Peninsula transportation district commission route deviation feasibility study.

Abstract

Many urban transit providers are faced with the problem of declining ridership on traditional fixed route services in low density suburban areas. As a result, many fixed route services in such areas are not economically viable for the transit provider. Ridership levels on such routes could be increased by adding more flexibility to the fixed route structure by replacing the fixed route with a route deviation service. Another reason transit providers are turning to route deviation is because the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) required that certain disabled persons receive complementary paratransit services at a nominal cost. This meant that public transportation providers were suddenly faced with the challenge of providing traditional fixed-route transit service while also serving individuals with disabilities. As a result of these issues, research was conducted to demonstrate the technical feasibility of operating a route deviation bus service in a suburban area. The Peninsula Transportation District Commission (Pentran) provided a case study setting. The objectives of the research were to develop a decision support system (DSS) for route deviation services that will operate within a geographic information system (GIS) and to investigate route deviation design parameters. Such a DSS was developed and tested using two of Pentran's 13 routes. The results of the study are promising and demonstrate the technical feasibility of providing route deviation service under certain conditions. The prototype DSS can be used as the foundation for developing a full-fledged route deviation scheduling software that Pentran can use to implement such a service.

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