Guidebooks for estimating total transit usage through extrapolating incomplete counts : final report.

Details

• Creators:
  Chu, Xuehao
• Corporate Creators:
  University of South Florida. National Center for Transit Research (U.S.) ; University of South Florida. Center for Urban Transportation Research
• Corporate Contributors:
  United States. Department of Transportation. Research and Innovative Technology Administration ; United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Transit Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Bus transit
  • Estimating
  • Extrapolation
  • Handbooks
  • Methodology
  • Passenger counting
  • Passenger miles
  • Rail transit
  • Ridership
  • Statistical sampling
  More +
• Publication/ Report Number:
  NCTR 79060-17
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Edition:
  Final report
• Corporate Publisher:
  National Center for Transit Research (U.S.) ; University of South Florida. Center for Urban Transportation Research
• Abstract:
  This report provides guidance for transit agencies to estimate transit usage for reporting to the National Transit ; Database (NTD) when their counting procedure that is designed to perform full counts misses some trips. Transit usage ; refers to unlinked passenger trips (UPT), passenger miles traveled (PMT), and average passenger trip length (APTL) in ; terms of annual totals and annual average daily by schedule type for annual reporting and monthly total UPT for ; monthly reporting. The guidance is provided in two self-contained guidebooks for bus and rail, respectively. Bus service ; includes all four fixed-route bus modes defined in the NTD: motor bus (MB), commuter bus (CB), bus rapid transit ; (RB), and trolleybus (TB). Rail includes light rail (LR), streetcar rail (SR), and hybrid rail (YR). For both mode types, the ; guidance focuses on data from automatic passenger counters (APC). ; The guidance details a methodology for determining transit usage for each mode type through stratified extrapolation ; of incomplete counts rather than intentional sampling with APCs. The guidance views the total transit usage determined ; from the methodologies as estimates rather than 100% counts. It also views each methodology as an alternative ; sampling technique. The guidance identifies the conditions under which transit agencies may estimate annual total ; transit usage with this methodology as a pre-certified alternative sampling technique. For example, agencies must pass ; an equivalence test by demonstrating that their APC data are statistically equivalent to paired manual data within ; ±7.5% at the 95% confidence level. The guidance provides detailed steps for agencies to conduct the equivalence test ; in an Excel environment. When agencies meet the identified conditions and follow the guidance, they may use Appendix ; A in each guidebook as the document of certification by a qualified statistician for the alternative sampling technique. ; For the NTD program, the guidance fills a gap in current NTD guidance and will result in more accurate UPT and PMT ; data. For agencies, it prevents under-reporting and saves the need to hire a qualified statistician for certifying the ; methodology as an alternative sampling technique.
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• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  Contract DTRT-12-G-UTC22 Mod 2
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/31344/dot_31344_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.91 MB]
• Collection(s):
  University Transportation Centers ; US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:771bcba7672812ef164ec4dcc87cbedc141b17ec62976d9961d9e2ffc2f9caa6