Suburban Transit: Guidelines for New Services and Land Use Integration - TCRP Project B-25

In November 2003, Urbitran Associates was selected to lead a research team for TCRP Project B-25, “Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. This project had been recommended to update prior work in this area, recognizing that effectively capturing the suburban market is a critical goal for many public transportation providers. An integral element of the research is examining the nexus between land use characteristics and suburban transit use, the portion of the research led by Cambridge Systematics. This paper provides an overview of the methodology used in the research, describes the results from more than 28 preliminary case studies and outlines the methodology for nine detailed case studies, which began in December 2004 and will be completed in March 2005. The results of these case studies will not only describe a variety of transit services ranging from commuter express to demand responsive services, but will include accompanying information regarding issues such as performance measurement, start-up and sustained funding alternatives, and community interaction and participation. The detailed case studies, focusing on individual suburban transit services in nine metropolitan areas, will include an “activity surface” that graphically presents the local service areas of selected services in the context of regional trip making, a number of land use statistics for each service area, and data on operating parameters and performance measures. The results of the TCRP research will provide timely, practical information for attendees and enhance dissemination of the research to transit agencies throughout the country.