Definition of the Subject
The term “urban public transit ” encompasses a family of modes each serving a particular transport market. These modes can be arrayed by their costs and the quality of service they provide. Toward one end of the spectrum is the typical urban bus mode . At the other end are the regional rail systems with their high speeds and high capacities. In between, urban transit modes have ranges of cost and performance that overlap, and choosing between them may be difficult. Over the last several decades, the modes most often seen as competing for selection are bus rapid transit (BRT) and light rail transit (LRT).
This debate between the BRT and LRT advocates has too often been destructive, pitting two important urban transit modes against each other when the real “enemy” is the overuse and overfunding of the private car. Policymakers are often left more confused as they listen to the different opinions of their transit advisors. Sometimes they are led to believe that...
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Abbreviations
- Access time:
-
The component of door-to-door travel time spent leaving the point of trip origin to a transit stop.
- Annualized operating cost:
-
The direct cost of operating and maintaining a transit route or set of routes over a whole year; an average value.
- Articulated bus:
-
A bus vehicle with three (exceptionally four) axles and two (exceptionally three) body sections connected by body joints that provide a continuous interior for passengers. Body articulations allow the bus to make turns occupying a moderately wider body profile than a regular, two-axle bus.
- At-grade BRT:
-
Bus rapid transit that is predominantly on ROW B and has most of the following elements: signal priority at intersections and other preferential treatments elsewhere; well-spaced stops like stations, with good passenger amenities; regular, reliable services throughout the day; off-board fare collection; real-time arrival information; large, distinctive buses allowing rapid passenger exchange; and a clear, branded image.
- Automated guided transit (AGT):
-
Automated vehicles, operated on ROW A, in either a shuttle or loop configuration, typically serving internal circulation needs of large institutions or downtowns. Vehicles may be either steel wheel or rubber tired.
- Average operating speed:
-
A performance indicator computed by dividing the length of a route or line by the travel time required.
- Bogie or truck (United States):
-
Frame containing axle, motor, and brake assemblies and pivots under the body/chassis of a rail vehicle.
- Build-operate-transfer (BOT):
-
A project implementation method where one single entity is responsible for building transit infrastructure, procuring all needed equipment and managing the operations for an initial period time before the eventual handover to public ownership.
- Bus lane:
-
Traffic lane for exclusive (or dominant) use by buses. It may be:
Contraflow – Operating in the opposite direction from other traffic.
Exclusive – Physically separated lanes (usually two) for bus use only.
High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) Lane – A traffic lane open only to vehicles with more than a minimum number of persons onboard.
Regular – Lane on urban street or motorway reserved only for buses, separated by markings, signs, or cones but not physically separated.
- Bus rapid transit (BRT) or bus transit with high level of service (BHLS):
-
Bus transit system with mostly ROW B, long spacings between stops, signal priorities, vehicles with distinct image, and other rail-like components for high performance.
- Bus transit system (BTS):
-
A bus service designed as a coordinated system with average stop spacings of at least 300 m, some bus lanes, passenger-friendly vehicle design, operations control, passenger information, etc., for higher speed, reliability, and efficiency.
- Consist:
-
A set of rail vehicles coupled into a train.
- Cross-subsidization:
-
The concept of using excess revenues (profits) from one line or route and using them to support another line that earns revenues less than its costs.
- Deadheading:
-
Moving a transit unit to a line from a depot or storage location or repositioning a vehicle to another line without passengers.
- Design-build model:
-
An approach to major projects making the same firm/consortium responsible for both the design and construction phases.
- Design-build-operate-maintain (DBOM) model:
-
An approach to major projects in which the same firm/consortium is responsible for the design, construction, operation, and maintenance phases.
- Diametrical line (or route):
-
A transit line that has a radial alignment from a suburb to center city, crosses it, and continues into another suburb.
- Economy of scale:
-
The unit cost of output decreases with the quantity of output.
- Elasticity of demand:
-
The percentage change in ridership over the percentage change in some other quantity (e.g., fare or frequency)
- Frequency:
-
The rate at which transit units pass a fixed point, usually expressed per hour; it is the inverse of headway but usually expressed in minutes.
- Global positioning system (GPS):
-
The currently dominant vehicle location system, based on taking position fixes from multiple satellites.
- Guideway:
-
A travel way (rail track, guide beam, and other guiding surfaces) that physically guide vehicles. Guideways for nonrail vehicles always require ROW A.
- Headway:
-
The time interval between transit units passing a fixed point, usually expressed in minutes. It is the inverse of frequency, which is usually expressed as departures per hour.
- High occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane:
-
A traffic lane open only to vehicles with more than a minimum number of persons onboard.
- Hybrid vehicle:
-
A bus or rail transit vehicle that combines two different forms of propulsion like an internal combustion engine and an electric motor, which operate in optimum combination for each regime, such as in acceleration, low or high speed, etc.
- Intelligent transportation system (ITS):
-
A package of hardware and software specifically designed for improving transportation operations, information to the public, and/or information for service planning.
- Interlining:
-
The practice of having a vehicle continue onto another line or route rather than reversing at a terminus.
- Level of service (LOS):
-
The combined service characteristics experienced by the user.
- Light rail transit (LRT):
-
A transit mode utilizing predominantly ROW B, sometimes A or C, on different network sections. Its electrically powered vehicles operate in one- to four-car transit units. The mode has a wide range of LOS and performance characteristics.
- Light rail vehicle (LRV):
-
An electric rail transit vehicle, powered or unpowered, with up to seven body sections and overall length of 20–50 m capable of operating on ROW A, B, and C.
- Line capacity:
-
The maximum throughput of transit units (TUs) or spaces measured at one point on a line on a per-unit time basis; it has a wide range of values depending upon safety regime and assumed crowding standards.
- Linked trip:
-
A trip that includes all segments a user makes on public transport vehicles.
- Load factor or coefficient of utilization:
-
Ratio of passengers in a vehicle/transit unit and its total capacity in spaces.
- Locally preferred alternative:
-
The project alternative selected locally that is then submitted to the federal government for further review and a funding decision (specific to the United States).
- Marginal cost:
-
The cost to carry one more vehicle on a roadway, one more person in a transit vehicle, or, in general, the cost of providing one more unit of service output.
- Maximum load section (MLS):
-
The segment of a line or route on which the maximum number of passengers is carried.
- Metropolitan planning organization (MPO):
-
A governmental body legally required to do transportation forecasting and to propose a transportation improvement/investment plan for a metropolitan region (specific to the United States).
- Modal split:
-
The fraction of trips by a particular mode along a route or line, between two points, or across an entire region.
- Monorail:
-
An urban transit technology that operates exclusively on right-of-way A using in most cases tires for both lateral and vertical support on a beam with a special cross section, typically a proprietary design.
- National Transit Database (NTD):
-
A source of operating statistics and cost information for each transit agency receiving federal funds that is broken into categories used for cost modeling and estimating (United States only).
- No-build scenario:
-
A project alternative used to compare what may happen if no action is taken. The no-build alternative may sometimes include modest Transportation Systems Management investments.
- O-Bahn:
-
Bus transit technology in which buses have two horizontal wheels and roadway has two lateral surfaces; the buses can operate on regular streets or enter sections where guiding wheels stretch out and provide guidance against the lateral surfaces so that the driver does not steer.
- Operating speed:
-
Average speed on a line or network including times for stops, but not terminal times and deadheading.
- Opportunity cost:
-
The forgone possibilities when resources are committed to a particular project alternative.
- Pantograph:
-
A spring-loaded mechanism mounted atop electric vehicles that glides along and collects current from a suspended high-voltage catenary.
- Paratransit:
-
In the narrow definition, services provided as a public service on a demand-responsive basis; in the broader definition any for-hire services that are not fixed route (e.g., taxis, jitneys, vanpools, airport shuttles, etc.).
- People mover:
-
The informal name for Automated Guided Transit (AGT) system.
- Public–private partnership (PPP):
-
A method of project development in which responsibilities and finances are divided amongst various parties in recognition of the benefits each can receive, hopefully to the mutual benefit of all parties.
- Radial line (or route):
-
A line or route that begins in CBD or at a center of activity and goes to suburbs, in the direction of lower demand density.
- Real-time passenger information (RTPI):
-
The estimated arrival time for a vehicle at a particular stop based on tracking of actual location versus scheduled location; it can be delivered with signs in the field over the Internet, over Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), cell phones, etc.
- Regular:
-
Lane on urban street or motorway reserved only for buses, separated by markings, signs, or cones but not physically separated.
- Right-of-way (ROW):
-
Broadly speaking, any path or way on which a transit vehicle travels. Transit rights-of-way (ROW) are classified in three categories:
Category A Right-of-Way (ROW A) – Fully controlled ROW without (or with fully protected) grade crossings or any legal access by other vehicles or persons; also called “grade-separated” or “exclusive” ROW. It can be a tunnel, aerial, or at-grade level.
Category B Right-of-Way (ROW B) – ROW horizontally separated from other traffic (by curbs, barriers, grade-separations, etc.), but with grade crossings for vehicles and pedestrians usually at regular street intersections.
Category C Right-of-Way (ROW C) – Surface streets with mixed traffic. Transit may have preferential treatment, such as reserved lane but not physically separated lanes, or it may travel in general traffic lanes.
- Short turning:
-
Transit line on which some transit units turn back at a station closer than the outlying terminal.
- Shuttle:
-
A route that consists of only two stops, one at each terminus.
- Space-averaged load factor:
-
A performance indicator used to measure vehicle space consumption efficiency over the length of a route, computed as the ratio of total space-distance consumed over total space-distance offered.
- Streetcar:
-
A rail transit mode consisting of electrically powered rail vehicles operating in one- to three-car transit units, usually on ROW B or C.
- Sustainable Development:
-
The concept that economic development should take place so that nonrenewable resources are not depleted and natural systems of restoration and pollution mitigation are not overloaded.
- Tangential route (or Line):
-
A route or line that does not enter into a central area, but instead connects peripheral locations, generally having the property of more even loading because demand does not increase continually as with radial routes.
- Timed-transfer system (TTS):
-
A network consisting of transit lines and one or several transit centers or focal points at which transit units from intersecting lines arrive simultaneously, allowing easy passenger transfer in all directions.
- Tramway:
-
See Streetcar
- Transit signal priority (TSP):
-
The control of traffic signal timing, and possibly street layout, designed to favor transit vehicles over private vehicles.
- Truck:
-
See Bogie
- Unlinked trip:
-
A trip counted separately, even if it may actually be a transfer between two transit vehicles.
- Zonal service:
-
Transit service in which trains operate express or local along different sections of the route, with connections between zones only at a few joint stations.
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Vuchic, V.R., Stanger, R.M., Bruun, E.C. (2013). Bus Rapid Versus Light Rail Transit : Service Quality, Economic, Environmental and Planning Aspects. In: Ehsani, M., Wang, FY., Brosch, G.L. (eds) Transportation Technologies for Sustainability. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5844-9_383
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