Rural Research Problem Statements and Requests for Proposals
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in Progress |
| Requests for Proposals | Problem Statements |
Requests for Proposals
No currrent requests for proposals.
TCRP Projects of Interest to Rural and Intercity Transit in Progress
Five problems statements related to rural transportation issues were selected for the current TCRP program and are underway. The following problem statements are preliminary descriptions of the selected projects.
Updated Methodology for Estimating Demand for Rural Passenger Transportation
Estimation of Demand for Rural Intercity Bus Services
Tribal Transit Services, Training, and Funding Challenges Research Field: Policy and Planning
Methodology for Determining the Economic Development Impacts of Transit Projects
Project B-36
Updated Methodology for Estimating Demand for Rural Passenger Transportation
Research Field: Service Configuration
Allocation: $300,000
TCRP Staff: Stephan A. Parker
Initial work on estimating demand for rural passenger transportation was published in 1995 in TCRP Report 3. In the intervening 11 years, the nature of rural public transit and human service transportation has changed. Additionally, the original methodology was based on a sample of only 39 counties and does not reflect the variability within states or even across the nation.
Now in this decade with increased emphasis on coordination and increased investment in rural public transit by SAFETEA-LU, investigations are being conducted into rural transit need and the demand for human service transportation in rural areas. Many of these plans are relying on TCRP Report 3 methods of demand projection that may no longer be relevant or valid.
The rural passenger transportation estimation methodology needs to be revised taking into account the changing demographics in rural society, such as a greater percentage of seniors driving and more travel by persons with disabilities. The new methodology also needs to be calibrated against a larger sample size from a wider cross section of counties in the United States.
The objective of this research is to develop a rural transit passenger and human service transportation passenger estimation tool that will give users confidence in the tool’s ability to accurately predict travel demand. Envisioned products from this research would include a workbook for rural passenger transportation demand estimation incorporating statistical tools to enable planners to more accurately estimate public transit and human services transportation demand in rural areas. The product could be much like TCRP Report 3, but based on a significantly larger number of counties and a geographically broader sample size.
The investigators will review TCRP Report 3 and look to sampling significantly more than the original 39 counties surveyed. There are 3,142 counties (both rural and urban) in the United States. Sampling for the effort should reflect the variability in counties and states across the country. Also, the counties that are sampled need to be from a broader geographic distribution to have national significance as well as to identify potential regional differences in transit demand. Such work will greatly enhance the reliability and accuracy of the rural transit and human services transportation demand estimates generated with these tools.
In the Fall of 2006, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is expected to finalize its guidance on the requirements for the “locally developed, coordinated public transit – human services transportation plans” called for in SAFETEA-LU. In its March 2006 Federal Register notice, the FTA proposed a methodology of identifying gaps in service by comparing current transit service levels against the demand for those services.
An accurate and reliable estimation tool for rural public transit and human service transportation demand will be vital in the development of these coordination plans for rural localities throughout the United States. Such an updated estimation tool will give local decision makers better information to allocate and coordinate scarce transportation resources to address local passenger transportation mobility needs.
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Project B-37
Estimation of Demand for Rural Intercity Bus ServiceResearch Field: Service Configuration
Allocation: $200,000
TCRP Staff: Stephan A. Parker
Restructuring of intercity bus services by Greyhound Lines over the past two years has resulted in a shift of intercity bus services away from rural routes to services that primarily link major cities and urbanized areas. Rural areas formerly served by these and similar services are now lacking connections to the remaining services. FTA Section 5311(f) funding is available to provide planning, capital, and operating assistance for intercity bus services serving rural areas. However, many states and rural (regional and local) operators are unsure about the potential demand for rural intercity service and how that demand might vary with the type of provider (rural operator or private intercity carrier), schedule (hourly, daily, weekday or lower service frequency, etc.), the characteristics of the connection (use of a common intermodal facility, schedule coordination, availability of baggage handling, etc.), fare levels (standard intercity fares or rural transit fares), the availability of interline tickets, the presence of the service in Greyhound’s schedule system, etc.
Currently, there is no demand model, rule of thumb, or similar tool that is based on recent experiences to assist in determining the likely intercity-related ridership and the impact of different arrangements on the potential demand. Most basically, estimates of intercity trip demand from rural areas to larger cities is needed to help in the design of projects that will link rural areas with major urban areas and the national intercity network. The level of demand obviously varies with population, and probably with frequency and service design, and is a major consideration in service design issues.
For example, in order to become a Greyhound interline ticketing partner, a rural transit operator must register with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and carry insurance levels that may be significantly higher than those required by the states (at a significant cost). Greyhound’s telephone/internet information system will only show a rural operator’s schedules if it is an interline partner. Is the potential ridership gain from becoming an interline partner likely to be worth the cost? Or, given a certain level of population, should a service be offered three times per week, daily on weekdays, or 365 days/year?
The anticipated products of this research would include a research report reviewing national experience with rural intercity services, particularly the demand and ridership, presenting tools to estimate demand and the impact on demand of alternative service design factors.
The basic tasks would potentially involve: (1) identification of a number of rural intercity projects that have produced ridership numbers; (2) analysis of these examples in terms of the population served, service characteristics, etc.; (3) development and presentation of a usable model, table, or guide to estimate rural intercity demand; and (4) guidance on the appropriate use of the tool to design appropriate services.
This research is urgent because Greyhound is completing its restructuring, S. 5311(f) funding has increased under SAFETEA-LU, and SAFETEA-LU includes new requirements for state consultation with intercity providers and interested parties as part of the determination that there is unmet rural intercity need. Every state will shortly be trying to determine if there is unmet rural intercity need, and they will need realistic tools to estimate the demand for such service. The payoff will come in the form of improved rural intercity linkages that can be developed if the feasibility of appropriate services can be determined. In dollar terms, the incremental ridership gain on the remaining trunk lines from rural passengers fed to these routes under this program could add significant revenue and help support the continuation of the remaining services.
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Project F-14 Recruitment, Performance and Retention of Quality Transit and Paratransit Managers -- Skills, Qualifications, Needs and Future Prospects Research Field: Human Resources
Allocation: $250,000
TCRP Staff: Dianne Schwager
There is an important need to explore the recruitment, training, retraining, and rewarding of transit and paratransit managers, with the goal of increasing the competency of transit and paratransit managers, as well as the effectiveness of their training. TCRP Synthesis 71 documents the current state of Paratransit managers’ skills, qualifications, and needs. Further research is desirable, especially to gain greater insight into agency transit and paratransit managers’ responsibilities and prospects, and to provide guidance to improve the future of the profession. It is important to identify additional information regarding transit and paratransit managers as a professional category.
The proposed research would provide that important “next step” to identify and quantify key information to improve recruitment, performance, and retention of transit and paratransit managerial personnel. The demographics of the aging Baby Boomer population make it clear that the professional category of transit and paratransit manager needs particular enhancement. It is envisioned that there would be larger and more extensive surveys than is possible for a synthesis project. These should be disaggregated between rural, suburban, and urban agencies, as well as agencies of different sizes.
The research project should collect more details on how transit and paratransit managers fit into their agency organizations and cultures and what specific training needs are necessary to ensure success. The project should also investigate how to attract new entrants and how to improve job retention. Greater opportunities for local advisory committees’ input would also be helpful. Given the increasing demand for transit and paratransit service in a variety of operating settings, this project becomes increasingly important to ensure that managers of these systems are appropriately selected, trained, and retained. It is also necessary to maintain parity with evolving research and knowledge about key employees for whom these managers are responsible.
Project H-38 Tribal Transit Services, Training, and Funding Challenges Research Field: Policy and Planning
Allocation: $300,000
TCRP Staff: Stephan A. Parker
The integral relationship between access to transportation and quality of life is well known. Yet many citizens across the country struggle with access to health care, education, jobs, businesses, and entertainment. This is especially true of many Native American communities. Although Native Americans living in “Indian Country” (on or near Indian reservations or designated Indian statistical areas) experienced marked improvement in real per capita income growth during the decade of the 1990s relative to the rest of the U.S. population (33% vs. 11%), even as the Native American population grew by more than 20%, this predominantly rural segment of the U.S. population lags substantially in economic resources behind mainstream America. While 79% of the U.S. population (2000 Census) is classified as urban, this statistic is reversed for Native American communities with about three-fourths of the population classified as rural. Even with the substantial improvements in Native American community economies since 1990 (e.g., poverty rate and unemployment improvements ten times higher than the U.S. as a whole), Native Americans still fall into poverty and are unemployed at triple the rate of the U.S. population.
Even with improvement of their economy, Native American families often still do not have the luxury of personal automobiles. In these cases, public transportation can literally be a life line for Native Americans to their jobs, school, health care, and other important aspects that define “quality of life.” In fact, as their economies improve, public transportation becomes more vital as people now have jobs to go to, money to buy groceries, and schools to attend.
In the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), Congress established a supplemental funding program to assist tribes in establishing and maintaining transit systems to address this issue. In order to provide sufficient levels of funding, training, and technical assistance to tribal transit agencies and to tribes establishing transit agencies, it is necessary to have clear, in-depth, and current information on the level of coverage and other statistics on tribal transit across the country. This need was also identified in NCHRP Synthesis Report 366 Tribal Transportation Programs, A Synthesis of Highway Practice. The report identified “operation and development of tribal transit services” as an area that needed further study. The time is ripe for an in-depth data collection and analysis of tribal transit statistics and characteristics.
The proposed research will gather information from the 562 Federally Recognized Native American Tribes and Alaskan Native Villages. The research will focus on gathering much needed data on the different transit systems serving these tribes. Specifically, tribes will be surveyed to determine the existence of tribal-owned and/or operated transit systems as well as other transportation services available to tribal members; the existence and extent of transportation planning in tribal transportation systems; in addition for those tribes with existing transit systems, statistics on the system (e.g., size, coverage area, etc.). In addition, researchers will identify those tribes without access to a local public transit system and attempt to determine the reasons behind these transportation gaps.
The end result will be a substantive and detailed report on the level of transportation coverage available to American Indian Tribes and Alaskan Native Villages across the country. This information will be useful for federal and state governments (specifically departments of transportation); national, regional, state and local transportation providers and associations; research, training and technical assistance providers; and universities looking to serve tribal communities. Analysis will include in-depth data collection on the existence of different levels of transit service available to tribes (with special focus on tribal-run systems); characteristics of identified tribal transit agencies and other systems serving tribes; coverage areas served; types of transit service provided; various funding sources for tribal transit agencies; existence and extent of transportation plans for tribes; and determination of areas with a lack of available transportation and reasons for said gaps in service. It is planned that this research will include a summary of the characteristics of federally funded tribal transit programs, and will develop a toolkit of strategies for coordination between state and tribal governments on transit projects and planning.
As the FTA Tribal Transit Grant program continues to fund tribal transit systems and national, regional, state and local systems and technical assistance providers are looking to assist a growing population of Tribal transit systems, it is imperative that a substantive data collection on the current “state of tribal transit” occur to provide all stakeholders with credible data in which to pursue the mutual goals of increased transportation opportunities for all Americans, especially Native Americans.
Project H-39 Methodology for Determining the Economic Development Impacts of Transit Projects
Research Field: Policy and Planning
Allocation: $400,000 TCRP
Staff: Lawrence Goldstein
Congress requires FTA to evaluate the economic development benefits (among other criteria) of proposed projects in order to determine the merits of those projects. To comply with this requirement, FTA needs a methodology that project sponsors can use to reliably estimate the development impacts and the benefits associated with those impacts for both New Starts and major investments in more mature transit systems. While much work has been done describing the relationship between transportation and economic development, it is not clear how an approach to reliably forecast economic development benefits of transit projects can be applied to all proposed projects.
The objective of this research is to develop a methodology that can be applied by sponsors of New Starts projects and projects that provide additional investment in mature transit systems, to reliably forecast the economic development impacts of those projects. Because FTA already considers the mobility benefits of proposed projects, this new methodology must clearly distinguish development benefits derived from mobility changes from development benefits derived from other project impacts to avoid double-counting mobility benefits.
A panel of experts recently convened by FTA suggested that the most effective way to identify the value of economic development benefits in the near term is to examine the impact of projects on property values and use this information to estimate the benefits associated with additional economic development. This TCRP project would: 1) Collect data on property value changes in metropolitan areas that have built significant rail transit systems. 2) Develop a method to predict property value changes caused by proposed transit projects that: a) Allows the separation of benefits that double count mobility benefits from the additional agglomeration and efficiency benefits, b) Addresses the changes in property values at a regional scale rather than focusing only on station area impacts, and c) Addresses the problem of spatial autocorrelation in property values. 3) Develop procedures and technical tools required to implement this type of analysis for projects across the country.
There is a great deal of interest in the transit community and in Congress in crediting transit projects with their economic development benefits within FTA’s project evaluations. Having the capability to reliably forecast the economic development benefits of transit projects would improve FTA’s evaluation and rating process and help decision-makers direct FTA’s annual funding to the most deserving projects.