Date of Award

Spring 1987

Document Type

Thesis - Restricted

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering

First Advisor

Guenthner, Richard P.

Second Advisor

Murphy, William G.

Third Advisor

Goetsch, Herbert A.

Abstract

In the years to come, federal financial aid to mass transit most likely will be cut to reduce the federal budget deficit. Facing this problem, the mass transit industry is looking for ways to accommodate the losses. Two methods of improving bus service will be examined in this thesis. This thesis is divided into two parts. The first part (Chapters 2 and 3) deals with the effect on bus passenger dwell time from a complicated fare structure, using the Southeastern Michigan Transportation Authority (SEMTA) as a case study. The SEMTA, which serves more than 750,000 people in suburban Detroit, uses a zone fare system. Separate analyses were conducted for alighting and boarding. First, a comparison of boarding times as a function of fare payment method was made. Next, regression analyses were performed to find the relationship between alighting or boarding times and the number of passengers. Finally, the distribution of overall dwell times was determined. The second part of the thesis (Chapters 4 and 5) deals with bus transit on-time performance. The Milwaukee County Transit System was chosen for this study. Frequency and other statistical packages of SPSSx were used to analyze the data. An analysis was performed to compare the arriving times at different points along a route, at different times of day, and in different directions. Also, an analysis was made to find the probability distribution of on-time performance.

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