Final Scope

Background

Fixed-route bus service routinely operates through suburban and rural communities with legacy infrastructure not consistent with current design standards. As a result, many legacy bus stops in rural, tribal, and frontier communities are inaccessible and/or hazardous to access. This outcome may be a result of any number of causes including insufficient coordination between the transit agency and the local jurisdiction or misaligned priorities between transit and local road owners/users. This is especially true during roadway modification projects tied to routine maintenance, safety, capacity, or new site development. 

The volume of research addressing the causality, patterns, and appropriate design countermeasures associated with vulnerable road user safety near bus stops gives decision-makers and technicians a full toolbox to dramatically improve safety and comfort for pedestrians, cyclists, and persons with disabilities accessing transit. There is an urgent need, however, to document current practices and protocols regarding the roles, responsibilities, and oversight of design and construction, particularly within the context of the “first and last mile.” This is as much a land use and design problem as it is a transit problem. Given that so many pedestrian and cyclist fatalities occur at mid-block locations along high-speed arterial facilities, providing more effective policies and implementation guidance in this respect can improve the conditions for users who most often access bus networks via walking or cycling. Additionally, with growing emphasis on transit route optimization, complete streets, safe routes to school, vision zero, context-based design, and active transportation, this provides an opportunity for more effective integration of first and last mile safety as a regular order of business. 

Collaboration also is critical to improve equitable safety and access to/from and at bus stops; no single agency or organization can accomplish this on its own. Transit agencies do not control the street or sidewalk network around bus stops. Cities and counties usually do not make transit routing and facility placement choices. Metropolitan Planning Organizations, Transportation Planning Organizations, and Transportation Planning Agencies are the local entities with the capacity, authority, and mandate to identify and plan for long-range transportation opportunities and needs at the local and regional scale. The same holds true when it comes to funding for bus stops and other transit infrastructure as it typically comes from multiple sources, which contributes to the lack of quality and inconsistent implementation.

Synthesis Objective

This synthesis will cover issues of screening/triggers for identifying rural, tribal, frontier, and exurban fixed-route bus stop locations, jurisdictional authority, coordination, and funding/maintenance agreements necessary to improve the conditions of these bus stops, as well as:

• Expand on above and provide a synthesis of current practices or examples of coordination and trigger processes that exist to provide safe and accessible bus stops in suburban or rural contexts. Incorporate relevant information and gaps based on a scan of the sources below.
• Examine the collective roles and responsibilities that might improve the culture of collaboration, including public involvement, around transit infrastructure needs.
• Determine how standard coordination and review capacities and procedures are deployed with respect to first and last mile infrastructure needs (such as benches, shade, connection to nearby locations, crosswalks).

Review first and last mile screening and trigger mechanisms to identify locations and needs in advance of routine roadway maintenance, driveway permitting, land development review process, and/or other competing transportation needs.

This synthesis will gather the following information to meet the stated objectives:

• Document current strategies for coordination, screening/identification of bus stop upgrade needs, evolving stop accessibility criteria, and improvement/maintenance agreements among transit and road agencies.
• Examine transit-inclusive development review and permitting processes.
• Documentation of:
• Types of cross-organizational frameworks used to manage bus stops and influence areas in these spatial contexts
• Level of transit inclusion in development and permit review, including existing and planned transit routes
• Any other tools that transit agencies use to support bus stop creation and location decisions
• Determine what, if any, screening techniques and tools agencies use to identify and prioritize bus stop needs and locations. Such as:
• Demographic needs
• Big box/convenience store uses
• Land use
• Pedestrian fatalities/crashes
• Infrastructure gaps
• Do the varied governance mechanisms (e.g., single community vs. regional and multi-layered) for public transportation affect agencies’ ability to provide safe, accessible, comfortable bus stops?
• Document whether or not the process of providing and maintaining bus stops is more streamlined when the same government entity is responsible for both the roadway infrastructure and the transit service?

The information will be assembled based on the following:

• A literature review, which starts with the sources identified below, and examines practices by transit agencies and local governments addressing the needs of rural areas and coordination challenges.
• A survey of transit agencies for the development of 4 to 5 case examples. These case examples should vary geographically, by size of agency, and by area served. Transit agencies serving tribal and frontier communities should be included in the survey as well as the case examples. These case examples should also include an examination of what agencies are doing to analyze the costs and benefits as well as common challenges faced while developing bus stops in rural and suburban areas.
• Document key lessons learned and current practices regarding fixed-route bus stop development and creation in these areas.
• Identification of knowledge gaps and suggestions for research to address those gaps. 

Information Sources

·       Assessment of the First-and-Last-Mile Problem in Underserved Communities: Case Study in Camden City, NJ (2023, https://doi.org/10.1177/03611981231160536)

·       Walking the Last Mile: Barriers and Solutions to Suburban Transit Access (https://doi.org/10.1177/03611981221095748)

·       Barriers Associated with the First/Last Mile Trip and Solutions to Bridge the Gap: A Scoping Literature Review (https://doi.org/10.1177/03611981231170184)

·       Literature searches can be conducted on TRID (http://trid.trb.org), which includes the Research in Progress database (http://rip.trb.org/)

·       TCRP Report 183: A Guidebook on Transit-Supportive Roadway Strategies (2015, https://www.trb.org/Publications/Blurbs/173932.aspx)

·       TCRP Report 116 Guidebook for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services (2006, https://www.trb.org/Publications/Blurbs/157619.aspx)

·       TCRP Report 105: Strategies to Increase Coordination of Transportation Services for the Transportation Disadvantaged (2004, https://www.trb.org/Publications/Blurbs/155277.aspx)

·       Don’t Stop at the Stop: Actualizing Safe Access to Transit (Florida Department of Transportation, 2020, https://fdotwww.blob.core.windows.net/sitefinity/docs/default-source/transit/transit-facilities-design/safe-access-to-transit_final_11-03-20_djo_v5.pdf?sfvrsn=61573fe6_2)  

·       TCRP Report 154: Developing, Enhancing, and Sustaining Tribal Transit Services: A Guidebook (2012, https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/22818/developing-enhancing-and-sustaining-tribal-transit-services-a-guidebook).

·       A Systemic Safety Study of Pedestrians in Tribal Areas, FHWA Reference No. HFL230008PR, prepared by Texas A&M Transportation Institute and Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc. with support from the FHWA Office of Tribal Transportation.  This will be published by the end of November and is the most current research on pedestrian safety and causes of pedestrian fatalities in Indian Country.

·       K. S. Quick and G. E. Narváez. Understanding Roadway Safety in American Indian Reservations.

·       Center for Transportation Studies, 2018, https://conservancy.umn.edu/items/b1d099c6-6c7e-400b-97cf-1095f2626eec

·       Pedestrian Safety: A Critical, Distinctive, and Under-recognized Priority for Reducing Roadway Injuries in Reservations.

·       New Methods for Identifying Roadway Safety Priorities in American Indian Reservations, (2016, https://www.academia.edu/69210624/New_Methods_for_Identifying_Roadway_Safety_Priorities_in_American_Indian_Reservations)

·       National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Pedestrian Safety. Countermeasures That Work: A Highway Safety Countermeasure Guide for State Highway Safety Offices, 11th Edition, 2023. https://www.nhtsa.gov/book/countermeasures-that-work/pedestrian-safety

·       Tribal Transportation Safety Management System Steering Committee. Tribal Transportation Strategic Safety Plan. August 2017. https://irp-cdn.multiscreensite.com/7e0c8ed5/files/uploaded/TRIBAL-TRANSPORTATIONSAFETY-PLAN-web.pdf