Measuring the performance of a transit system is the first step toward efficient and
proactive management. In recent years, the use of performance measures for transportation planning and operations has gained a great deal of attention, particularly as transportation agencies are required to provide service with diminishing resources. In the past, it was very difficult and costly to collect comprehensive performance data. Thus, until recently, the transit industry has relied upon limited, general, aggregate measures for reporting performance to external funding and regulatory agencies. In Portland Oregon, the local transit provider (TriMet) has developed a bus dispatch system (BDS) comprised of automatic vehicle location (AVL), communications, automatic passenger counters (APCs) and a central dispatch center. Most significantly, TriMet had the foresight to develop a system to archive all of its stop-level data that is then available for conversion to performance indicators. This paper...
R. L. Bertini, A. M. El-Geneidy