Posts categorized under "Publications"
Research Report – Improving Veteran Mobility in Small Urban and Rural Areas
A recently completed SURTC study examined ways to improve veteran mobility in small urban and rural areas. The need for veteran transportation is growing rapidly because of the increasing number of older veterans and injured service men and women. Many veterans in rural areas have special mobility needs and must travel long distances to receive medical care. The objective of this study was to identify veterans with mobility needs currently living in rural Minnesota, Montana, and North Dakota, and to quantify the cost of transportation options for meeting their mobility needs. Special attention was given to the medical transportation of veterans to VA health care centers. The feasibility of a coordination effort between VA health care centers and rural public transit agencies for transporting veterans to medical appointments was also studied. A key finding is that transit agencies can increase ridership and VA health centers can lower beneficiary travel costs if they coordinate services. The study results can serve as a service planning tool for rural transit agencies. Lastly, this is an optimal time to begin talking about strategies for rural transit to transition aging veterans from personal vehicles to public transit.
Links to the full report and the executive summary can be found at the website below:
Improving Veteran Mobility in Small Urban and Rural Areas
For more details, contact Del Peterson at del.peterson@ndsu.edu
SURTC Fall/Winter 2013 Newsletter
The Fall/Winter 2013 issue of the Transit Lane Brief has been published and is available online. This issue features articles on the new Small Urban and Rural Livability Center funded by a U.S. DOT grant, the FTA 101 web-based training module under development, a webinar on engaging people with disabilities and older adults in planning, new affiliated staff at SURTC, a new graduate-level transit course under development, SURTC participation at conferences, and SURTC training activities. The current and previous issues can be downloaded from the SURTC website.
Research Report – Effortless Passenger Identification System
A recently completed SURTC study evaluated the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to track transit passengers. The technology is referred to as the Effortless Passenger Identification System (EPIS).
The RFID tags used by EPIS can be read at longer distances than the contactless or proximity cards currently used in the industry. This characteristic allows passengers to be identified and counted as they board and alight vehicles without requiring them to physically present their card within a short distance of an on-vehicle reader.
This study was funded by the Transportation Research Board's Transit Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis (IDEA) program and led by SURTC researcher Del Peterson. Peterson evaluated the technical, operational, and economic feasibility of using medium-range RFID technology to track transit passengers.
The technology successfully recorded riders boarding the bus almost 90 percent of the time during field testing conducted at North Dakota State University (NDSU). Controlled testing results indicated that the reader received a valid signal from the RFID card if it was in plain sight and there was no interference present.
Consumer acceptance surveys of college students, people with physical and mental disabilities, and parents of school-aged children yielded positive findings regarding the merit of this technology. The main obstacles are the issues of multiple reads occurring when riders get too close to the antennas, and the inability to read the cards successfully when interference is present.
A cost-benefit analysis showed that with proper ridership numbers, EPIS technology can provide an economic benefit to transit agencies.
A link to the final report is provided below. For more details, contact Del Peterson at del.peterson@ndsu.edu
SURTC 2013 Summer Newsletter
The Summer 2013 issue of the Transit Lane Brief has been published and is available online. This issue features articles on a new project to collect demand-response service data, the recently published Rural Transit Fact Book and Research Digest, a new ethics course under development, SURTC training activities, an ongoing study on transportation for veterans, and other activities. The current and previous issues can be downloaded from the SURTC website.
2013 Rural Transit Fact Book Published
SURTC has published its 2013 edition of the Rural Transit Fact Book. This publication is intended to serve as a national resource for statistics and information on rural transit in America. Information on transit service availability and cost is necessary to efficiently and effectively meet rural community mobility needs. Financial and operating statistics can be used by agency managers, local decision makers, state directors, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), and lawmakers to assist in policy making, planning, managing operations, and evaluating performance.
This publication includes rural demographic and travel behavior data as well as financial, operating, and fleet statistics and performance measures for agencies receiving section 5311 funding. In addition to national level data, statistics are presented by state, FTA region, tribe, and mode, as well as other agency characteristics.
The Rural Transit Fact Book presents agency level data from the Rural National Transit Database (NTD) and rural demographic and travel data from the American Community Survey and the National Household Travel Survey.
The publication can be downloaded from the SURTC website. For more information, or if you are interested in receiving a hard copy, contact Jeremy Mattson at jeremy.w.mattson@ndsu.edu.
2013 SURTC Research Digest
The 2013 edition of the SURTC Research Digest is available online. This publication includes articles on six research projects completed by SURTC in 2012. Topics covered include the following:
- The use of alternative fuels and hybrids by small urban and rural transit agencies
- An economic cost study of rural transit agencies in North Dakota to determine the most efficient method for organizing transit in small communities
- A survey of North Dakota State University students regarding transit
- A study of travel behavior and mobility of transportation-disadvantaged groups
- An effort to implement transit coordination in North Dakota
- The development of national transit livability statistics and the Community Livability Index
The articles are highly-condensed, non-technical summaries of the full studies, but they provide more depth and detail than what is published in our newsletter. The intent of this publication is to make our research findings accessible to a wider audience.
The publication can be downloaded from the SURTC website at the following link: 2013 SURTC Research Digest (pdf).
SURTC Spring 2013 Newsletter
The Spring 2013 issue of the Transit Lane Brief has been published and is available online. This issue features articles on recently completed research studies regarding transit and community livability, use of effortless passenger identification systems, and use of technologies for improving public participation, as well as an update on training activities and personnel changes. The current and previous issues can be downloaded from the SURTC website.
Research Report – 2011 Transit and Community Livability Report
SURTC has published a new report that attempts to empirically measure livability. The study, conducted by David Ripplinger, Elvis Ndembe, and Jill Hough, assembled information that provides a more complete picture of transit and livability in the United States. Transit livability statistics were calculated to provide an improved understanding of the availability, accessibility, desirability, and use of public transportation in the United States. A Community Livability Index was developed to serve as a measure of the relative level of livability across regions, community types, and time. This information is intended to assist policy makers and researchers better understand and evaluate the high-level impacts of federal livability policies. The report can be viewed and downloaded at the following link: 2011 Transit and Community Livability Report.
Working Document – Higher Education Mentorship Program for Public Transportation
SURTC has developed a mentorship program to introduce students to industry experts. This program provides a structure for students to engage with industry experts, allowing students to better understand the field of public transportation. The program has been piloted in 2011 and 2012 and is currently being piloted again in 2013.
Dr. Jill Hough, SURTC director and instructor for NDSU's graduate-level public transportation course, wrote a working document highlighting the value of a mentorship program for attracting students to transportation careers, addressing reasons to develop a mentorship program, and detailing the process, assignments, and evaluations of the pilot program at NDSU.
This document is available in the Education section of SURTC's website and can be downloaded directly at the following link:
If you have questions about the mentorship program, please contact Jill Hough (jill.hough@ndsu.edu).
SURTC Winter 2013 Newsletter
The Winter 2013 issue of the Transit Lane Brief has been published and is available online. This issue has articles on two recently completed studies, new projects underway, a report describing the mentorship program being used in NDSU's graduate-level public transportation class, the addition of transit policy resources posted on SURTC's website, and the addition of new research staff at SURTC. The current and previous issues can be downloaded from the SURTC website.