Peak-Hour Transit Routing

Transit routes radiating from the CBD are typical of most city bus operations. This type of routing has existed since the late 1920's with major changes primarily in the form of longer and more routes as the city grows. The major innovations away from this trend, the demand responsive systems, have met with varying degrees of success and in general have two undesirable characteristics, high cost and low ridership. The research reported here describes an alternative which incorporates both the advantages of the fixed route system and some of the advantages of demand responsive systems. The concept requires a residential clustering of employees who work at or near a single location. In this regard the six largest employers in Cedar Rapids, Iowa were analyzed. The 10 largest employee residence zones of each firm (99 total metropolitan area zones) accounted for 37.5% - 52.7% of the total number of employees of each firm. The firms analyzed were dissimilar in location (CBD to fringe), and in employee characteristics (white to blue collar employees).