T-SCORE Transit Industry Thought Leaders Interviews

Given the diversity of the transit community, ridership trends can vary greatly across communities and have implications for financing, equity, infrastructure, and more. In order to gain more insight into the wide range of factors affecting transit, the study team aims to conduct semi-structured interviews with thought leaders in the industry and will use their insights to inform strategies, which will be further analyzed and modeled for final scenario development and report. The project will employ a structured approach similar successfully completed interview-based transportation projects. Through a series of interviews and small focus groups, researchers will develop a synthesis of agencies, transit experts, technology developers and implementers views on the needs and direction of the transit industry. Across interview participants, researchers will explore existing opportunities and challenges, perceptions of how emerging technologies will impact the future of transit, and reflections on how transit can innovate to meet the rapidly evolving conditions. The input from three groups will be critical to the development of transit strategies – the view from “in the trenches” providing transit services; those that research methods to improve transit and guide agencies; and the potentially innovative or disruptive forces. Across all participants, the project seeks to understand their sources of information to shed light on the filters each uses in their visioning, understanding their self-imposed constraints and information prioritization. Using a program such as NVivo, transcribed interviews will be analyzed for themes and trends to compile a qualitative description of possible strategic directions. Upon completion of the interview process, researchers will then collaborate with an Advisory Committee to select 3-5 strategies for detailed evaluation. These strategic visions will feed into a two-track research assessment that includes a community analysis track and a multi-modal optimization and simulation (MMOS) track. Both of these tracks aim to identify in more detail the potential feasibility, benefits, costs and implications of each strategic vision. These tracks will come together in the final strategic vision evaluation stage, in which the findings are again considered in the context of expert advice. The end result is an assessment of the likely benefits and trade-offs involved with each strategic vision.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Sponsor Organizations:

  United States Department of Transportation - FHWA - TTAP

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC    20590

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Principal Investigators:

  Watkins, Kari

• Start Date: 20210217
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Future; Leadership; Needs assessment; Public transit; Strategic planning; Technological innovations
• Subject Areas: Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01841991
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Transit-Serving Communities Optimally, Responsively, and Efficiently Center (T-SCORE)
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Apr 6 2022 3:16PM