Estimated reduction of 9.37 million personal vehicle miles traveled and 4,252 metric tons of CO2 from increased transit ridership in Reno, Nevada.

As determined by the Washoe County Transportation's Regional Transportation Commission's ITS Implementation Evaluation.

Date Posted
07/02/2011
Identifier
2011-B00706
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Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County Intelligent Transportation System Implementation Evaluation Study

Summary Information

Beginning in 2000, the Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) of Washoe County, Nevada, began planning for ITS implementation into their regional transit services. They set goals that aligned with the U.S. DOT's six goal areas for ITS projects and applied for funding for their project through the FTA. By 2007, RTC had completed the installation, testing and acceptance of the ITS components. This report is an evaluation of RTC transit ITS. It covers both planned and deployed components of their system, evaluating how well the system works to meet their initial goals and describing the functionality of the various components of the system. The report also includes lessons learned by RTC as they progressed through the procurement, deployment and operation processes in order to be a resource for other agencies contemplating similar ITS investments. RTC deployed automatic vehicle location (AVL), remote engine diagnostics (RED), computer-aided dispatch software (CAD), and automatic passenger counters (APC) in their vehicles. They also installed, but have not activated traffic signal priority (TSP) components.

Methodology
The RTC looked at data points over a six year period, from FY2002 to FY2008 in order to evaluate how the ITS technologies may have affected ridership and uses of the systems by customers, staff and administration. A large pre-implementation window was used for analysis because RTC ACCESS (the paratransit service) began using scheduling software in 2005, ahead of the rest of the system and the same time scale was wanted for the analysis of both fixed-route and paratransit services. Each of the six U.S. DOT goal areas were assigned measures to evaluate RTC's progress in that goal area.

Findings
RTC estimates that increased transit use in the Reno-Sparks region between 2002 and 2007 may have saved 9.37 million personal vehicle miles traveled (PVMT). The reduction in PVMT potentially saved up to $1.37 million in fuel costs for passengers who chose transit over driving their personal vehicles. CO2 reduction from the increased use in transit is estimated to be up to 4,252 metric tons.





Table 6-2: Estimated Potential Vehicle Energy and Emission Savings from Increase in RTC RIDE Ridership

Year
Passenger Miles
Ridership
Increase in Ridership
Average Transit Trip Length (miles)
Equivalent Average Vehicle mile per Transit Trip [1] (miles)
Vehicle Miles Saved from Increased Ridership
Fuel Reduction [2] (gallons)
Average Fuel Cost [3] ($/gallon)
Total Fuel Cost Saving ($)
Total CO2 Emission Reduction [4] (metric tons)
2002
26,335,262
8,168,559
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
2003
24,725,542
7,520,088
-648,471
3.29
13.15
-8,528,509
-370,805
$ 1.64
$ (607,378)
-3,869
2004
24,274,377
7,528,805
8,717
3.22
12.90
112,416
4,888
$ 1.92
$ 9,399
51
2005
27,113,300
8,001,999
473,194
3.39
13.55
6,413,323
278,840
$ 2.34
$ 651,928
2,909
2006
29,608,223
8,738,397
736,398
3.39
13.55
9,980,520
433,936
$ 2.64
$ 1,143,420
4,527
2007
29,957,989
8,841,419
103,022
3.39
13.55
1,396,306
60,709
$ 2.85
$ 172,960
633
Total
9,374,055
407,568
$ 1,370,329
4,252
Notes:

[1] A conversion factor of 4:1 (4 vehicle miles:1 passenger mile) is used for calculating the equivalent average vehicle mile per transit trip.
[2] The fuel reduction is calculated from vehicle miles saved from increased ridership divided by an assumed fuel economy factor of 23 miles per gallon.
[3] The average fuel cost is taken from National Transportation Statistics - Table 4-38. http://www.bts.gov/publications/national_transportation_statistics
[4] A CO2 emission rate of 1 pound per single person automobile mile is used for calculating total CO2 emission reduction.

Deployment Locations