Transportation Seminar Series
Understanding the Financial and Operating Impacts of Major Service Changes for Small Urban and Rural Transit Systems
Apr 2, 2008 (3:00 - 4:00 p.m., IACC 422)
Successful small urban and rural transit systems often have the opportunity to consider significant expansions or changes to their systems. Growth opportunities may involve adding new services as a result of increased coordination with other organizations, or due to general growth in ridership. Alternatively, service cuts may also be required due to loss of funding contracts or local share.
In an increasing number of cases demand responsive systems serving small urban centers with populations of 10,000-15,000 or more may have the opportunity to consider adding one or more fixed routes to their systems to offer increased capacity and possibly to improve operating efficiencies. All of these changes in service require careful consideration of the incremental expense and revenue impacts to avoid unpleasant unintended consequences that may jeopardize the financial solvency of their systems. Dr. Miller will discuss the general issues involved in such analysis, provide a straight-forward methodology for considering these changes, and will give examples using data from actual systems to illustrate the methodology and issues.
Jim Miller, Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute –
NDSUJim Miller has more than 30 years experience in public transportation research, planning, and management. He was a faculty member in Penn State University's Smeal College of Business Administration from 1976 until his retirement in 2003. He directed the Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center from its founding in 1988 until 2002. He has had a special interest in rural and specialized transit services and helped form policy for Pennsylvania's very extensive shared-ride program. He also helped more than 25 counties design and manage their systems. He was one of the founders and served as chairman of the Centre Area Transportation Authority, the public transit operator for the Penn State/State College, Pennsylvania community. Recently he completed a synthesis of campus transit operations for the Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP). In his role as Faculty Affiliate, he is assisting SURTC with its various research projects, including North Dakota's statewide mobility plan and the coordination plan. He also recently completed a business plan for the River Cities Public Transit system in Pierre, SD. He is the instructor for a graduate and upper level undergraduate course on public transportation.
