DETERMINING PRIORITY AREAS FOR TRANSIT SERVICE

Using a suburban Philadelphia county as a case study, an ordinal ranking procedure is proposed as one method of defining primary priority and secondary priority areas for transit service. Bucks County, a fast-growing auto-oriented society is considered with particular consideration being given to the spatial distribution of 3 special groups: school age children, senior citizens, and low income families. The ordinal ranking technique was employed to determine which of the 23 boroughs and 31 townships in the County should be considered as primary and secondary priority areas for new or expanded public transportation service. Each borough and township was ranked in terms of the density measures recorded for each 6 socio-economic indicators (the 3 special groups, population, zero car households and employment) and a composite score was obtained by summing individual values. The applicability of the ordinal ranking technique was initially determined by correlating the amount of new service proposed in the subsequent transit development program with the location of first and secondary areas in Bucks County. It was noted that the productivity of service expressed in passengers per mile or passenger miles per seat miles should vary along a route or among routes serving areas with different socioeconomic characteristics.

• Corporate Authors:

  American Public Transit Association

  1100 17th Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20036
• Authors:
  • Polin, L
  • Caruolo, J R
• Publication Date: 1976-5

Media Info

• Features: Photos; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 27-34
• Serial:
  • Transit Journal
  • Volume: 2
  • Issue Number: 2

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Aged; Counties; Employment; Low income groups; Population; Productivity; Public transit; School children; Socioeconomic factors; Statistical ranking; Strategic planning; Suburbs; Towns; Traffic distribution; Urban areas
• Old TRIS Terms: Ranking
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Economics; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00135929
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Sep 21 1981 12:00AM