By Francis Vanek, advisor
October 1, 2001
(This document available
online atwww.virtualithaca.com/francis/tcatproject.html)
Advisor’s introduction:
·Bachelors
degrees in Mechanical Engineering & Asian Studies (Japanese concentration)
Cornell 1991
·PhD
U of Pennsylvania Systems Engineering 1998, focus on transportation systems
·Lecturer
in Logistics Management / Heriot-Watt University 1998-2000 prior to returning
to Ithaca
·Main
work has been on freight, but some work along the way on passenger transportation
issues, some papers published
·Currently
director of Sustainable
Technology & Energy Foundation: 1985-2000 solely focused
on alternative energy, but last year expanded to look at transportation
issues from an environmental & sustainability perspective
Introduction to TCAT
system:
·Serves
city of Ithaca, surrounding townships in all parts of Tompkins County,
some service into neighboring counties
·39
routes served by 40 buses owned internally, plus approximately 20 buses
owned by subcontracting operators (Swarthout, Tioga Transport)
·Was
consolidated in last few years from separate bus systems for Cornell, city,
and county
·Point
of contact for client: Dwight Mengel (planning); Rod Gehring & Tom
Wright (data gathering)
Current system after consolidation:
·Routes
and schedules planned mostly “by hand”, without the use of software to
optimize timing and location
·Some
analysis of overall bus availability carried out by hand for key stops
·Analysis
focused on trips to/from downtown and Cornell, doesn’t consider through
trips
What’s missing?
·Computer-based
analysis of the system as a whole
·Means
of measuring how well transfers between bus routes work
·A
tool that can analyze effect of a single schedule change on the system
as a whole
Steps envisioned in project
·Overview
of system organization using spreadsheet analysis (motivation: looking
for preliminary issues, preparation for quantitative analysis)
·Development
of simulation model of system, using schedules and historical travel data
as inputs
·Possible
further development: mathematical programming model of bus network to optimize
schedules; develop animation to see visually relative movement of buses
·“Systems
Analysis” component to project: understanding of how the bus system works
will dictate later development of project
Available data:
·Data
gathered when passengers board (number, type of fare gathered); no alighting
data currently gathered on an ongoing basis
·Newly
installed data collection equipment uses GPS to record geographic location
of each transaction
·First
deployment of this equipment by manufacturer (Wayfarer Co., UK)
·Results
may be of interest not only to TCAT but also to Wayfarer, transportation
research community
Social context for the research
(as communicated by the client):
·TCAT
is a public sector enterprise, has public mission, partly to ease traffic
congestion, partly to provide mobility to those with economic limits
·Uncertainties
after World Trade Center attacks: if oil prices are affected, demand for
transit service could rise, TCAT needs to be ready for increase in demand
·Potential
budget cuts from NY state budget as state recovers from disaster: TCAT
will need to be able to continue to meet demand while lowering expenditures
·Any
positive results from student projects may be immediately useful
Summary comments
·The
size of the problem is good for a student project: network is large enough
to be interesting, but not so large that it is overwhelming
·Combines
potential application of quantitative OR tools with systems analysis