Abstract

Measuring Transit-Coverage Level-Of-Service in U.S. Border Cities
Track: Transportation
Authors: Luis David Galicia

The Transit Capacity and Quality of Service Manual (TCQSM) provides a GIS-based methodology to analyze the Service Coverage-Level of Service (SC-LOS) for any fixed transit route. The SC-LOS is determined from the percentage of Transit Supportive Area (TSA) that has service coverage within a certain walking distance. The TCQSM method of determining the TSA is based on local demographics and economics, but may not lead to accurate estimations of SC-LOS for areas where there is a significant influx of ridership from external sources. If such a ridership pattern exists, onboard passenger Origin-Destination (O-D) surveys can be used to gather trip data to supplement the TCQSM's TSA estimates. Data from an onboard O-D survey conducted for the border city of El Paso, Texas, showed that without the survey, the percentage of service area covered by transit and the SC-LOS were underestimated. GIS was the key for performing and validating this study.