Transit agencies are increasingly using electronic fare media to speed passenger boarding, reduce the cost of fare collection, provide various other benefits to their riders, and support more complex fare transactions. In this project, researchers are demonstrating how the use of the data collected with these electronic fare media—in particular, Puget Sound ORCA transaction data—can significantly benefit the transportation planning processes of both metropolitan planning organizations and transit agencies. This project will focus on the development, testing, and implementation of a prototype methodology and tool set for converting ORCA transaction data into information that describes how a variety of key travel characteristics and other factors directly affect the use of transit in order to inform the regional transportation planning process. This project will then utilize that methodology to perform a number of key analyses to demonstrate the types of analytical outcomes and planning benefits that WSDOT and other agencies can gain from use of these data. The resulting tools will enable WSDOT to directly measure the relative effectiveness of the state’s Commute Trip Reduction (CTR) program in encouraging transit use in a variety of urban forms. This in turn will allow WSDOT to more effectively target limited CTR funds within different parts of the urban area to achieve the maximum mode shift.
Principal Investigator: Mark E. Hallenbeck, Washington State Transportation Center, UW
Sponsor: WSDOT
WSDOT Technical Monitor: Janice Helman
WSDOT Project Manager: Jon Peterson
Scheduled completion: December 2016