Socioeconomic Impact Assessment of the Los Angeles Automatic Vehicle Monitoring (AVM) Demonstration

Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, Technical Reference Centerhttps://doi.org/10.21949/15270981982PDFTech ReportDaetz, DouglasBebendorf, MarliesJohn A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.)Systan Inc.United States. Urban Mass Transportation AdministrationUnited States. Urban Mass Transportation AdministrationLos Angeles (California)Automatic vehicle monitoringBus transitDispatchingPassenger countingSchedulingSecurityTraffic delaysUMTA-MA-06-0126-82-2;DOT-TSC-UMTA-82-42This report presents a socioeconomic impact assessment of the Automatic Vehicle Monitoring (AVM) Demonstration in Los Angeles. An AVM system uses location, communication, and data processing subsystems to monitor the locations of appropriately equipped vehicles (e.g., buses) operating within the area served by the system. Supplemented by a passenger-counting subsystem, and AVM system thus provides a transit operator with real-time display and automatic recording of data on schedule adherence, passenger boardings and alightings, and passenger loads. This information can be used in real-time by dispatchers to control the fleet's operation and later by planners and schedulers to improve schedules and vehicle productivity. For the demonstration, the Southern California Rapid Transit District (SCRTD) in Los Angeles equipped 200 buses for AVM operation on four routes. From April 1980 to June 1981, the AVM system tabulated data pertaining to schedule adherence and ridership on the test routes, with dispatchers taking control actions from September 1980 onward. In addition to this information, interviews with SCRTD's managers and surveys of AVM bus drivers and dispatchers were conducted to analyze how working with the AVM system influenced their attitudes about it. Other main areas of investigation included security aspects, AVM experience in other transit systems, and the capital and operating costs of AVM systems. The demonstration showed the AVM technology to be mature for use in transit systems, but also very dependent on the skill and commitment of affected transit personnel. Dispatcher control actions were successful in reducing the number of buses running ahead of schedule. Separate experiments showed that real-time AVM data expedites the location and interception of buses in an emergency, thus increasing transit security. The independent automatic passenger counting subsystem, as implemented during the assessment period, did not yield sufficient accuracy to fully meet the expectations of the schedulers and planners, but they generally considered the AVM data output well suited to realize savings through more efficient scheduling.138