Assessing Transit Level of Service along Travel Corridors

Abstract

This paper describes a case study of applying the recent edition of the Transit Capacity and Quality of Service Manual (TCQSM) to evaluate the quality of transit service on several travel corridors in an urbanized area. The study focuses mainly on four level-of-service (LOS) measures: service frequency, hours of service, service coverage, and transit–auto travel time. Assumptions are introduced to extend these measures, which are intended for a particular element of a transit system–-such as stops and route segments–-so that they become applicable for measuring the quality of transit service of travel corridors. An extensive case analysis indicates that all LOS measures are sensitive to various transit planning variables and can be easily calculated with readily available data. The research has also identified a range of issues with the current TCQSM methodology.