INNOVATIVE TRANSIT SERVICE PLANNING MODEL THAT USES A MICROCOMPUTER

Transit service planning is the process of designing appropriate services, including considerations of area coverage, integration with other transit services, and the frequency of service that can be justified economically as well as socially and politically. A simple and usable analytic model to guide management in the search for, and evaluation of, operating strategies that meet local transit service objectives is described. This analysis system is intended primarily for use on single routes or in transit corridors that include a small number of parallel or serial routes. The model system includes as basic components models of supply (system performance), demand (mode and path choice), cost, and evaluation-measure prediction. The supply-and-demand components are linked in an explicit equilibration structure to include the important interactions between transit system performance and passenger volume. Design options that can be explored with the model system include fare and headway changes, scheduling changes such as turn-backs, etc. Two major aspects of this model system are that (a) it is designed to make maximum use of readily available data and (b) it has been implemented on a microcomputer (an Apple III) in order to minimize the investment in computer resources.