The advent of geographic information systems (GIS) has facilitated the integration of data with geographic elements to perform analysis in a variety of disciplines, including transportation. The unique ability of GIS to handle complex spatial relationships makes it a natural tool to use in the planning and analysis of transportation systems, specifically public transportation systems. The current use of GIS technology in public transit agencies and metropolitan planning organisations (MPOs) for transportation planning and analysis was investigated. A total of 74 telephone interviews were conducted with 67 organisations across 30 states - 46 transit agencies (including both operators and oversight agencies) and 21 MPOs. Of the transit agencies and MPOs contacted, most were located in the 30 largest metropolitan areas in the United States (based on the 1990 Census). However, several small transit agencies (having less than 50 buses) and MPOs were contacted to provide a broader view of GIS use in transit planning practice. The results of this investigation show that GIS is currently being used or being implemented for a wide variety of applications, in a wide variety of organisational settings, and for a wide variety of reasons. The implementation of GIS for transit is driven primarily by two factors: budgets and the need to integrate data from several sources to perform comprehensive analyses. Another significant issue is the use of spatial data, which often requires a significant "cleanup" activity that has to take place before the data are fully usable. (Author/publisher)
Abstract