Evaluation of Long-Range Transit Alternatives

An evaluation methodology was developed to measure the relative and absolute performance of alternative transit plans in a major Minneapolis travel corridor. A major element of the transit analysis was to identify the extent and location of exclusive transit facilities. One unusual feature of the analysis was that the transit mode was not specified since such a question is to be resolved at the regional level. Each of the transit facilities were evaluated in terms of factors influencing travel - population, employment, and trip ends. The alternative transit plans were evaluated not only in terms of aggregate measures of socioeconomic and travel characteristics, but they were also considered in terms of efficiency measures - per mile and per station. An ordinal ranking procedure was developed as a final step in the evaluation procedure to select the best combination of transit facilities for the corridor.