Innovative Park-and-Ride Management for Livable Communities
PIs: Ziqi Song and Kevin Heaslip – Utah State University
Project Period: August 1, 2014 – August 1, 2015 (12months)
Park-and-ride (P&R) has been recognized as an effective way to tackle the challenge of the last-mile problem in public transportation, i.e., connecting transit stations to final destinations. The planning and management of P&R facilities has become increasingly important because the country is investing more than ever in high-quality transit services, such as fixed-guideway transit and express buses. Although the design and operations of P&R facilities have been extensively investigated, there is a pressing need for a theoretically sound methodology for planning and managing P&R facilities. It is critically important to investigate where P&R facilities should be strategically located and how often transit service should be provided such that the net social benefit can be maximized. This project is intended to develop an integrated planning methodology for locating P&R facilities and designing transit services simultaneously to promote public transportation and reduce traffic externalities in urban areas. The modeling framework will capture the impacts of the provision of P&R facilities as well as transit services on commuters’ mode and route choices. The proposed research will provide a heretofore missing theoretical framework for integrated planning of P&R facilities and transit services. The methodology is expected to be transferrable to Utah Transit Authority (UTA) and other transit operators for use in the planning and management of P&R facilities.
