Center for Transportation Education Fundamentals of Public Transportation.

Center for Transportation Education

Fundamentals of Public Transportation


FUNDAMENTALS OF PUBLIC TRANSIT

Need• DOT’s hiring staff with little or

no public transportation background, experience or education

• Public Transit agencies and local communities (county boards, city councils) have members with little or no public transportation background, experience or education

Horse? Taxi?

Bus?Train?

Center for Transportation EducationFUNDAMENTALS OF PUBLIC TRANSIT

Concept• To provide participants

with a broad brush approach to several public transportation topics

• Keep the class to a two day timeframe

• Provide participants with a reference book

• Make the information presented relevant to the participants


History of Fundamentals of Public Transportation:

• Indentified by MTAP as a national need and emphasis area• Task of developing draft course outline given to MTAP members David Spacek, Bureau Chief, Illinois Department of Transportation, Division of Public Transportation (IlDOT); Linda Lovejoy, former Section Chief, Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT), Public Transit Section; and Dixon Nuber, former Director, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, School of Continuing Education, Center for Transportation Education and Development (CTED).

Center for Transportation EducationFUNDAMENTALS OF PUBLIC TRANSIT Course Design

• Topics Covered:– Intro to Public Transit– Benefits of Public Transit– Public Transit Funding– Characteristics of Riders– Operations/Maintenance– Planning Consideration– Management Considerations– Marketing– Multimodalism &

Innovations– ADA


History of Fundamentals of Public Transportation:

For over 8 years, this course has been successfully offered, whether on-site or publicly at UW-Milwaukee, to many state DOTs, other public transportation agencies, and local communities.

This course has historically been instructed and revised by CTED internal staff under the direction of Dixon Nuber, until the end of 2007.


Current Issues:

•Due to the sudden departure of Dixon Nuber from CTED, and reduction in CTED staff, the center sought outside candidates for instruction of the course in 2008.

•The candidates chosen were recommended by Rachel Beyerle, former program coordinator of MTAP.

•The candidates are Bob Bourne of Bourne Transit Consulting LLC in Ames, IA; and Peter Albrecht, former Urban Consultant for North Carolina Department of Transportation.


Current Issues:

•Since obtaining the services of Mr. Bourne and Mr. Albrecht, the course has been offered successfully three times in 2008, once on-site in Denver, CO, at the Colorado DOT, and twice publicly at UW-Milwaukee.

• After these meetings we met to discuss how the course could be updated and who is should be presented to.

•Outdated statistics and course material in need of updating

•Mr. Bourne and Mr. Albrecht are also providing their own research and expertise in addition.

• Result, the curriculum is in the process of being redeveloped.


Redevelopment Plan - Phase 1 (Dec. 15 through Feb. 15):

Unit 1-Introduction: Update APTA materials about the history of public transit; use latest APTA or CTAA materials as available; update acronym list (if needed); and replace 1999 Transit Capacity and Quality of Service manual with latest edition.

Unit 2-Benefits of Public Transportation: Review and update materials as needed; this may require replacing with materials readily available from current publications.



Unit 3-Public Transit Funding: Review and update materials on FTA programs; consult latest NTD manuals for definitions and examples of funding and expense categories; and update as needed.

Unit 4-Characteristics of Riders: Review materials for relevance to current market conditions and locations throughout US; and find other examples of demographic and ridership information as needed.



Unit 5-Operational/Maintenance/Infrastructure Considerations: Review and replace outdated materials; and replace 1999 Transit Capacity and Quality of Service manual with latest edition.

Unit 6-Planning Considerations: Review materials on transit oriented development and livable communities; and update with information about current projects and studies.



Unit 7-Management Considerations: Review and update materials as needed (NOTE: This unit uses information that is somewhat timeless in terms of service design, but one article regarding labor protection is somewhat dated, and may have to be replaced with a more recent document).

Unit 8-Marketing Considerations: Review and update materials as needed, specifically the section on transit benefits (again, much of this material is still relevant, but certain documents appear “dated“).



Unit 9-Multimodalism and Innovation: Review and update materials as needed; place more emphasis on technology applications for rural and small urban transit systems; and add section on Mobility Management.

Unit 10-Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): Review and update materials using latest ADA briefs and findings from FTA and Project Action (among others).


Redevelopment Plan - Phase 2 & 3 (TBD, and estimated completion by mid 2010):

Tie the notebook materials more directly to slides, including further revision of notebook (if needed) and revision of slides.

Develop instructor’s notes/lesson plans for each unit, including sample exercises such as scenario driven “table-top” exercises of short duration for specific units (i.e., Management Considerations, ADA).


Marketing Plan:

CTED will continue to market Fundamentals of Public Transportation through the UWM SCE catalogs, mailing brochures/post cards, e-mail, at transportation expos/conferences, and website.

CTED plans to enhance marketing efforts through offering sample parts of the course in webinars and on-line.

CTED requests the assistance of MTAP with marketing (as conducted historically), through advertisement to MTAP clients and members.


CTED contact info:

Ken Woodall, Director

UW-Milwaukee School of Continuing Education Center of Transportation Education and Development

161 W. Wisconsin Ave., Ste. 6000 Milwaukee, WI 53203

(414) 227-3332

[email protected]

www.sce-cted.uwm.edu


Thank You!

Center for Transportation Education Fundamentals of Public Transportation.

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Transcript of Center for Transportation Education Fundamentals of Public Transportation.