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What Is It?
- Personalized Public Transit (PPT) provides transit
services on a demand or as-needed basis.
Examples of personalized public transit are:
- Taxis
- Dial-a-Ride services
- Buses that operate on a fixed schedule but that
can alter their routes to some extent to accomodate demand.
Key Results
In recent years, new technologies, primarily Computer-aided
Dispatch (CAD) and Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL), have allowed operators
to consolidate existing demand in fewer vehicles, serve a larger market,
and reduce labor costs. Users typically enjoy reduced advanced reservation
times, reduced waiting times, and faster travel times. Travel Impacts:To
the extent that new technologies increase PPT ridership and enhance vehicle
productivity, they lead to the following travel impacts:
- Reduction of total traffic
- Reduction of peak period traffic
- Shift from automobile travel to transit and
paratransit
Benefits
- Increased ridership.
- Reduced waiting times.
- Reduced advanced reservation time and accomodation
of last-minute requests.
- Faster travel times.
- Enhanced schedule control and quick identification
of slack times.
- Labor cost savings: the CAD systems allow higher
volumes with the same number of dispatchers or less.
Costs
- Equipment costs.
- Labor: Setting-up of technologies, time required
to learn new systems and maintenance by a system administrator.
Where is it implemented?
- Traditional PPT (without AVL and CAD) is implemented
throughout the world.
- Advanced PPT with AVL and CAD is implemented
on a limited basis in the United States, Western Europe, Japan and Australia.
However, AVL and CAD systems are being increasingly deployed.
Author: Dimitri Loukakos
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