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Short Range Transit Planning and Marketing Using Desktop Geographic Information Systems
Click HERE for graphic. Short Range Transit Planning and Marketing Using Desktop Geographic Information Systems by Linda Culp San Diego Association of Governments 401 B Street, Suite 800 San Diego CA 92101 Telephone: (619) 595-5357 FAX: (619) 595-5305 December 1994 Linda Culp Short Range Transit Planning and Marketing Using Desktop Geographic Information Systems by Linda Culp, Senior Research Analyst San Diego Association of Governments ABSTRACT The San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) is the regional planning agency and the Metropolitan Planning Organization for the San Diego region. A major emphasis at SANDAG is to assist the region's transit operators in their planning and marketing activities by providing technical assistance and data including geographic analysis, data collection and management, survey research, and transportation modeling. Currently, SANDAG and the region's operators are working together to design a desktop geographic information system application that staff from each individual operator can access directly to enhance regional transit planning and marketing. The objective is to develop a tool that can be used directly by transit operator staff at a relatively low cost and minimal training. Operators now have access to a variety of databases including census data, passenger counts, and regional growth forecasts which can be integrated and displayed in map, table, or chart form. Planning and marketing efforts to enhance the current level of transit service and increase ridership in the region are benefiting from the coordination of this project between SANDAG and the transit operators. KEYWORDS: desktop geographic information system, transit planning, transit marketing Linda Culp 1 INTRODUCTION The need for public transit has increased in the San Diego region due to population growth and resulting traffic pressures put upon local roads and freeways. Population in the region increased 34 percent during the 1980s and new vehicle registrations experienced 41 percent growth (1). Commuting to work now takes longer as congestion has increased; the average commute now takes 22 minutes, a 12 percent increase since 1980 (1). Transit ridership in the region increased by 44 percent during the same period. Since 1990, population has continued to increase but at a much lower rate. During the early 1990s, transit ridership leveled off. Between 1993 and 1994 ridership declined by 2.6 percent, due primarily to the decline in the local economy. From 1990 to 1992, regional job loss was over 45,000 or nearly 2 percent. The San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) is the regional planning agency and the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for the San Diego region. A major emphasis at SANDAG is to assist the region's transit operators in their planning and marketing activities by providing technical assistance and data including geographic analysis, data collection and management, survey research, and transportation modeling. Currently, SANDAG and the region's operators are working together to design a geographic information system (GIS) application that staff from each individual operator can access directly to enhance regional transit planning and marketing. The GIS selected for this application is ArcView 2, a PC windows-based, menu-driven system developed by ESRI of Redlands, California. SANDAG chose 2 Linda Culp ArcView 2 because of its compatibility with existing SANDAG databases and the fact that it is a GIS for non-GIS users. TRANSIT PLANNING AND MARKETING IN THE SAN DIEGO REGION Public transportation services in the San Diego region are provided by seven fixed-route operators, and are integrated into a coordinated regional system through agreements on fares, transfers, and public information (2). Last year, the region's buses and trolleys provided 31 million miles of service and carried over 70 million riders (3). Two agencies provide overall coordination for regional transit. The Metropolitan Transit Development Board (MTDB) oversees services in the metropolitan/south region of San Diego county, and the North County Transit District (NCTD) coordinates services in the northern portion of the county. Both MTDB and NCTD prepare short range transit plans annually, with technical assistance from SANDAG in the form of socio-economic estimates and forecasts, transportation modeling, and review. The five local operators also conduct transit planning in their service areas. SANDAG and each of the transit operators have developed a good working relationship and coordinate on all major public transportation studies in the region. SANDAG also provides a variety of data and services to the region's operators. The Passenger Counting Program, for example, provides operators with average daily passenger loads, transit Linda Culp 3 stop boardings and alightings, passenger mile data, and on-time performance indicators for each of the region's bus and trolley routes. Numerous quantitative surveys are also conducted including a regional on-board survey, resident transit opinion surveys, and special studies as requested. In addition to transit data, SANDAG also maintains complete census data through its designation as the Regional Census Data Center for the San Diego region (4). Regular requests for Census data include demographic profiles for areas ranging from as small as areas directly accessible to a transit stop to as large as the transit district or region. Other databases are maintained and frequently requested by transit operators. Regional growth forecasts are compiled for the region, cities, and communities for the years 2000, 2010, and 2015. Historical, current, and forecasted data (including population, housing, and employment estimates), crime statistics, and land use databases are also maintained. Transit operators often request data from several of these sources to be integrated and analyzed by various alternatives for a specific geographic area (examples include a future light rail corridor or an area surrounding a particular transit stop). These types of technical requests are frequently handled using SANDAG's GIS. Linda Culp 4 USING GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS For more than twenty years, GIS has been a tool traditionally applied to areas of land use and natural resource planning. Only recently has this technology been applied to transportation planning studies. SANDAG uses ARC/INFO GIS (also developed by ESRI) to automate, manipulate, analyze, and display geographic data (4). GIS is used to relate a variety of geographic information from various sources and analyze different relationships in either map or tabular output. An extensive collection of data, or coverages, is maintained including data for census blocks and tracts, jurisdictions, freeways, local roads, transit routes, and transit stops. For several years, SANDAG has integrated GIS and long-range transit planning models to produce passenger forecasts of light rail extension studies. In the late 1970s, TRANES (Transit Network Evaluation System), a mainframe computer-based census data retrieval program, was developed by SANDAG staff to analyze population and employment accessible to new transit routes. In the early 1980s, TRANES was converted to a short-range transit planning PC application (STOPS) for direct use by transit operators. STOPS allowed the operators to determine the population and employment within walking distance to proposed transit lines and convert this information into transit demand (5). GIS has also been used by staff to develop maps and information for short-range transit planning. Linda Culp 5 In the past, because of the specialized nature of GIS and extensive training required of staff, these services have been pooled at SANDAG and provided to operators on request. With the significant improvements that have been made in the field of GIS and personal computers, and specifically in tools for non-GIS users, it is now possible to develop a relatively low-cost, user- oriented PC-based GIS application. Such applications are directly accessible by the region's transit operators, but periodically maintained by SANDAG. In addition, new GIS applications not previously requested by the operators (i.e. transit marketing applications) can now be developed. SCOPE OF THE PROJECT The objective of the transit desktop GIS project is to develop a tool for use in short range transit planning and marketing that allows access to not only transit databases collected by SANDAG but also other databases discussed earlier. For the first time, operators are able to integrate information collected in-house into this system. Having this data immediately available saves a great deal of staff time for the operator as well as SANDAG. Data are available at small levels of geography including the block level, which allows for aggregation to virtually any study area. Transit staff are able to query these databases with a variety of "What If" scenarios quickly and easily. It is possible to summarize data by transit stop and/or route, analyze route segment capacity and demand, analyze the impact of proposed transit Linda Culp 6 stops or routes on surrounding areas, and develop marketing strategies tailored to specific neighborhoods or target areas. The project began with SANDAG staff reviewing operator requests for information currently being provided, as well as the required databases and other resources. New GIS technologies were also reviewed. Once a scope of work was developed and initial funding obtained, a committee of SANDAG and transit operator staff members was formed in the fall of 1993 to evaluate the project, define responsibilities, and develop an initial list of applications and prerequisite databases. Responsibilities were defined for the various project components. SANDAG is responsible for the development and maintenance of the databases including periodic updates and the customization of the software and menu screens. Staff will also provide hands-on training, documentation, and ongoing technical support. Each operator is responsible for the necessary computer hardware, and testing and evaluating the applications developed by SANDAG. Committee members were given a demonstration of a GIS application as well as an introduction to the technology. Data sources maintained at SANDAG and the various levels of geography available were discussed. Members compiled a list of currently- used databases, including those provided by SANDAG and others developed internally. The latter included the geographic and Linda Culp 7 sales characteristics of regional pass outlets, bus stop inventories (e.g. ADA accessibility, shelter, curbing, etc), and accident logs. Through subsequent meetings, the committee also developed a list of 20 potential transit applications, along with data sources required, time period available, and development level (an indicator of data availability and required design time). These included route/segment analysis, capacity analysis, analysis of future residential densities near transit, transit corridor evaluation, and target marketing. From this list, the group compiled a base set of applications for SANDAG to develop. Specifically, the 20 applications were rated by individual staff and six applications were selected for the base set (Table 1). Many of these applications are currently performed at SANDAG at operator request. From input by the operators, SANDAG has developed the test databases for the base set of applications. When possible, data have been included at the block level or smaller, which makes buffering or capturing data to user-defined study areas more accurate. SANDAG and transit operator staff are currently using these databases in planning activities such as evaluating the capacity of route segments by time of day, analyzing buffer areas around new transit corridors, and creating demographic profiles of transit corridors. Each application has been customized so that staff does not need an in-depth knowledge of the software in order to use it. Transit staff are able to query any database, join databases with common geography, and display the finished data Linda Culp 8 in map, tabular, or chart form. The GIS supports data in a variety of formats including spreadsheets, databases, and text formats. Once full testing of the base applications and more detailed training of operator staff have been done, SANDAG will begin work on other applications identified by the development group. Staff will be asked to evaluate the applications and overall project in terms of effectiveness, time and cost savings, and ease of use. SANDAG plans to provide updated databases as data collection permits (e.g. updating population and housing estimates annually, passenger counts quarterly as collected). Eventually, database updates will be done using a wide-area network or other means of remote access. CASE STUDY: SOCIO-ECONOMIC PROFILE APPLICATION One base application, normally handled by SANDAG staff, generates a socio-economic profile of an area surrounding a transit route. Figures 1 through 5 illustrate this customized application in which the operator can buffer within any distance from a route and summarize various socio-economic data, such as population and employment, for this area. Figure 1 shows the ArcView 2 screen including the view of the San Diego region, road network, and transit stops. The user selects a button from the menu which prompts for information such as the route number and buffer distance (Figures 2 and 3). The application then summarizes the socio-economic data for the area based on this information (Figure 4). Finally, the user can read this data into a preformatted Linda Culp 9 spreadsheet and print out a final copy automatically (Figure 5). The final output is shown in Table 2. SUMMARY Technology is emerging which puts more effective tools into the hands of transit planning and marketing staff, and this is the case with desktop GIS applications. Projects which have previously been done in-house by SANDAG GIS staff can now be done by the transit operator, with the assistance of SANDAG staff, at a relatively low cost. Projects which could not be easily completed are now possible. This study illustrates the level of cooperation and the effective working relationship which exists between the MPO and seven transit operators providing transit service in the San Diego region. Planning and marketing efforts to enhance the current level of transit service and increase ridership in the region are benefiting from the coordination of this project. Linda Culp 10 Click HERE for graphic. Linda Culp 11 Click HERE for graphic. Linda Culp 12 Click HERE for graphic. Linda Culp 13 Click HERE for graphic. Linda Culp 14 Click HERE for graphic. Linda Culp 15 Click HERE for graphic. Linda Culp 16 TABLE 2 Socio-economic Profile Application: Final Output Demographic Information Route 81 - 1/3rd mile buffer area Population 50,873 Age 50,873 0-17 yrs 4,385 8.6% 18-24 yrs 14,147 27.8% 25-59 yrs 23,303 45.8% 60+ yrs 9,038 17.8% Race 50,873 Hispanic 4,485 8.8% Non Hispanic-White 42,934 84.4% Non Hispanic-Black 1,274 2.5% Non Hispanic-Asian/Pacific Isl. 1,948 3.8% Non Hispanic-Other 232 0.5% Journey to Work 28,722 Drove Alone 21,970 76.5% Carpool 2,154 7.5% Public Transportation 876 3.0% Other 3,722 13.0% Workers (place of residence) 30,497 Employed 28,852 94.6% Unemployed 1,645 5.4% Household Income 23,564 Under $10,000 2,973 12.6% $10,000 - 24,999 6,462 27.4% $25,000 - 49,999 8,220 34.9% Over $50,000 5,909 25.1% Vehicle Availability 23,751 None 2,135 9.0% One 9,999 42.1% Two 8,363 35.2% Three + 3,254 13.7% Owner Occupied Units 14,965 Employment (place of work) 53,631 Source: Regional Information System, San Diego Association of Governments. Linda Culp 17 REFERENCES 1. SANDAG. Regional Transit Opinion Survey. INFO, May-June 1994. 2. SANDAG. Regional Transportation Plan, February 1994. 3. SANDAG. Performance Indicator Reports. FY1990-FY1994. 4. SANDAG. Regional Information System Overview. December 1993. 5. SANDAG. FY '95 Overall Work Program. May 27, 1994. TABLES TABLE 1 Base Applications for Desktop GIS TABLE 2 Socio-economic Profile Application: Final Output FIGURES FIGURE 1 Socio-economic Profile Application: Regional View FIGURE 2 Socio-economic Profile Application: Route Selection FIGURE 3 Socio-economic Profile Application: Define Buffer Area FIGURE 4 Socio-economic Profile Application: Create Summary Statistics FIGURE 5 Socio-economic Profile Application: Finished Spreadsheet
