IMPLEMENTATION PLANNING OF INTEGRATED TRANSIT SERVICES FOR A SMALL URBAN AND RURAL AREA. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This research focuses on tasks for taking technically feasible preliminary transit options to a local community and translating these plans into an implementable program. This planning phase, referred to as implementation planning, addresses the following planning considerations: Financial Planning; Management and Organization; Institutional Roles; Regulatory Reforms; and Citizen Participation. The specific problem addressed concerns an evaluation of the requirements for implementing transit alternatives in a low density area and securing a community consensus. To incorporate the realities of a complex public transportation planning process, this research project is tied closely to the current public transportation improvement program of Charlottesville and Albemarle County, Virginia. This study includes two elements that are reported in separate volumes of the final report. Volume I describes the financial planning and organizational structures that are necessary to implement integrated transit services in a small and rural area and Volume II evaluates system alternatives through public participation and group interaction by using a completed preliminary plan to focus community interest in public transit. This study reviews the primary organizational alternatives that are appropriate for delivering comprehensive areawide transportation. The long term solution was shown to be the transportation district. A description of a prototype district is given that evolves from a planning and administrative body to the total operation. The transit preferences of citizens, elected officials, and transit operators in the community were determined in a workshop and a series of interviews that were related to the characteristics of 18 urban and 25 rural transit route alternatives. The preferences were adjusted to reflect the future effects of a status quo scenario, a scenario favoring transit, and one not favoring transit. The urban and rural transit systems were selected by the evaluation model with respect to technical and financial constraints. The transit system improvements which were specified by the evaluation model compared very favorably with actual transit recommendations made by local officials. (UMTA)