Transit in Small Urban Communities: An Alternative Route System for Charlottesville, Virginia

The dependence of city residents on private automobiles for almost all of their travel needs has brought many problems to modern cities. Convenient and reliable public transportation can provide an appealing alternative to traveling by car. This report describes the design of two transit route systems for the community of Charlottesville, Virginia, and compares the two alternatives with the current and previous systems. Each alternative follows the model of a trunk line with feeder routes. Factors influencing the designs include population concentrations, employment and retail centers, as well as the travel patterns of existing transit riders. A comparison of the alternative route systems with existing and previous Charlottesville systems based on cost, level of service, and ridership predictions provides an indication of the most suitable alternative for the community. This analysis indicates that the system modeled on a trunk line with linear feeder routes is most suitable for the area. The system provides the shortest travel times between popular origins and destinations in the area. Although the alternative represents a significant investment over the current transit route system, computer modeling indicates that ridership on the routes would improve dramatically. With the goal of reducing the automobile dependence of city residents, and based on analysis presented in this report, a system consisting of a trunk line with linear feeder routes represents the best option for transit in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Thesis originally deposited on 2011-12-28 in version 1.28 of Libra. This thesis was migrated to Libra2 on 2016-11-30 15:23:51.