The initial entry point in a bus and transit system is the Bus Stop. Fairfax County, Virginia has recognized that bus stops make a difference, and have embarked on a plan to upgrade the entire system through this critical element. As an initial step in this program the County performed an inventory, evaluation and improvement plan for the County's 4,000 stops. Critical to the effort was development of criteria, design standards and best practices to guide the authors' improvement designs. The design guidelines the authors developed pulled elements of criteria from other transit operators and engineering agencies. These criteria recommended ADA compliant dimensions and the size of stops. They also provided suggestions for bus stop location. However, they did not provide guidance for how to overcome problems found in Fairfax County. The authors' guidelines provide location guidance, dimensions and techniques to overcome the problems found in urban, suburban and rural roadway sections. For example, along many rural sections the bus stops are located between a ditch and the shoulder of the roadway. In this case and others, the authors' guidelines provided rules and considerations depending on surrounding conditions, ridership and traffic. Many stops had difficult solutions to provide safe and accessible access. This paper explains when the authors recommended relocating stops and examples of how they overcame particularly difficult situations. The paper also provides a summary of the original aspects developed by the team, County location guidance and the process to evaluate bus stop accessibility.
Samenvatting