An Analysis of Commuter Rail Real-Time Information in Boston
Prior studies have assessed the impacts of real-time information (RTI) provided to bus and heavy rail riders but not commuter rail passengers. The objective of this research is to investigate the benefits of providing commuter rail RTI. The method is a three-part statistical analysis using data from...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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University of South Florida
2015
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/99964 |
| _version_ | 1811085937040424960 |
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| author | Brakewood, Candace Rojas, Francisca Watkins, Kari Robin, Joshua Zegras, P. Christopher |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Urban Studies and Planning |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Urban Studies and Planning Brakewood, Candace Rojas, Francisca Watkins, Kari Robin, Joshua Zegras, P. Christopher |
| author_sort | Brakewood, Candace |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Prior studies have assessed the impacts of real-time information (RTI) provided to bus and heavy rail riders but not commuter rail passengers. The objective of this research is to investigate the benefits of providing commuter rail RTI. The method is a three-part statistical analysis using data from an on-board survey on two commuter rail lines in the Boston region. The first analysis assesses overarching adoption, and the results show that one-third of commuter rail riders use RTI. The second part conducts difference of means tests and regression analysis on passenger wait times, which reveals that riders’ use of RTI is correlated with a decrease in self-reported “usual” wait times. The third part analyzes 12 quality-of-service indicators, which have a limited relationship with RTI utilization. The results suggest that the benefits of commuter rail RTI are modest. Despite this, many commuter rail riders choose to use this new information source, which has important implications for transit managers considering deploying RTI systems. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:17:48Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/99964 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:17:48Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | University of South Florida |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/999642022-09-28T13:12:53Z An Analysis of Commuter Rail Real-Time Information in Boston Brakewood, Candace Rojas, Francisca Watkins, Kari Robin, Joshua Zegras, P. Christopher Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Urban Studies and Planning Zegras, P. Christopher Zegras, P. Christopher Prior studies have assessed the impacts of real-time information (RTI) provided to bus and heavy rail riders but not commuter rail passengers. The objective of this research is to investigate the benefits of providing commuter rail RTI. The method is a three-part statistical analysis using data from an on-board survey on two commuter rail lines in the Boston region. The first analysis assesses overarching adoption, and the results show that one-third of commuter rail riders use RTI. The second part conducts difference of means tests and regression analysis on passenger wait times, which reveals that riders’ use of RTI is correlated with a decrease in self-reported “usual” wait times. The third part analyzes 12 quality-of-service indicators, which have a limited relationship with RTI utilization. The results suggest that the benefits of commuter rail RTI are modest. Despite this, many commuter rail riders choose to use this new information source, which has important implications for transit managers considering deploying RTI systems. Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston (Public Policy Summer Fellowship) Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology United States. Dept. of Transportation (Eisenhower Fellowship) Women's Transportation Seminar (Boston Fellowship) New England University Transportation Center 2015-11-20T17:55:21Z 2015-11-20T17:55:21Z 2015-03 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1077-291X 2375-0901 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/99964 Brakewood, Candace, Francisca Rojas, Christopher Zegras, Kari Watkins, and Joshua Robin. “An Analysis of Commuter Rail Real-Time Information in Boston.” JPT 18, no. 1 (March 2015): 1–20. en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.5038/2375-0901.18.1.1 Journal of Public Transportation Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf University of South Florida Zegras via Peter Cohn |
| spellingShingle | Brakewood, Candace Rojas, Francisca Watkins, Kari Robin, Joshua Zegras, P. Christopher An Analysis of Commuter Rail Real-Time Information in Boston |
| title | An Analysis of Commuter Rail Real-Time Information in Boston |
| title_full | An Analysis of Commuter Rail Real-Time Information in Boston |
| title_fullStr | An Analysis of Commuter Rail Real-Time Information in Boston |
| title_full_unstemmed | An Analysis of Commuter Rail Real-Time Information in Boston |
| title_short | An Analysis of Commuter Rail Real-Time Information in Boston |
| title_sort | analysis of commuter rail real time information in boston |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/99964 |
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