Chicago Transit Authority

About: Chicago Transit Authority is a based out in . It is known for research contribution in the topics: Public transport & Service quality. The organization has 84 authors who have published 75 publications receiving 874 citations. The organization is also known as: CTA.

Impact of Weather on Transit Ridership in Chicago, Illinois

Abstract: This paper explores the weather-ridership relationship and its potential applications in transit operations and planning. Using the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) in Illinois as a case study, the paper investigates the impact of five weather elements (temperature, rain, snow, wind, and fog) on daily bus and rail ridership and variation across modes, day types, and seasons. The resulting relationships are applied to the CTA ridership trend analysis, showing how preliminary findings may change after controlling for weather. The paper emphasizes the importance of having a theoretical framework encompassing weather and travel.

Quantifying the Benefits: Application of Customer Loyalty Modeling in Public Transportation Context:

Abstract: This paper provides a demonstration of potential applications of customer loyalty modeling in the public transportation industry. Customer loyalty modeling investigates the cumulative effects of influencing factors on customers' tendencies to choose one service or product over another for a particular need. Industries, such as airlines and telecommunications, model customer loyalty extensively to better understand and improve customer retention. A review of the literature returned only one direct application of this approach in the public transportation industry. The influencing factors of public transportation customer loyalty are explored with the use of structural equation modeling and other empirical tests to demonstrate the appropriateness of this application. A comprehensive set of hypotheses explores the relationships between public image, problem experience, service quality, service value, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty. Initial findings suggest that service quality and customer satis...

Use of Automatic Vehicle Location and Passenger Count Data to Evaluate Bus Operations: Experience of the Chicago Transit Authority, Illinois

Abstract: New technologies such as automatic vehicle location (AVL) and automatic passenger counters (APC) make tremendous amounts of data available to transit planners and operators. Transit agencies would like to use these data to inform service planning and management and ultimately to provide more reliable service. This requires data processing in such a way as to provide pertinent information to transit planners. The research presented considers a sample of data collected from Chicago Transit Authority buses during the initial stage of AVL and APC implementation in Chicago, Illinois. Methods were developed for extracting information from these data that could be used to compute service reliability indicators. This research also discusses some of the challenges encountered in the data collection process. At the time of the data collection, the home garage for the bus route under consideration was not fully stocked with AVL-equipped buses. Other challenges included the misplacement of some time points and undercounting by the APC system. The data proved useful even with these challenges, and valuable information, such as bus travel patterns, schedule adherence, and headway regularity, was gained from this study. By recognizing some of the challenges faced in the data collection process, this research provided insights that can be used to inform future larger-scale studies of transit operations using AVL and APC data.

Improving the Efficiency of Metropolitan Area Transit by Joint DEA of Its Multiple Providers

Abstract: This paper provides transit policy makers and managements with a protocol for analyzing the efficiency of an urban area’s non-rail transit when multiple types of service are operated. Procedures are described for estimating (a) the individual technical efficiency of each non-rail transit type, (b) transit’s overall technical efficiency in the urban area, and (c) the effect of each type of transit on the overall technical efficiency. Then, a method is explained for (d) estimating the efficiency with which funds are allocated to the different types of transit, followed by (e) the presentation of a mathematical program for allocating funds to the various types of transit employed by the target agency, with the objective of decreasing the cost of transit in an urban area while holding total transit service constant. The entire protocol is illustrated by applying it to three metropolitan areas, two using four types of transit service and one using three types, with data from the National Transit Database.