9.2 Fixed Route Transit

Fixed route transit services can be defined as services which operate on predefined routes according to a set schedule. The services can be divided into a number of more specific modes including:

• Local Bus
• Commuter Bus
• Express Bus
• Bus Rapid Transit
• Light Rail
• Subway
• Ferry Boat

Routes and Patterns

Fixed route buses operate on designated routes according to a published schedule. One can think of routes as generalized paths buses follow. For example, Route 1 may be structured to provide service along Market Street. It may begin at a transit center where riders can transfer from one route to another or even to a different mode such as light rail or subway and travel along Market Street until it reaches some terminal point at which time it returns along Market Street to the transit center. The specific path each route traverses can depend on the time of the day, the day of the week, and even the time of year (e.g., summer service). Each distinct path associated with a route is called a pattern. As an example, Figure 9.2 and Figure 9.3 show two patterns for the same route. The route generally follows Pattern 1, but at times during the day when the YMCA is busiest, it follows a somewhat different pattern.

Trips, Headway, Interlining, and Vehicle Blocks

When one uses the term trip in regards to DRT, it generally refers to the transport of a rider from their point of origin to their desired destination. In fixed route, the term trip has a different meaning. Over the course of a day, service along a route will generally be offered a number of times. For example, service along Market Street, in the above example, may occur at a frequency of twice an hour from 9 am to 4:30 pm, with a bus leaving the transit center every 30 minutes. In the world of fixed route, a trip corresponds to a bus completely traversing the route one time. The period of time between each trip is called the headway. In this example then, there are 16 trips and the headway is 30 minutes. If it takes more than 30 minutes to complete a single trip, then it will take multiple buses to provide service along Market Street. Sometimes a bus will operate a single route the entire day, and sometimes a bus will service multiple routes. When a bus completes a trip on one route and then begins a trip on a second route, it is referred to as interlining. A bus's schedule for an entire day is called a block. For example, Bus 2a may operate on Route 1 from 9 am to 12:30 pm, at which time it is used on Route 2 from 1 pm to 5 pm. The block for Bus 2a would be the sequential set of trips it completes over the course of the day on Routes 1 and 2.

Stops, Time Points, and On-Time Performance

A stop is a designated location along a route where riders can get on or get off the bus. The bus is obligated to stop at certain stops known as time points. These are stops that appear on the bus schedule. Generally, a transit agency will have a policy that a bus should not depart a time point before the scheduled time. How well a transit provider adheres to its published schedule is referred to as its on-time performance. It is important for transit providers to adhere to their schedules since riders depend on transit to get to their destinations on time. There are also stops along a route which are not time points. The bus will only stop at these stops if a rider is waiting at the stop or if a rider wishes to alight the vehicle at the stop. In addition to defined stops, some providers accommodate flag stops. A flag stop is an arbitrary location along the route where a rider wishes to board or alight the bus. The rider needs to flag the bus down in order to board or alert the driver they wish to alight the bus at that location.

Runs and Run Cutting

Sometimes, a single driver will operate on the same bus and route all day long. At others times, the driver may operate on a number of buses and/or routes over the course of the day. The collection of trips a driver performs over the course of their shift is known as a run. Just as a block represents a bus's schedule for the day, a run represents the driver's schedule for the day. Matching drivers with the pieces of work a transit provider needs to staff is known as run cutting. Run cutting can be a complex process at least in part because drivers and other staff often belong to a union, and the labor agreements which have been negotiated can have many different rules which need to be followed.

Fixed Route Technologies

Fixed route providers use a large number of technologies to manage operations and provide good customer service. The most significant of these technologies are described briefly below:

Fare Collection

There are a variety of fare collection technologies which fixed route providers use to collect and securely store fares. Some fare boxes are able to assist the driver in verifying that cash-paying riders provided the correct fare. Registering fare boxes are able to count coins and bills, but they cannot differentiate between different denominations of bills. For example, a registering farebox can’t tell the difference between a one dollar bill and a twenty dollar bill. Validating fare boxes can do everything a registering fare box can do and, in addition, can differentiate between different denominations of bills. Registering and validating fareboxes also generally allow the drivers to keep track of the types of passengers who are boarding (e.g., seniors, persons with disabilities, children, etc.). For providers who have relatively low ridership, it is difficult to justify the cost of registering or validating fare boxes. For these types of providers, a vault style fare box is often the most logical choice. A vault style fare box does not count cash payments. Instead, the upper compartment is generally transparent which allows the driver to confirm the correct fare was provided before it is dropped into the lower compartment. Many providers are moving toward providing more flexible payment options. Touch cards are a convenient type of fare media which are growing in popularity. Riders can generally add additional value to these cards using a ticketing machine or via the web.

Computer Aided Dispatch / Automatic Vehicle Location (CAD/AVL)

Many transit organizations who operate a fixed route bus service use CAD/AVL. CAD/AVL systems consist of onboard hardware to track the buses, and software which helps the dispatchers to manage service as it is occurring and resolve issues as they arise. CAD/AVL allows the dispatcher to see where all the agency's vehicles are on a map and to quickly determine which are on schedule and which are ahead of schedule or behind schedule.

Automatic Passenger Counters (APC)

APCs are simple devices which are mounted by each door and count the number of passengers boarding and alighting the bus. While there are different types of APCs on the market, the most common employ a series of infrared beams. Each time the beams are broken, the system counts it as either a boarding or alighting. During busy times, the devices can miss a passenger here and there. The devices can also have a hard time with children, especially if they are carried onto the bus. The data collected via APCs can be used to determine the current onboard passenger count, a piece of information that is sometimes made available to the riding public along with other real-time bus information. Transit agencies sometimes also use APC data to fulfill part of their reporting NTD requirements to the FTA but, in order to do so, they need to demonstrate that their APCs meet certain accuracy requirements. You'll learn about NTD reporting later in this lesson.

Automated Announcement Systems (AAS)

In order to comply with ADA requirements, fixed route vehicles are generally equipped with an AAS which provides both audible announcements and visual announcements about upcoming stops and points of interest. These systems are generally triggered based on the vehicle's position as it approaches a designated location. Most systems utilize geofences to determine when an onboard announcement should be made.

Vehicle Surveillance

Most fixed route vehicles are equipped with camera systems which record activities on the bus as well as outside the bus. It is common for a bus to have 6 separate audio and video streams with some of the larger articulated buses being equipped with 8 separate streams. The video from these buses is stored in onboard DVRs and can be streamed by dispatch if needed. The DVR capacities are generally sufficient to store a few weeks of video before overwriting. The systems are configured to automatically flag sections of video in the event the system senses any unusual forces due to a collision or abrupt deceleration or turn. The driver can also press a button to manually flag a section of the video. When the system flags a section of the video, it preserves a window of time which brackets the triggering event for later review. Flagged sections of video are often wirelessly downloaded when the bus returns to the depot. Vehicle surveillance systems are extremely useful for identifying undesirable driver behaviors and incidents onboard the bus, as well as helping to determine the cause of any bus-related accidents. Local police are also sometimes interested in this video if they believe it may be of use in solving or prosecuting a case.

Real Time Passenger Information

Real time passenger information systems have become extremely popular in recent years. These systems make real-time bus information available to riders via web applications, smartphone applications, and dynamic message boards which are sometimes located as transit centers or other high traffic stops. In Lessons 8 and 9, we looked at an example of one which CATA uses called MyStop.

Rider Alerts

Transit providers often offer rider alert systems to notify users about disruptions in services or to provide other types of notifications. Riders can typically sign up for alerts related to specific routes and/or system-wide alerts.

Scheduling Software

Developing and adjusting routes, patterns, stops, trips, and blocks can be challenging especially for larger transit providers. Scheduling software is designed to assist agencies in this regard. Scheduling software also often incorporates some functions to assist with run cutting as well.

Vehicle Health Monitoring

Many buses come equipped with vehicle diagnostics that can transmit various vehicle health information back to the transit agency. This technology helps to ensure problems are taken care of before they lead to vehicle breakdown. Some vehicle health systems integrate with maintenance management systems and can automatically schedule vehicles for preventative maintenance.

Trip Planning/Google Transit

Many fixed route providers offer trip planning services to their riders. These services are generally web-based and allow the rider to indicate their origin, destination, and desired date and time of departure or date and time of arrival. The trip planning service then presents options which define a combination of walking and fixed route options that best meet their needs. The options may involve one or more transfers between fixed route vehicles. The most popular fixed route trip planning service is Google Transit. The idea for what has become Google Transit was first spawned by TriMet, a transit agency which services Portland, Oregon. TriMet approached MapQuest, Yahoo, and Google to see if they would be interested in incorporating transit data into their map products, but only Google replied. The Google Transit Trip Planner launched on December 7, 2005. Google transit incorporates stops, routes, schedule, and fare information for a provider’s bus, subway, rail, and/or light rail service. The service is automatically available as a free service via Google Maps in any area where one or more local transit providers publish their data to Google.

For most of the first year, TriMet was the only operator available on Google Maps. In September 2006, five more cities got on board: Eugene, OR; Honolulu, HI; Pittsburgh, PA; Seattle, WA; and Tampa, FL. Today, Google Transit spans many hundreds of cities.

In order for transit providers to submit their fixed route information to Google in a consistent way­, a data specification was required. The specification which was developed for this purpose is discussed in the next section. As mentioned above, Google Transit is a free service to transit agencies and to the public who can perform trip planning in Google Maps. However, if you wish to tie into the capabilities programmatically to incorporate the power of Google Transit (or more generally Google Maps) into your own software application, there are often associated fees you need to consider. A popular and robust alternative open source trip planning system is Open Trip Planner.

General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS)

The specification which was developed to allow transit agencies to publish their fixed route data to Google Transit is known as GTFS. Originally it stood for the Google Transit Feed Specification, but in 2010, Google changed the name to the General Transit Feed Specification given its growing status as the default specification for transit data. GTFS is an open data standard which represents fixed-route schedule, route, and bus stop data in a series of 13 comma-delimited text files compressed into a ZIP file. Each of the 13 text files contains a series of fields or attributes about a component of the fixed route service. Some of the files and fields are optional (see Table 1).

Table 1 - GTFS Data Files

Required	Optional
Agency.txt	Calendar_dates.txt
Stops.txt	Fare_attributes.txt
Routes.txt	Fare_rules.txt
Trips.txt	Shapes.txt
Stop_times.txt	Frequencies.txt
Calendar.txt	Transfers.txt
	Feed_info.txt

Click for description of each table along with the meaning of each field.

The primary use of GTFS data is to publish fixed route schedule data to Google Transit so that riders can perform trip planning. However, there are many other potential uses for GTFS data. For example, transit planning software systems such as TBEST commonly allow users to upload route, stop, and schedule data in GTFS format. In the past few years, Google has created a new specification based on GTFS which incorporates real-time information in addition to the static schedule data. The new specification is known as GTFS Real Time and is starting to gain some traction among transit agencies, but is not yet widely used.

In Assignment 9-2 you’ll have a chance to work with GTFS data from a transit agency in Tampa, Florida. Specifically, you’ll use the route geometry contained in the shapes.txt component of the GTFS data to establish the zone for ADA complementary paratransit.

The following assignment is optional. You do not need to complete this assignment to fulfill the requirements of the course. TBEST is a powerful tool for transit planning and is available for free. If you have an interest in the tool, this assignment will help you to get some hands-on experience using it.