Transit Modes
• Transit modes have 3 basic elements which are
referred to as RTS
• R: Right of way
• T: Technology
• S: Service

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Right-of-Way (ROW) Category
• ROW is the travel way or strip of land on which the
transit vehicle operates
• Most important element – it influences investment
cost and performance
• Based on degree of separation, it is of 3 types
• Category C: surface streets with mixed traffic
• bus, street car, tram
• Category B: physically separated – with grade crossings
• light rail
• Category A: grade separated (tunnel/elevated)/exclusive
• metro/subway

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Right-of-Way (ROW) Category
• ROW is the travel way or strip of land on which the
transit vehicle operates
• Based on degree of separation, it is of 3 types
• Category C: surface streets with mixed traffic
• bus, street car, tram

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Right-of-Way (ROW) Category
• ROW is the travel way or strip of land on which the
transit vehicle operates
• Based on degree of separation, it is of 3 types
• Category B: physically separated – with grade crossings
• light rail

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Right-of-Way (ROW) Category
• ROW is the travel way or strip of land on which the
transit vehicle operates
• Based on degree of separation, it is of 3 types
• Category A: grade separated (tunnel/elevated)/exclusive
• metro/subway

By My Train Pix - https://www.flickr.com/photos/30291875@N06/5745368349/, CC

BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17649188

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Right-of-Way (ROW) Category
• Three types of ROW for bus and rail transit

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Right-of-Way (ROW) Category
• ROW categories and generic classes of transit modes
– based on speed of vehicles and operating/capital
cost

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System Technologies
• Mechanical features of vehicles and travel ways
• Four most important features are –
1. Support – vertical contact between vehicle and surface
• Rubber tire on concrete
• Steel wheel on steel rail
2. Guidance – lateral control
• Steered by driver
• Guided by track (automated)

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System Technologies
• Rubber tired guided mode
• O-Bahn (Adelaide, Australia)

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guided_bus

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System Technologies
• Mechanical features of vehicles and travel ways
• Four most important features are –
3. Propulsion
• Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) - conventional (gasoline/diesel)
• Electric motor
• Others – Hybrid, Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), Ethanol, Biodiesel

Hybrid Bus, Toronto

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System Technologies
• Mechanical features of vehicles and travel ways
• Four most important features are –
4. Control
• Manual
• Fully automated-driverless

Hybrid Bus, Toronto

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Types of Services
• Includes several classifications –
• Route and trip type
• Stopping schedule
• Time of operation

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Types of Services
• By route types and trips served
• Short-haul – low-speed, small areas, high travel density,
many stops
• e.g., airports, central business districts, campuses
• City-wide – routes serving entire city
• Regional – high-speed, longer trips, fewer stops
• e.g., Regional rail, express bus

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Types of Services
• By stopping schedule –

By stopping schedule
or type of operation

Local service

Accelerated service/
skip-stop service

Express service –
widely spaced stops

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Types of Services
• By time of operation

By time of operation

Regular or all-day
service

Commuter transit or
peak-hour service

Special or irregular
service

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Classes of Transit Modes
• Public transportation modes –
1. Street transit (surface transit) modes
2. Medium-capacity modes:
• Semi-rapid transit
3. High performance modes:
• Rapid transit

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Street/Surface Transit
• The most common type of transit everyday
• Operating on street

Consists of buses operating along fixed lines on

Regular bus fixed schedules with relatively frequent/dense
stops along the line

Typically consists of buses operating on long lines

with widely spaced stops – works well in places
Express bus where people commute into a city from another
small city or suburb

Same vehicles as buses but instead of a diesel

engine, they are propelled by an electric motor
Trolley bus and obtain power from two overhead wires
along their lines

Street cars or Electrically powered rail transit vehicles operating

tramways as one- or three-car transit mostly on streets
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 Semirapid Transit
• Higher performance than the street transit mode
• Utilizes mostly ROW category B
 Most ROW is B
 Clearly designated stops/stations with passenger
Bus amenities spaced 300-500 m apart
rapid  Regular/articulated buses with multiple doors
transit  Service offered with regular headways throughout
(BRT) the day
 Movement of buses along line, well-organized
passenger information

Light  Most of the ROW is B/A

 Track crossing of street are regulated by signals
rail
 Stops/stations are separated from the street roadway
transit  Average spacing between stops/stations : 300-600m
(LRT)  Vehicles are articulated and have multiple doors

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Rapid Transit
• Utilizes ROW category A
• System with high capacity, reliability, safety and
other performance elements
Light rail rapid Light rail vehicles operating on ROW category A
transit (LRRT) only

Rubber-tired Moderately large four-axle vehicles supported and

rapid transit guided by rubber tires, running on steel or concrete
(RTRT) surfaces

Fundamentally different technology of vehicles and

guideway.
Monorail Includes vehicles supported or suspended from the
guideway.

Typically consists of large four-axle electrically

Rail rapid transit
powered rail vehicles operate in trains of up to 10
(RRT) or Metro cars with full signal control
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Other Modes
• Ferry
• Auto, passenger

• Monorail
• Straddle, suspended

• Cable car
• Unique to San Francisco

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Other Modes
• Automated Guideway
Transit (AGT)
• Driverless vehicles for
institutional circulation

• Aerial ropeways
• Carrier suspended from
aerial cable

• Funiculars or Inclines
• Suited for hilly areas
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Fun Fact

A bustling streetcar-lined corridor in Wakanda's Steptown neighborhood

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References
• Fundamentals of Transportation Engineering: A Multimodal
Systems Approach. By Jon D. Fricker and Robert K.
Whitford. Pearson International Edition.
• Human transit : how clearer thinking about public transit can
enrich our communities and our lives, By Jarrett Walker.
Island Press.
• http://www.apta.com/resources/workforce/national-transit-
curriculum/
• https://stride.ce.ufl.edu/course-materials-developed-by-stride/

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