Transit systems in a variety of locations around the country reported recent increases in transit ridership since gasoline prices started heading toward dizzying heights.
More than 15,000 passengers rode the South Shore commuter train line, which runs along the Lake Michigan shore from Chicago into northwest Indiana, on Aug. 10, according to The Times, Munster, Ind.
The South Shore line used to average between 12,500 and 13,000 riders per day in the summer, John Parsons, a spokesman for the electric rail line, told The Times.
“We’ve been over 13,000 almost every day this summer,” said Parsons. “And then we hit this high that we haven’t seen for quite a while.”
The transit line hit the high of 15,000 daily riders just days after gas prices in the area topped $2.50 per gallon.
The Triangle Transit Authority in North Carolina took $3/gal gasoline prices as an opportunity to offer free rides to commuters on its Raleigh-to-Durham express route, the Raleigh News & Observer reported. The authority hopes riders will find the transit service fast and convenient and not want to go back to driving on congested highways when (or if) gas prices go back down.
Ridership on the express and RAPID bus service in Phoenix is up 23% from last year, according to Valley Metro statistics, MSNBC reported.
“We know that a lot more people are riding because of gas prices,” Susan Tierney, communications officer for Valley Metro, told MSNBC. Tierney has statistics to back up her statement. In a telephone survey of 564 people in the valley conducted by WestGroup Research in March and April, 47% of commuters said they had been influenced by the price of gas.
Valley Metro saw its bus boardings increase 4% in 2005 over 2004.
City Utilities in Springfield, Mo., has seen increases in ridership every month since last November including several double-digit increases over the year-ago month.
“We have experienced a phenomenal increase in ridership,” Carol Cruise, transit manager for City Utilities, told the News-Leader. “I can’t put my finger on exactly why. Gas prices are high right now but these ridership increases have been going on since last year.”
The Fort Worth Transportation Authority (a.k.a., the T) and the Dallas Area Rapid Transit have reported increases in ridership as a result of record gas prices, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.
The T has been carrying more riders since late last year when gas prices started going up. When a gallon of gasoline shot up to $3, ridership on the T’s buses and commuter trains shot up as well.
Some analysts doubt whether the change in commuting habits will be long-lived. In an editorial, The Examiner, Washington, D.C., cited a professor at the University of Southern California who warned that drivers would rather shop for cheaper gas or buy a hybrid car before making a long-term commitment to transit. In a survey, motorists complained that public transportation was too slow and inconvenient.
Anger about having to pay so much for gasoline has driven a 4% increase in ridership on Toronto’s GO Transit, according to the Toronto Star. Toronto-area gas prices hit a milestone recently when it reached $1 per liter ($3.80/gal, presumably Canadian dollars).
“I’ve often said, ‘Man, if the price of gas went above a buck, you’d probably see people flocking to transit,’” Vince Rodo, general secretary of the Toronto Transit Commission, told the Toronto Star. “Well, guess what, it’s above a buck and we’re seeing like a 1% increase, hardly anything that’s even noticeable.”
One analyst even speculated that consumers would soon get used to $1-a-liter gasoline and still view it as a small part of the cost of owning a vehicle, less than parking or insurance.
Measures of vulnerability
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, through the Transportation Security Administration, has developed tools for transportation agencies to assess their security vulnerability.
Vulnerability Identification Self-Assessment Tools (VISATs) are available for targeted maritime vessels and facilities, mass transit (heavy rail and subway), passenger rail, highway bridges and operation centers. Modules will be available in the future for rail bridges, bus terminals, pipelines, rail hazardous materials and trucking hazardous materials.
The VISAT modules pose a series of security-related questions designed to help the user develop a comprehensive transportation security baseline. The module then helps the user assess the security system’s effectiveness under specific threat scenarios. The user can then assess the effect of adding countermeasures to the security system.
Timed for your information
Drivers in the Los Angeles area now have more information to plan their highway trips. The California Department of Transportation has installed 14 electronic signs that display travel times on area freeways, the Los Angeles Times reported. The signs are part of a pilot program.
“It gives motorists more information so they can make decisions on how they will like to plan their commute,” Caltrans spokeswoman Jeanne Bonfilio, told the Los Angeles Times. “If we give them a travel time, they can say ‘I might want to take this route instead.’”
Each sign displays the commute time for two destinations, based on data from sensors placed each half-mile of urban freeway. A total of 15,000 sensors measure traffic speed and transmit data every 30 seconds.
In some cases the signs have not eased congestion, but they have eased some motorists’ anger by telling them what delays to expect.
“Improving people’s states of information will in general make them less frustrated,” James Moore, chairman of the University of Southern California’s Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, told the Los Angeles Times.
Selling too fast for comfort
The New Hampshire Department of Transportation sold 182,000 E-ZPass transponders in the six weeks leading up to early August. The problem was that the agency expected to sell about one-quarter of that total and so was not prepared, the Manchester, N.H., Union Leader reported. The state sold more transponders than they owned or that the system administrator, ACS, had gotten from the manufacturer.
Transportation Commissioner Carol Murray had to ask her executive council for permission to order another 85,000 tags.
She received permission but only after some tough questioning about how the plan to introduce E-ZPass to the state had gone wrong.
New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch demanded that NHDOT deliver all back-ordered transponders to customers by the end of August.
“For us to reach 182,000 astounds everyone—consultants, contractors, everyone,” Murray told the Union Leader. “We are aware of the frustration, the long lines, the phone delays. We are going to straighten it out. It is going to get better.”
Murray expected the deluge of requests for transponders to slow because the price of a transponder had jumped from $5 to $24.
Newfoundland to get RWIS units
Under an agreement between the federal government of Canada and the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, the governments will spend $1.1 million on acquisition and installation of up to 18 road-weather information systems (RWIS) stations along the national highways in the province. The project work is expected to be completed by March 31, 2006.
“The agreement for the acquisition and installation of road-weather information systems stations is a good example of cooperation between provincial and federal governments to enhance safety,” said R. John Efford, Canada’s natural resources minister. “The application of these new technologies will help to make Canada’s road network safer, more integrated and more efficient during winter weather conditions.”
The RWIS stations are automated weather reporting stations with special sensors embedded in and below the road and on nearby towers. The sensors collect detailed data on weather conditions at and near the road surface. The data helps weather forecasters predict icing conditions and helps road crews make winter highway maintenance decisions. Cameras on selected stations also will provide visual data, which the public can access through the Internet, on highway conditions.
The national Road Weather Information Systems initiative is a joint federal-provincial-territorial program to provide Canadians with improved road-weather information. Transport Canada and Environment Canada are the federal partners.
“The agreement for the acquisition and installation of road-weather information systems stations is one of several that will establish a cross-Canada integrated network of information systems providing critical weather information for road maintenance crews,” said Transport Minister Jean-C. Lapierre. “These new technologies will increase economic productivity while enhancing road safety and travel efficiency.” TME
RSS: Roads & Bridges Articles
