1

INTERMODALITY PERFORMANCE
MEASUREMENT OF MULTIMODAL
PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS
Presenter: Makarand Gawade, Advisor: Dr. Yu Zhang
 Overview
2

Background and Motivation

Objective, Proposed Methodology, Case Study
Description
Work in Progress
 Background
3

Multimodal system is a transport system that offers users

diverse transport options that are effectively integrated, in
order to provide a high degree of accessibility even for
non-drivers. (1)
No agency has responsibility or authority for stitching
together these modes and hence, integrated multimodal
services are not available. Every organization is optimizing
their own objectives and there is lack of attention for the
whole system. (2)
1. Multimodal Transportation in California
2. Van Nes, R. (2002). Design of multimodal transport networks (Doctoral dissertation, PhD Thesis, Delft University,
Netherlands).
 What Is Multimodal Public Transport
(MPT) ?
4

A Typical MPT Trip

Car
(a)
Walk Bus Walk
(b)
Walk Car P Bus Walk
(c)
Bicycle Bus Walk
(d)
Car P Bus Bicycle
(e)
(a), (b) are unimodal trips and (c), (d) and (e) are multimodal trips
P is Park and Ride Location
Representation of Typical Multimodal
Network
5

Representation of typical Multimodal Network

 Understanding Multimodal Travel
6
Scenario in U.S (1)
National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) data for 2009
was used to quantify the multimodal travel scenario in U.S
Below are the highlighting results:
Remains concentrated in cores of largest metro areas

1. NY, LA, Chicago, Washington DC, Boston, Philadelphia

constitute 65% of all multimodal trips
2. Share of multimodal transportation for the total travel
in United States is 0.63 % which shoots to 1.59%
when there is a presence of rail.
3. Share of multimodal transportation is more in urban
area than in rural regions.
 Understanding Multimodal Travel
7
Scenario in U.S (2)
Remains segmented
1. Hispanic travelers have more multimodal travel with 0.9% of all
trips as compared to 0.58% for non Hispanic traveler.
2. Majority of multimodal trips (44.4%) are commute trips.
3. Multimodal share was higher for trips made by people in low
income households(income <= $ 25,000)
4. Weekday travel (0.78%) by multimodal travel is double than for
weekend travel (0.34%).
5. Car, bus and walking are the most popular access and egress
modes for multimodal travel.
6. Higher multimodal tendency in age group of 35-44 (0.82%) is
observed.
 Motivation - Smart Growth
8

Smart growth is an urban planning and

transportation concept that advocates
1. Growth in compact walkable urban centers
2. Complete streets
3. Mixed use development and
4. Transit-oriented, walkable,
bicycle-friendly land use (1)

1. http://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/
 Multimodal Transportation and Smart
9
Growth
Smart growth has been identified to improve
environmental health (1) and sustainability (2)
Recently, Broward county (Florida) has realized
smart growth benefits and have initiated complete
streets project (3)
A multimodal transportation system with a special
attention towards street design and connectivity is
one of the salient features of smart growth. (4)
1. http://www.doh.state.fl.us/environment/smart-growth/
2. http://www.mrsc.org/subjects/planning/smartgrowth.aspx
3. http://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/2013/03/15/partnership-in-the-news-broward-county-fl-
prepares-for-the-wave/
4. Litman, T. (2003). Evaluating Criticism of smart growth. Vicoria, BC: Victoria Transport Policy Institute.
 Urgent Needs for Studying Multimodal
10
Transportation System
Transportation investments have important consequences
for the environment, climate change, and open space
preservation.
To understand the role of transportation infrastructure,
specifically how the design of a transportation network
affects performance of the system is of major concern.
Transportation Systems have been studied from the
point of view of auto mode and transit mode. But a
comprehensive study of a multimodal transportation
system has not been done.
 Importance of Performance Measure
11
for Multimodal Transport Systems
Without a performance metric, how to decide how
much?(1)
Performance measure helps the policy makers and
transportation planners understand better about the
impact factors, and help them make decisions on
improving the MPT operations.
The performance measure can identify which
network components, that is, nodes and links have
scope of improvements.
1. Genevieve Giuliano (2012) Whats wrong with US transit policy? Transportation
Research Forum (2012)
 Performance Measures - Roadway Systems
12

Some of the roadway performance measures are accessibility,

mobility, economic development, quality of life, environmental
impacts, safety, operational efficiency , system condition and
Performance(1)
The roadway performance measure has been understood by
estimating influence of urban form on it (2)
Interaction between network structure and roadway
performance measure has been studied using graph theory
approaches (3)
1. WELLS, S., & RAAD, R. (2007). Performance Measures for Road Networks: A Survey of
Canadian Use. In 23RD PIARC WORLD ROAD CONGRESS PARIS, 17-21 September 2007
2. Black, J. A., Paez, A., & Suthanaya, P. A. (2002). Sustainable urban transportation: Performance
indicators and some analytical approaches. Journal of Urban Planning and
Development, 128(4), 184-209.
3. . Xie, F., & Levinson, D. (2007). Measuring the structure of road networks. Geographical
Analysis, 39(3), 336-356.
 Performance Measures Transit Systems
13

Transit System Measures

State: Degree of Connectivity
Form: Interstation spacing
Structure: Directness
Coverage: Land Area/Serve Performance
Area Measurement of the
Multimodal System


 Inspiration from Air Transportation
14

Ground Operational Efficiency Measurement

Modeling taxi times

Computing unimpeded
taxi times

Extra taxi times

Ground operational
efficiency measurement

Operational improvement
solutions
 Objectives
15

To define and develop multimodal performance

measure.
To understand influence of driving forces on the
multimodal public transport efficiency.
To compare the influence of driving forces for
different regions.
To identify the potential limitations in the driving
forces and propose solutions.
 Driving Forces of Multimodal Transport
16
Systems (MTS)
MTS

Network Physical
Planning Network
Structure

Transit Network Urban Form

Structure

Interconnectivity
 Proposed Methodology (1)
17

Data collection of networks for different modes

Create a Multi-Modal network at a physical and
operational level.
Search for ideal multimodal trip routes for O/D
pairs from NHTS data
Compute ideal multimodal travel time for trips
Compute efficiency at disaggregate level of the
multimodal trips
 Proposed Methodology (2)
18

Determining driving forces for every trip buffer area

Estimating the influence of driving forces on
disaggregate efficiency
Computing aggregate performance measure from
disaggregate-trip level efficiency measures
Identifying the potential drawbacks in driving forces
and propose solutions. Example: development of
infrastructure, transit routes etc.
 Case Study Hillsborough County
19

Case Study Region Hillsborough County

Land Area of region 1,051 sq. miles
Different Modes Available Car, Bus (HART), Walk, Bike
Coverage of Street Network 6795 miles
Coverage of Bus Network 27 Local Routes, 866 miles
Operational time range of bus system 5:00 AM to Midnight
Spatial Coverage of bus network 562 sq. miles
Line-measure connectivity index of bus 140 intersections / mile
network
 Case Study Hillsborough County (Contd)
20

Denser
Network
 Work in Progress
21

Implementation of the methodology using GISDK,

TransCAD, and SPSS tools for Hillsborough County.
Implementing similar methodology for other regions
 THANK YOU.
22

Questions? Comments? Suggestions?

 Network Planning
23

Coverage: The spatial coverage of origins and

destinations covered by the network.
Frequency: Frequency of services.
Legibility: The ability of the network to be
understood by users and potential users to
maximize many to many trip opportunities.
Directness: Direct services can reduce travel times.
(1)

1. Daniels, R., & Mulley, C. (2012). Planning Public Transport NetworksThe Neglected
Influence of Topography. Journal of Public Transportation, 15(4).
 Physical Network Structure
24

Hierarchy - refers to the differentiation that exists in

street networks.
Topology - identifies the connectivity and the
connection patterns that exist in street networks.
Morphology - describes the regularity of street
networks, their shape and fragmentation.
Scale - captures the intensity of the street network
within a specialized area. (1)

1. Parthasarathi, P. K., & Levinson, D. (2011). Network Structure and Travel (Vol. 73, No.
01).
 Transit Network Measures
25

State measure complexity of network, and depicts

how developed a transit system is.
Form investigates link between metro systems and
built environment depicting if the system is oriented
towards regional accessibility , local coverage or
regional coverage.
Structure examines the intrinsic properties of current
networks, indicators of connectivity and directness.
(1)
1. Derrible, S., & Kennedy, C. (2010). Characterizing metro networks: state, form, and
structure. Transportation, 37(2), 275-297.
 Urban Form
26

Density
Diversity
Design
Destination Accessibility
Distance to transit
Demand Management (1)

1. Ewing, R., & Cervero, R. (2010). Travel and the built environment. Journal of the
American Planning Association, 76(3), 265-294
 Interconnectivity Measures
27

Node-measure degree centrality: Normalized

score based on total number of direct connections to
other network nodes
Node-measure transfer center (cluster) connectivity
index: Sum of connecting powers for all the lines
cross through a transfer center
Line-measure connecting power: Connectivity power
of a line which is a function of transit characteristics.
Line-measure connectivity index: Sum of connecting
powers all nodes in a line (1)
1. Mishra, S., Welch, T. F., & Jha, M. K. (2012). Performance indicators for public transit
connectivity in multi-modal transportation networks. Transportation Research Part A:
Policy and Practice, 46(7), 1066-1085.
 Data Collection of Networks for
28
Different Modes
1. Street network: Florida DOT website (1)
2. Transit routes, location of route stops, transfer stations,
park and ride stops: Hillsborough Area Regional Transit
website (2)
3. Route schedules: Hillsborough Area Regional Transit
website (2)
4. Geography of Hillsborough county: U.S Census website
(3)
5. Land Use Characteristics of Hillsborough county:
Hillsborough MPO (4)
1. http://www.dot.state.fl.us/planning/statistics/gis/
2. http://www.gohart.org/
3. http://www.census.gov/
4. http://www.hillsboroughmpo.org/
 Create a Multi-Modal Network at a
29
Physical and Operational Level (1)
The spatial data of networks is in ArcGIS format
and schedule data is in text format.
TransCAD converts spatial data in geographic
format.
Inbuilt TransCAD tools like Networks, Route
Systems and Transit Network are used to create
a multimodal network with schedules for transit
routes.
 Create a Multi-Modal Network at a
30
Physical and Operational Level (2)

Underlying
Street Network
Transit Bus Stops
Routes

Section of Multimodal Network developed in TransCAD

 Proposed Efficiency Measures
31

Efficiency Measures:
1. The Degree of Competitiveness (DOCO) shows
comparisons between two travel route
times/distance for same O/D pair.
2. The Degree or Circuity (DOCI) shows how much
additional travel time is required by the current
multimodal network as compared to the
directly connected hypothetical transit network.
(1)

1. Lee, Y. J. (2012, February). Comparative Measures for Transit Network Performance

Analysis. In Journal of the Transportation Research Forum (Vol. 47, No. 3).