Optimizing Transportation Facility Arrangements

This study is intended to develop an evaluation procedure for optimizing transportation facility arrangements for a given urban travel environment. Economic models for balancing intermodel and interzonal travel are formulated for determining the desirability of transportation systems. A cost function incorporating various transportation facility characteristics is derived to indicate the level of service provided by specific transportation arrangements. The best arrangement for a set of alternatives being evaluated is assumed to be the one offering the lowest total community transportation costs. A computerized process, labeled TRANSFARE (Transportation Facility Arrangement Evaluation), is developed to permit easy application of the transportation facility evaluation. A sample urban transportation network is tested to illustrate how this computer model is practical in actual applications. The developed method applies only to a specialized auto-bus urban transportation system.