Tentative Scope

Background

Transit 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 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 incentives among transit and owner agencies. 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 develop specific guidance 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 urban 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, vision zero, context-based design, 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 safety and accessibility 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, rather MPOs/TPOs/TPAs are the local entities with the capacity 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 inconsistent or lack of quality implementation.

Synthesis Objective

This synthesis will cover issues of screening/triggers for identifying rural and exurban 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 best practice 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.
• Ensuring a mutual understanding of the collective roles and responsibilities and improving the culture of collaboration, including public attitudes, around transit infrastructure needs.
• Deploying standard coordination and review capacities and procedures with respect to “stop influence area” infrastructure needs.
• Proactive bus stop influence area screening and trigger mechanisms to identify locations and needs in advance of routine roadway maintenance, driveway permitting, and/or other competing transportation needs.

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

• Current strategies for coordination, screening/identification of bus stop upgrade needs, evolving stop accessibility criteria, and improvement/maintenance agreements among transit and road agencies.
• Transit-inclusive development review and permitting processes.
• Context Classification reviews and GIS screening tools- to screen for access and stop needs, and support proactive, interagency dialogue and coordination around bus stop accommodations. Various GIS tools can enable the quick display of area demographic profiles, ridership, big box/convenience store uses, and land use context measures that help indicate transit propensity and provide a useful, data-driven, warrant at the beginning of the development review process to ensure that safe and accessible transit features are planned and integrated into construction documents well before site development, driveway permits, and roadway improvements are implemented. 

The information will be assembled based on the following:

• A literature review, starting with the sources identified below.
• A follow-up survey of transit agencies for the development of case examples.
• Identification of knowledge gaps and suggestions for research to address those gaps.