Emissions Benefits from Reducing Local Transit Service Deadheading: An Atlanta Case Study
Transit agencies are always seeking opportunities to conserve fuel (which typically provides simultaneous emissions reductions). According to the 2010 national bus transportation statistics for the United States, deadhead trips cover 13.3% of a total of 2.4 billion transit bus miles. Therefore, reducing deadheading tends to be a promising alternative to achieve reduction of fuel consumption and emissions. In order to minimize fuel consumption and emissions related to deadheading, this study proposes three strategies including optimal assignment of buses to existing bus yards, relocating a bus yard to a better location, and constructing a new bus yard. The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) is taken as an example for analysis these three scenarios and the effectiveness of each strategy is evaluated in terms of fuel saving, emissions reduction, and cost impacts. Bus assignment and yard selection are conducted through geographic information system (GIS)-based network analysis. Potential improvements on fuels and emissions are quantified through motor vehicle emission simulator (MOVES)-Matrix, a high-performance emission simulation platform built based on MOVES model, with real-world operations data applied. Cost impacts relate to transit facility and operating costs. The results show that relocating the current yard is the “winning” strategy in perspective of emissions in the long run; however, re-assigning buses achieves 6% reduction in fuel consumption and does not require additional expenditures. The paper showcases the strategies for reducing deadheading in the planning process for transit agencies, and the analysis herein, conducted for the Atlanta region, can be easily applied to other agencies across the nation.
- Record URL:
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Supplemental Notes:
- This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADC20 Standing Committee on Transportation and Air Quality.
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Corporate Authors:
500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC United States 20001 -
Authors:
- Li, Hanyan
- Liu, Haobing
- Xu, Xiaodan
- Xu, Yanzhi "Ann"
- Rodgers, Michael O
- Guensler, Randall L
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Conference:
- Transportation Research Board 95th Annual Meeting
- Location: Washington DC, United States
- Date: 2016-1-10 to 2016-1-14
- Date: 2016
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Digital/other
- Features: Figures; Maps; References; Tables;
- Pagination: 17p
- Monograph Title: TRB 95th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Bus transit operations; Case studies; Deadheading; Fuel conservation; Fuel consumption; Geographic information systems; Pollutants; Strategic planning; Transit operating agencies
- Identifier Terms: Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority; Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES)
- Uncontrolled Terms: Transit assignment
- Geographic Terms: Atlanta (Georgia)
- Subject Areas: Energy; Environment; Operations and Traffic Management; Public Transportation; I15: Environment; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01588778
- Record Type: Publication
- Report/Paper Numbers: 16-6385
- Files: NTL, TRIS, TRB, ATRI
- Created Date: Jan 29 2016 9:33AM