Improving Transportation Network
Efficiency Through Implementation of
Transit-Supportive Roadway Strategies
TCRP A-39
MOVINGFORWARDTHINKING
Presentation Overview
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Project overview
Need for transit-supportive roadway strategies
Ingredients for a successful project
Using the guidebook
Additional resources
Project Overview
What is a Transit-Supportive Roadway
Strategy?
 Any operational practice or infrastructure
element that helps buses move more quickly
along a street or along their route, and with
more consistent travel times.
– Bus operations
– Traffic control
– Infrastructure, including bus lanes
 Also known as “transit preferential treatments”
Bus Operations Strategies
 Changes made by the transit agency in the way
it provides service
– Stop relocation
– Stop consolidation
– Route design
– Fare payment changes
– Vehicle/equipment changes
Traffic Control Strategies
 Changes to the way traffic is regulated, for the
benefit of transit
– Movement restriction
exemption
– Turn restrictions
– Yield-to-bus
– Passive signal timing
changes
…EXCEPT BUS…
Traffic Control Strategies (cont’d.)
 Changes to the way traffic is regulated, for the
benefit of transit
– Phase reservice
– Traffic signal shadowing
– Transit signal priority
– Transit signal faces
– Bus-only signal phase
Traffic Control Strategies (cont’d.)
 Changes to the way traffic is regulated, for the
benefit of transit
– Queue jumps
– Pre-signals
– Traffic signal installed
specifically for buses
– Enforcement
Infrastructure Strategies
 Changes to physical elements of the roadway
– Speed hump
modifications
– Bus stop lengthening
– Bus shoulder use
MnDOT
Infrastructure Strategies (cont’d.)
 Changes to physical elements of the roadway
– Red colored pavement
– Curb extensions
– Boarding islands
– Bus-only links
Bus Lane Strategies
 Travel lanes dedicated exclusively or primarily
for bus use
– Curbside
– Shared bus & bicycle
– Interior (offset)
– Left-side
New York City DOT
Bus Lane Strategies (cont’d.)
 Travel lanes dedicated exclusively or primarily
for bus use
– Queue bypass
– Median
– Contraflow
– Reversible
FHWA/PB ”HOV Interactive 1.0”
What Isn’t a Transit-Supportive Roadway
Strategy?
 Sidewalk improvements
 Land-use changes to bring buildings closer to
the street
 Any other strategy that doesn’t directly impact
bus travel time, reliability, or both
 These other strategies can be important for
increasing route ridership, but weren’t the
focus of this project
Project Objectives
 Identify strategies to reduce bus delay and
improve bus travel time reliability on public
roadways
 Develop decision-making guidance for these
strategies
 Provide case studies of successful agency
partnerships to implement strategies
 Recommend potential changes to other
documents to facilitate strategy implementation
Project Deliverables
 A Guidebook on Transit-Supportive Roadway
Strategies
– Practitioner-focused guidance on identifying,
planning, and implementing strategies
– Written for both transit and roadway agency staff,
and their consultants
– Emphasizes interagency partnerships and ways to
establish and grow them
Project Deliverables (cont’d.)
 TCRP A-39 Final Report
– Documents research conducted in support of the
development of the guidebook
– Written for a researcher audience, along with
guidebook readers wanting additional information
TCRP A-39 Research Team
 Kittelson & Associates, Inc.
 Savant Group, Inc.
The Need for Transit-Supportive Roadway
Strategies
Challenges Faced by Transit Agencies
 Minimizing operating costs
– Operating costs are about 81% of a bus operator’s
total expenses (2012 data from APTA)
– Vehicle operations and maintenance account for
about 71% of the overall operating budget
– Headways and route cycle times are two important
factors influencing vehicle operations costs
– Actions to improve bus speeds and reduce travel
time variability reduce cycle times
Challenges Faced by Transit Agencies (cont’d.)
 Minimizing operating costs (cont’d.)
– Best case: Reducing the cycle time (the time it takes
one bus to make a round trip on a route, including
layover) allows a bus to be removed from a route
while maintaining headways
– Otherwise: Reducing the cycle time offers a buffer
against future delays (e.g., more traffic congestion)
and postpones the need to add a bus to the route
or cut service
Challenges Faced by Transit Agencies (cont’d.)
 Attracting ridership
– For transit agencies, faster bus speeds (shorter
travel times) and reliable service attract riders
– For roadway agencies, mode shifts to transit help
reduce traffic congestion and postpone the need
for costly capacity improvements
– Strategies that visibly prioritize transit service make
transit more attractive to potential riders
Challenges Faced by Transit Agencies (cont’d.)
 Traffic congestion
– As traffic congestion increases, buses slow down
and travel times become more variable
– Strategies that help buses avoid some or all of the
effects of traffic congestion help avoid the need to
add buses or reduce service
Benefits of Transit-Supportive Roadway
Strategies
 Transit agency
– Attracts new ridership
– Reduces costs or postpones the need for added
costs
 Roadway agency
– Promotes efficient use of limited roadway space
 Community
– Preserves the community’s investment in transit
service
Ingredients for a Successful Project
Steps to a Successful Project
1. Develop Agency Partnerships
2. Work Within the Policy Environment
3. Develop Potential Strategies
4. Work Within the Regulatory Environment
5. Engage Project Stakeholders
6. Implement the Project
7. Quantify the Results
8. Build on Success
Agency Partnerships
1. Develop Agency Partnerships
2. Work Within the Policy Environment
3. Develop Potential Strategies
4. Work Within the Regulatory Environment
5. Engage Project Stakeholders
6. Implement the Project
7. Quantify the Results
8. Build on Success
 This step takes the
longest to achieve
 May not be fully
realized until after
the first project
 Most important
step for long-term
success
Ways Partnerships Have Started
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Small steps
Piggybacking on another agency’s projects
Regional engagement
Political or agency leadership directives
Major project involvement
Times of crisis
Building Momentum
 Build leadership support
 Develop staff interaction
– Identify clear roles and responsibilities
– Meet regularly, even when there’s no active project
 Understand each other’s needs
– Talk with agency partners about their needs and
constraints
– Guidebook appendices
Overcoming Resistance
 Education
 Demonstrate the need
– COTA (Columbus, Ohio) took stakeholders on a bus
tour to see their operational problems first-hand
 Data and analysis
– Many transit agencies interviewed for TCRP A-39
said that the easiest way to get a proposal
approved was to prepare a traffic analysis for it
Overcoming Resistance (cont’d.)
 Peer knowledge and experimentation
– DART (Dallas) sent city traffic engineers to visit
peers in other cities, using FHWA’s Peer-to-Peer
program
– King County Metro (Seattle) lent TSP equipment to
suburban city staff to experiment with
 Bring money or other benefits to the table
 High-level agency leadership talks
 Pick low-hanging fruit
Working Within the Policy Environment
1. Develop Agency Partnerships
2. Work Within the Policy Environment
3. Develop Potential Strategies
4. Work Within the Regulatory Environment
5. Engage Project Stakeholders
6. Implement the Project
7. Quantify the Results
8. Build on Success
 What modes does a
local jurisdiction
prioritize?
 What decisionmaking criteria are
used by the roaday
agency?
Examples of Policy Environments
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Maintain existing motor vehicle operations
Maintain or improve person delay
Maintain operations at or above standard
Favor transit service
 The more favorable the policy environment,
the greater the variety of potential options to
start with
Working with Challenging Environments
 Identify low-hanging fruit
– Low costs, few stakeholders, few constraints
 Plan in advance, take advantage of
opportunities
– Work to get transit projects and/or transit priority
corridors into long-range transportation plans
– Identify projects in other agency’s capital
improvement plans and programs for piggybacking
– Identify potential funding sources
Developing Potential Strategies
1. Develop Agency Partnerships
2. Work Within the Policy Environment
3. Develop Potential Strategies
4. Work Within the Regulatory Environment
5. Engage Project Stakeholders
6. Implement the Project
7. Quantify the Results
8. Build on Success
 What problem
needs to be solved?
 Are transitsupportive roadway
strategies the best
solution?
Speed and Reliability Problems Less Suitable
for Transit-Supportive Roadway Strategies
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Long-term road construction
Buses breaking down while in service
Inadequate bus and operator availability
Differences in operator experience
Environmental conditions (e.g., rain, snow)
Developing Potential Strategies
 Understand the problem
– Bus operator, field supervisor input
– Customer complaints
– Archived APC/AVL data
 Match potential strategies to the problem
– Guidebook Chapter 4
 Analyze potential benefits and costs
– A package of strategies may be most effective
Working Within the Regulatory Environment
1. Develop Agency Partnerships
2. Work Within the Policy Environment
3. Develop Potential Strategies
4. Work Within the Regulatory Environment
5. Engage Project Stakeholders
6. Implement the Project
7. Quantify the Results
8. Build on Success
 These strategies are
still an emerging
area of engineering
practice
 Particularly the first
time, may need to
identify potential
regulatory
constraints
What is the Regulatory Environment?
 Transportation engineers work with standards,
guidance, and practice
– Standards: How something should be done; may
not allow any deviation
– Guidance: Recommendation for best practice, with
room for interpretation
– Practice: How an individual agency implements
guidance and options
What is the Regulatory Environment?
(cont’d.)
 Transportation engineers work with various
manuals, policies, and guidebooks
– MUTCD: National standards on traffic control
– AASHTO Green Book: National policies on roadway
design
– State and local design manuals: Standards
applicable to a specific roadway
 These documents do not fully address (or
address at all) transit-supportive roadway
strategies
What is the Regulatory Environment?
(cont’d.)
 Without guidance, some agencies may be
reluctant to consider these strategies
 Situation is changing, however:
– AASHTO Guide for Geometric Design of Transit
Facilities on Highways and Streets (2014)
– This project’s guidebook (2016)
– NACTO transit design guide (under development)
– MUTCD revisions currently under consideration by
FHWA
Addressing the Regulatory Environment
 Identify potential constraints
– National standards, local practice
– Local laws and regulations
 Identify potential design standard variances
 Transit agency could develop an agency-specific
design guide for transit-supportive strategies
 Encourage roadway agencies to update their
design manuals after they approve specific
strategies
Engaging Project Stakeholders
1. Develop Agency Partnerships
2. Work Within the Policy Environment
3. Develop Potential Strategies
4. Work Within the Regulatory Environment
5. Engage Project Stakeholders
6. Implement the Project
7. Quantify the Results
8. Build on Success
 Often a need to
engage additional
stakeholders
 Need for, and scale
of, engagement
increases as projects
become more
complex
Potential Public Agency Stakeholders
 Transit agency staff
– Capital projects, service planning, marketing, bus
operators, management, board
– Other transit agencies, if they will also use facility
 Roadway agency staff
– Roadway design, traffic signals, traffic operations,
ped/bike, decision-makers
– From each jurisdiction affected
Potential Public Agency Stakeholders
(cont’d.)
 City/county decision-makers
– City manager, council representative, mayor, etc.
– From each jurisdiction affected
 Local/regional planning agency staff
 Public safety
– Law enforcement, fire, emergency responders
 Other affected agencies
– Parks district, utility district, school district,
economic development department
Potential Community Group Stakeholders
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Neighborhood associations, community boards
Business associations, chambers of commerce
Churches
Advocacy groups
– Pedstrians, bicyclists, persons with disabilities
Potential Institutional Stakeholders
 Schools
 Universities
 Hospitals
Potential Private Stakeholders
 Business owners
 Property owners
 Users of curb space
– Delivery companies, taxi companies, armored cars
 Social service agencies
Techniques for Engaging Stakeholders
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Demonstrate the need
Listen to and understand stakeholder needs
Education
Accommodate stakeholder schedules
Personal touch
Find ways to accommodate concerns
 Communicate early, clearly, and often
Implementing the Project
1. Develop Agency Partnerships
2. Work Within the Policy Environment
3. Develop Potential Strategies
4. Work Within the Regulatory Environment
5. Engage Project Stakeholders
6. Implement the Project
7. Quantify the Results
8. Build on Success
 The project has
been identified,
approved, and
funded. Now what?
Implementing the Project
 Identify each agency’s (and key staff persons’)
roles and responsibilities
– Intergovernmental agreements
– Memoranda of understanding
– Project charter
 Conduct normal construction-related activities
 Consider potential need for additional outreach
 Allow for unexpected schedule delays
Quantifying the Results
1. Develop Agency Partnerships
2. Work Within the Policy Environment
3. Develop Potential Strategies
4. Work Within the Regulatory Environment
5. Engage Project Stakeholders
6. Implement the Project
7. Quantify the Results
8. Build on Success
 Recommended that
agencies study the
outcomes of their
projects
 Supports future
projects
 Contributes to
industry knowledge
Potential Performance Metrics
 Travel delay, travel time, speed
– Buses and all vehicles
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Reliability
Vehicle emissions
Operations costs
Ridership
Safety
Build on Success
1. Develop Agency Partnerships
2. Work Within the Policy Environment
3. Develop Potential Strategies
4. Work Within the Regulatory Environment
5. Engage Project Stakeholders
6. Implement the Project
7. Quantify the Results
8. Build on Success
 One successful
project often opens
the door to bigger
projects
 Keep lines of
communication
open between
projects
Using the Guidebook
Guidebook Organization
Guidebook Organization (cont’d.)
 The guidebook is not intended to be read
cover-to-cover at one time
 Different sections intended for application at
different points in the planning and
implementation process
Chapters 1 & 2: Fundamentals
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Summary of the guidebook
How to use the guidebook
Key terminology
The case for implementing transit-supportive
roadway strategies
 Case studies of successful projects
Chapter 3: Laying the Foundation
 Details of the eight steps to implementing a
strategy
 Case study examples for the main steps
Chapter 4: Strategy Selection
 Most published guidance to date draws from a
single report that provided volume-based
criteria for justifying bus lanes or selected
other strategies
 Guidebook recommends considering multiple
factors when selecting a strategy
 Chapter 4 provides a selection matrix that
provides typical applications, outcomes, and
relative costs for 34 strategies
Chapters 5–8: Strategy Toolbox
 Each strategy is described in detail, including
– Description and photo/illustration
– Purpose, applications, companion strategies
– Constraints
– Benefits
– Cost considerations (5 categories)
– Implementation examples
– Implementation guidance
– Additional resources
Appendices A & B: Primers
 Understanding traffic engineering practice, for
transit professionals
 Understanding transit operations, for
transportation engineers and planners
 Provides basic information about topics that
might arise when considering strategies, to
help agency staff understand each other better
Appendix C:
Managing Bus–Bike Interactions
 Can be challenging to allocate limited roadway
space among all travel modes
 Streets used by transit can also be desirable
bicycle corridors
 Bicycle needs can constrain potential transit
strategies, unless addressed during planning
 Appendix reviews the state-of-the-practice for
managing bus and bicycle interactions
 More research still needed
Appendix D:
Request to Experiment Template
 Red colored paint as an option for marking bus
lanes has been recommended to FHWA for the
next MUTCD
 Until included in the MUTCD (or until FHWA
issues an Interim Approval), transit agencies
must submit a request to experiment to use
this strategy
 Appendix provides a template for making this
request
Appendix E: Glossary
 Guidebook generally avoids use of jargon
 Glossary provides definitions of terms that may
come up when evaluating strategies
 Glossary sources:
– Transit Capacity and Quality of Service Manual
(transit terminology)
– Highway Capacity Manual (highway operations)
– Traffic Signal Timing Manual (signal operations)
Additional Resources
Project Final Report
 Final report documents the research
 Appendices provide additional details that may be
useful for some readers
– Literature review
– Agency interviews
– HCM-compatible method for assessing transit signal
priority impact on roadway operations
– Simulation study on the performance of intersectionfocused strategies
– Evaluation of strategies used internationally, but rarely
or not at all in the U.S.
TCRP Publications
 TCRP Synthesis 83
– Summary and case studies of near-current practice on
use of transit-supportive strategies
– IGA examples
 TCRP Synthesis 110
– Summary and case studies of low-cost techniques
transit agencies have used to improve bus speeds
 TCRP Legal Research Digest 42
– IGA, MOU, etc. Examples
 http://www.trb.org/Publications/PubsTCRPPublica
tions.aspx
AASHTO Publication
 Guide for Geometric Design of Transit Facilities
on Highways and Streets
– Guidance on the geometric design of a variety of
transit-supportive roadway strategies
– TCRP A-39 final report provides recommendations
for changes in the guide as the result of the
research conducted by this project