Questions the TDP Will Address

The primary goals of the Transit Development Plan, which Port Authority hopes to achieve by Calendar Year 2009, include connecting neighborhoods through new service models and connecting the region by both enhancing coordination of transit services and adopting a regional fare collection system. As a result, the questions that we will address during the Transit Development Plan include, among others:

Is it possible to make service more direct, thereby making it easier for customers to use the service?
Are there opportunities for improving operating efficiency which would allow Port Authority to increase service without having to increasing costs?
How can Port Authority balance a desire for direct service (achieved through minimizing route variations and route deviations so that all or most service operates throughout the day in a consistent manner) with maintaining service to neighborhoods and employers located away from main transit routes?
Are there opportunities for replacing route variations and deviations with local feeder and flex-services?
How can schedules be made simpler while at the same time providing convenient connections?
What opportunities exist to develop local transit hubs as a focal point for local transit services and to provide convenient connections to major radial and regional transit services?

In addition to exploring these questions and many others, the consultant team, led by Nelson\Nygaard, will evaluate the potential for new types of services. For example, Port Authority has led the nation in the development of busways (now called “Bus Rapid Transit” in the transit industry). How can we better maximize these facilities? Are there opportunities to develop on-street “Rapid Bus” service in some travel corridors? Service to outlying areas may also be improved by replacing low frequency fixed-route service with flex-route service that could provide “off-line” service or curbside pick-ups and drop-offs at the outer end of the trip. With input from the public, these and other types of service initiatives will be studied.