State of the Practice - How Public Transportation is addressed in Traffic Impact Studies ITE Transit and Traffic Impact Studies Committee

State of the Practice - How Public Transportation is addressed in Traffic Impact Studies ITE Transit and Traffic Impact Studies Committee

Purpose of Report Relevant Literature Survey Results Current and Emerging Issues Best Practices Information Gaps Conclusions

Purpose of Report Provides a snapshot of the state of the practice of how public transportation is addressed in Traffic Impact Studies Committee purpose and goal June 2015 Journal Article Based primarily on a survey of ITE members

Purpose of Report Identifies substantial knowledge gaps that will help ITE and its members identify next steps Will lead to an ITE recommended practice for how to consider public transit in traffic impact studies.

Purpose of Report Typical TIS does not address: Transit service adequacy in terms of availability, frequency, and capacity; and Mitigation measures to improve transit service and bicycle/pedestrian infrastructure

Relevant Literature A literature review was conducted of current guidance: TCRP Report 165 Transit Capacity & Quality of Service, Chapter 5 Transit Quality of Service Fixed Route Transit Quality of service (QOS) is the overall measured or perceived performance of transit service from the passenger s point of view similar to vehicle LOS?

Relevant Literature A literature review was conducted of current guidance: Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) 2010 Chapters 16 and 17. Urban Streets Chapters 16 and 17 of the HCM 2010 (TRB, 2010) provide level of service (LOS) estimation procedures and LOS thresholds for the four modes (auto, transit, bicycle, and pedestrian) of urban streets Anyone used this?

Survey responses from ITE members: Survey responses were received from agencies in more than 30 US states, four provinces in Canada, and from eight other countries 250 initial responses to the survey, 78 said they did not have or didn t know if they had TIS guidelines 69 said they have adopted TIS guidelines and completed the survey

Questions sent to ITE members - Guidelines: Does your agency use or have written guidelines for Land Development projects? Are the written guidelines based on a reference document such as the ITE Recommended Practice on Traffic Impact Assessment for Site Development?

Questions sent to ITE members TIS vs Planning: Does this agency use these same TIS guidelines for assessing the impact of a transportation project (as opposed to a land development project) How is the issuing agency for the traffic impact study guidelines related to the public transit agency or agencies that provide service in this community?

Questions sent to ITE members How to measure impacts: Is a Transit Quality of Service analysis required/suggested in the setting section? Evaluate the impact of project generated vehicle traffic on transit operations including average speed, delays, headways, reliability? Evaluate the impact of the project's site location, proposed road modifications or other area wide non traffic impacts?

Questions sent to ITE members How to measure impacts and mitigation: Are impacts of new transit riders on transit capacity service, and /or transit passenger pedestrian infrastructure addressed? Is new or improved transit service considered as a potential mitigation measure for traffic impacts/traffic congestion?

Questions sent to ITE members Coordination and funding: Are transit providers involved in the traffic impact study process? Are there institutional arrangements between local agencies and transit agencies to help fund transit operations and /or capital purchases via either project development fees, traffic impact fees, and/or projects specific mitigation measures or fees?

Setting/Existing Conditions Transit QOS meant different things to different people Majority of responding agencies, 86% neither require or suggest that some aspect of Transit QOS be addressed

Setting/Existing Conditions Only one of the agencies uses the HCM Transit MMLOS Only two of the agencies uses an actual rating, e.g. A-F, to describe the QOS,

Aspects of Transit Quality of Service Assessed in the Setting Section Transit QOS Criteria Agencies that Require or Suggest this Criteria Specific methodology cited in TIS guidelines? Specific Metrics from the TC&QOS Manual (TCRP report no.165 ) Transit Multimodal LOS (Bus Route and Segment QOS) MassDOT (in certain cases) VDOT * (in certain cases) HCM 2010 Transit MMLOS TC&QOS Manual (TCRP report no.165) Headway / Service Frequency Oakland, Halifax, Washington DC, Waterloo, MassDOT, FDOT none Hours of Service Oakland, Washington DC, MassDOT, Waterloo none Travel Time difference compared to Auto Travel San Francisco** Change in average dwell time VDOT; Required by the following agencies in the impacts section: MassDOT TC & QOS manual 2 nd edition Diminish Transit Speeds/ increase transit travel time/ increase transit delay Required by the following agencies in the impacts section: Oakland, Ottawa, Waterloo, MassDOT none Passenger Load (passengers per seat or passengers per square foot) Waterloo, MassDOT, New York, Washington DC (if >30 peak hour transit trips are generated) none

Impacts of the Project on Transit Service and Operations and facilities Only six respondents indicated that analysis of traffic s adverse impact on transit is required The City of San Francisco requires analysis of Transit Capacity Utilization and Trip Generation per the City s 2002 Transportation Impact Analysis Guidelines The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) in South San Francisco Bay area requires a quantitative estimate of additional seconds of transit vehicle delay

Impact of Project s New Transit Riders on Transit infrastructure and Capacity Transit Passenger Service Analysis Transit Facility (Escalators/Stairs) Analysis Platform Loading Analysis Sidewalk Capacity Analysis US/Canada Respondents Not Mentioned 56 62 61 56 Suggested 4 0 1 4 Required 4 2 2 4

Transit Considered Mitigation for Traffic Impacts Mitigation is rarely if ever required A few agencies require provisions for right of way or bus turnouts Many agencies do not consider new or improved transit service as a mitigation measure.

Involving the Transit Provider in the TIS Process

Involving the Transit Provider in the TIS Process follow up responses if they are involved and do they have a written policy? Most of these guidelines required that transit service in the vicinity of the site be documented or that the transit agency be notified

Involving the Transit Provider in the TIS Process follow up responses if they are involved and do they have a written policy? The most comprehensive policy provided was The Commonwealth of Massachusetts - includes data collection on transit usage, a multi modal level of service analysis and transit mitigation Transit operators felt that there were major flaws in the TIS process - determination of mode split of the project trips and which bus routes the transit trips are assigned to

Current and Emerging Issues California Senate Bill No. 743 - de-emphasizes the use of roadway capacity and level of service and emphasizes the use of alternative measures, primarily vehicle miles travelled (VMT) Lack of Transit Analysis Affects Infill development and Regional Transit Generators

Best Practices Florida DOT provides thorough guidance to practitioners assessing transit within a traffic impact study City and County of San Francisco- downtown Transit Impact Development Fee

Best Practices Fort Collins Colorado - MMLOS manual quantitatively evaluates the accessibility, connectivity, and continuity of motor vehicle, public transit, bicycle, and pedestrians MassDOT - Transit service improvements must also be considered to reduce the number of study area-generated vehicle-trips

Information Gaps Pervasive lack of understanding of what Transit QOS is Need for thresholds and standards for transit impacts - minimum number of projected transit trips Need for a methodology that is both simple to use and would receive buy-in from all stakeholders

Conclusions Premature to identify specific best practices for incorporating transit into the TIS process? State of the practice report will be useful in leading to an ITE Recommended Practice Cities and DOTs need to recognize that the construction of a new buildings/intensified land use will generate additional demand for travel by all modes

Questions