Study Seeks to Build a Better Bus

SURTC is working with the Federal Transit Administration to bring together bus manufacturers, bus equipment manufacturers, transit agencies, paratransit agencies and others to design a better small bus.

The effort grew out of a study of the bus manufacturing industry conducted by SURTC and supported by the FTA. The initial research looked at bus purchasing trends over the past 20 years and examined FTA and local procurement policies and their impact on the manufacturing industry.

The study is aimed at identifying incentives to adopt new technologies and the impact that standardization of bus specifications would have on production efficiency and cost. Data is being compiled through the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), state DOTs and the FTA. In addition, SURTC is working with individual transit agencies for the project.

In the past, all the attention has focused on larger, fixed-route buses, with little regard to the smaller buses with more irregular uses and routes, explains Del Peterson, the SURTC researcher leading the effort.

As the project progressed, the FTA asked SURTC to gather input on a prototype design for a bus designed specifically for small transit agencies. "The intent is to explore the possibility of developing a new transit vehicle or vehicle specifications to meet the needs of transit operators and riders," Peterson says. "A transit vehicle designed to meet the specific needs of smaller systems will lead to gained efficiencies for transit providers while offering riders greater comfort with improved ride quality and greater vehicle maneuverability for operators."

Peterson held a meeting in conjunction with the American Public Transit Association's annual bus and paratransit meeting in Anaheim, CA, in May. About 15 people from bus manufacturers, component manufacturers and transit agencies attended. "Key topics included demand for hybrid buses to address fuel economy and low-floor vehicles to address accessibility," he says.

Additional discussion focused on the need to improve ride and handling characteristics of small buses. "Many small buses are built on truck chassis, so they have more in common with trucks than passenger vehicles," Peterson explains.

Another session will be held in June in Orlando in conjunction with the Community Transportation Association of America Expo. "Before that meeting we'll be surveying CTAA members for their perspectives on buses and needs," he says. Surveys will help determine what transit providers like about their buses and what they'd like to see changed in the hope that standards will be developed for differing locations.

"A bus operating in Arizona has different specific requirements than a bus operating in North Dakota (cold weather requirements, etc.) so we don't want to develop one standard for buses," Peterson said.

The project is being funded by both the FTA and SURTC, and the results of the study will be presented to manufacturing companies. The study may possibly result in the development of a prototype bus that would also be presented to the companies.

SURTC Assesses MAT Rider Satisfaction

The cities of Fargo and Moorhead wanted to know if riders were satisfied with the Metropolitan Area Transit System's current bus service. So the Fargo-Moorhead Metropolitan Council of Governments asked SURTC to ask them.

According to Del Peterson, the SURTC researcher who coordinated the project, a rider satisfaction study of this magnitude hadn't been done recently. "Riders can fill out comment cards, but MAT wanted more updated and complete data to support their decision making," he says.

SURTC conducted the survey in November with the help of 12 college-age survey-takers who rode buses on the 10 Fargo and six Moorhead routes and administered on-board surveys to 800 passengers during a three-day period. Survey questions covered the frequency of riding, ease of riding, cleanliness of buses, quality and other issues. A preliminary report has been submitted to MAT. A final report is expected to be complete in June.

"If there are areas of concern, we'll investigate those in more detail and make all the corrections we can," says Jim Gilmour, director of planning and development for the City of Fargo. In addition, the city will be developing a five-year transit plan. "The information from this survey will be useful in that process as well," he says.