Evaluating light rail sketch planning: actual versus predicted station boardings in Phoenix
Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Date
2014
Subject Area
mode - bus, mode - tram/light rail, place - north america, planning - network design, planning - travel demand management, ridership - forecasting
Keywords
Transit, Light rail, Planning, Sketch planning, Ridership predictio, travel demand
Abstract
In recent years, transit planners are increasingly turning to simpler, faster, and more spatially detailed “sketch planning” or “direct demand” models for forecasting rail transit boardings. Planners use these models for preliminary review of corridors and analysis of station-area effects, instead of or prior to four-step regional travel demand models. This paper uses a sketch-planning model based on a multiple regression originally fitted to light-rail ridership data for 268 stations in nine U.S. cities, and applies it predictively to the Phoenix, Arizona light-rail starter line that opened in December, 2008. The independent variables in the regression model include station-specific trip generation and intermodal–access variables as well as system-wide variables measuring network structure, climate, and metropolitan-area factors. Here we compare the predictions we made before and after construction began to pre-construction Valley Metro Rail predictions and to the actual boardings data for the system’s first 6 months of operations. Depending on the assumed number of bus lines at each station, the predicted total weekday ridership ranged from 24,767 to 37,907 compared with the average of 33,698 for the first 6 months, while the correlation of predicted and observed station boardings ranged from r = 0.33 to 0.47. Sports venues, universities, end-of-line stations, and the number of bus lines serving each station appear to account for the major over- and under-predictions at the station level.
Rights
Permission to publish the abstract has been given by Journal of Transportation, copyright remains with them.
Recommended Citation
Upchurch, C., & Kuby, M. (2014). Evaluating light rail sketch planning: actual versus predicted station boardings in Phoenix. Transportation, January 2014, Volume 41, Issue 1, pp 173-192.
