This User’s Guide explains the accompanying Small Transit Vehicle economics (STVe) model—a tool designed for transit planners and others making decisions about the purchase of small transit vehicles for different services and operating environments. The computerised STVe model is based on the principles of engineering economics and allows the user to assess whether it makes economic sense to invest in a particular type of vehicle, based on user-defined inputs. The User’s Guide describes how to run the model and interpret its results. The STVe model and User’s Guide will be of interest to transit operators, planners, policy makers, and others concerned with the costs associated with implementing small transit vehicle service in the United States. Fixed-route transit service has traditionally served medium-to-higher density residential and commercial centers in metropolitan areas. Usually, transit services in such areas are operated most efficiently with standard transit vehicles, because the passenger loads are large. However, much of the recent growth in residential and commercial centers has occurred at lower densities on the fringe or even beyond the fringe of metropolitan areas. Transit services that are appropriate for these areas — feeder, route-deviation, and paratransit services — do not often carry large passenger loads. The same is true of circulator routes in suburban activity centers and fixed-route services in small cities. In order to provide these new transit services in the most economical manner, providers are looking to employ smaller vehicles (i.e., 28 passengers or less).There are many types and sizes of small transit vehicles, a wide range of purchase prices, and a wide range of reported useful lives. It is difficult to make purchase decisions about dissimilar vehicles used in dissimilar types of service. In order to make the best possible vehicle decisions, information is needed about the full range of costs associated with using small transit vehicles. Under TCRP Project B-14, research was undertaken to develop a practical decision tool, incorporating actual cost data, to assist transit operators, planners, and policy-makers in considering all relevant costs when selecting among small transit vehicles for different service and operating environments. The focus was on the characteristics of capital, operating, and maintenance costs of various types of small vehicles, not on the planning tradeoffs between capacity and frequency. The research for Project B-14 was conducted in two phases. During Phase I, the researchers began by developing classification schemes for (1) the types of services that might be operated with small vehicles and (2) the types of small vehicles. A basic economic decision-making model, sensitive to the service and vehicle classification schemes, was developed in Phase I. Simultaneously, the team identified and explored other nonfinancial aspects of the decision, a process that continued throughout the study effort. During Phase II, the team collected the data needed to calibrate the model both from national sources and by obtaining actual operating data from systems using smaller vehicles. To use STVe, users input certain baseline information to the model software, such as the general type of service for which they intend to use the vehicles, the maximum number of passengers that a vehicle will need to carry at any one time, and basis system cost information (such as mechanic labour rates). Then STVe uses basic cost input data to perform calculations and provide cost information comparing the different vehicle types, allowing users to see which of the vehicle models is most economical for their purposes. This User’s Guide was developed to accompany the computer software, describe the STVe model, and explain how to use it. The User’s Guide also discusses nonfinancial, nonquantifiable factors that influence the size of vehicles to be purchased. The STVe model software and User’s Guide are distributed together as the research products under TCRP Project B-14. (A)
Samenvatting