The Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) recently released the following publications covering a wide spectrum of topics including:  operations, public transportation management, workforce issues, ridership and traveler choices, advertising, and streetcars. Descriptions of the new TCRP reports are listed below.

Operations:

Report 140 – A Guide to Planning and Operating Flexible Public Transportation Services: This report explores the types of flexible transportation service strategies that are potentially appropriate for small, medium, and large urban and rural transit agencies. It also examines financial and political realities, operational issues, and institutional mechanisms related to implementing and sustaining flexible transportation services.

Synthesis 83 - Bus and Rail Transit Preferential Treatments in Mixed Traffic: This synthesis explores the application of different transit preferential treatments in mixed traffic. It also examines the decision-making process that may be applied in deciding which preferential treatment might be the most applicable in a particular location.

Public Transportation Management:

Organizational Benchmarking and Goal Setting
Report 141 -  A Methodology for Performance Measurement and Peer Comparison in the Public Transportation Industry: This report explores the use of performance measurement and benchmarking as tools to help identify the strengths and weaknesses of a transit organization, set goals or performance targets, and identify best practices to improve performance.

Legal Research Digest 32 - Reconciling Security, Disclosure, and Record-Retention Requirements in Transit Procurements:  This digest highlights the legal requirements that are relevant to the transit procurement process of balancing the competing needs of open government and public security. The report explores federal and state requirements concerning record retention and disclosure, as well as practices transit agencies have adopted to meet their responsibilities in balancing these competing public policy interests.

Workforce Issues:

Report 139 - Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems: This report explores resources for fixed-route bus, general public demand response, and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) paratransit systems resources to assist in the recruitment, development, and retention of managers. The Guidebook is accompanied by CRP-CD-77, which provides Model Job Descriptions for 32 broad job titles that indicate the structure and content for job descriptions for manager jobs. The CD-ROM is also available for download from TRB’s website as an ISO image. (Links to the ISO image and instructions for burning a CD-ROM from an ISO image are provided).

Report 142 - Vehicle Operator Recruitment, Retention, and Performance in ADA Complementary Paratransit Operations: This report provides guidance for understanding the relationships that influence and enhance operator recruitment, retention, and performance in Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) complementary paratransit services.  (Appendixes to TCRP Report 142 were published electronically as TCRP Web-Only Document 50: Survey Instrument, Productivity Charts, and Interview Protocol for Case Studies for TCRP Report 142.)

Ridership and Traveler Choices:

Report 95 Chapter 19 – Traveler Response to Transportation System Changes: Employer & Institutional TDM Strategies: This report uses wise comparisons to explore the relative importance of particular categories of transportation demand management (TDM) strategies that can encompass a variety of measures intended to influence travel choices. TDM is used to manage heavy traffic demand and parking requirements, and to enhance the effectiveness of transit services.

Research Results Digest 96 - Managing Increasing Ridership Demand:  This digest documents a 2009 study mission to Guayaquil, Ecuador; Santiago, Chile; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Porto Alegre, Brazil, that investigated how transit operators and agencies in these cities accommodated sudden and significant growth in the number of riders and increasing demand for service.

Advertising:

Legal Research Digest 33 - Developing and Implementing a Transit Advertising Policy: This digest provides information pertaining to transit system’s use of various strategies to implement advertising content policies that further the system’s reasonable interests and protect free speech rights.

Streetcars:

Synthesis 86 - Relationships Between Streetcars and the Built Environment: This report examines selected, built streetcar and trolley systems to trace their evolution, define significant factors, and identify commonalities among levels of success in impacting the built environment.

Visit www.tcrponline.org for more information or to download a report.

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