How CMT Works
Existing Service Has Problems
• Too Slow : 22 miles from East Oltorf to Lakeline
Mall takes 2 hrs 40 min.
• Long Waits: On most circulator routes the wait
between buses is 30+ minutes.
• Poor Transfer Conditions : Lack of shelter, Air
Conditioning, security, or real time info at transfer points
A 22 mile trip with conventional bus service takes too long.
Starting on east Oltorf and going to Lakeline Mall takes about 160
minutes.
Some of the time is for walking , waiting and transfering.
About two hours, or 120 minutes is spent riding buses that lumber along
at 11 mph.
They are slow because they are stopping ten times a mile to pickup and
dropoff riders.
Transfers are required. Some transfers will take 30 minutes at an
unsheltered stop.
You could be standing in the August sun or winter wind for 30 minutes
waiting for the next bus.
CMT Service would be faster. Some trips would
take half the time.
Travel time is
reduced from 160 minutes to 80.
Example trip has 3
legs: First 2 miles by taxi-van,
then
18 miles by express bus, and last 2 miles by taxi-van.
Express Bus is fast because it runs on road
with signal control and queue jumpers.
Red dots are Transit centers
with air conditioning where riders transfer from circulator to express.
CMT would be Cellular
Circulator
Routes converge on each Transit Center.
Circulator Routes (thin black lines) stop 5 times per mile and average
15 mph.
Express Routes (thick green line) would run 3 to 15 miles between stops
at Transit Centers (TCs) and average 30 to 50 mph.
Express bus would use HOT lanes, toll roads or streets with queue
jumpers
|
The express bus takes
riders from a home cell
out to work cell.
At work cell TC there
would be six circulator
routes that fan out to
reach hundreds of
employers scattered
over a low density cell.
Circulator vans
would depart
every 5 to 12
minutes
with CMT.
Current system has
circulator routes with
30 minutes or more
between
bus runs. |
 |
Although
most circulator trips would be run by taxi-vans, these vans
are running fixed routes.
They would NOT drop you off at your front door.
But vans would run within a half mile of every home and job site every
5-12 minutes for 16 hours a day. |
Transfer
from Circulator to Express
Yellow Taxi Vans bring riders from surrounding
neighborhoods
to the local transit center.
Riders board Blue Express Bus for trips to distant transit
centers.
Fares are collected electronically as riders enter gates
over 3 minute period.
Twenty riders board in under 30 seconds, when bus arrives,
because they have already paid fare.
It would be like
riders boarding a subway.
Demand Responsive Service at the Work
Cell Transit Center
Riders
Line Up at Circulator Route Markers
These six circulator
routes will fan out to reach all employers in a cell of 12 square miles.
A line of vans and
buses wait nearby with no pre-assigned route. Vans are sent to take
small
groups.
Mini-buses take larger groups.
Wait
time averages 5 minutes. Maximum
Wait time is 12 minutes.
Why Use Taxi Vans ?
Demand responsive service, with vans, is the more economical way
to connect a transit center
to the hundreds of employers
scattered over a 12 square mile cell.
Most jobs (70-80%) in Austin are in low density areas.
Computer modeling
predicts that most circulator trips in low density areas will have 14
or fewer riders.
It is cheaper to take 14 riders by taxi-van than by 45 seat bus.
.
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How_CMT_Works2.htm