Advanced Vehicle Monitoring and Communication Systems for Bus Transit: Benefitsand Economic Feasibility. Executive Summary

摘要

The report analyzes the feasibility of advanced vehicle monitoring andcommunication (AVMC) systems for bus transit in the United States. Such systems are widely used in Europe and Canada to provide more reliable and efficient bus services, but have seen little deployment in the U.S. Many systems are now available from both American and foreign vendors, and thus the question of whether or not to deploy such a system is coming to the forefront in many transit agencies. In the report, the potential benefits of such a system are discussed, including benefits to current and new riders in the form of better service, to the agency in the form of increased revenues and reduced costs, and to communities in a variety of ways including town watch functions. This sets the stage for a discussion of the actual experience of foreign and domestic agencies that have introduced such systems with both costs and benefits. A method for evaluating the feasibility of AVMC systems is presented, for both outright