Assessing Opportunities for Intelligent Transportation Systems in California's Passenger Intermodal Operations and Services

This report presents the findings of its investigation into intermodal passenger transfer facilities' operations and services in urban areas of California and the opportunities for how the application of intelligent transportation systems may enhance such operations and services. The project was based initially on a macroscopic assessment of intermodal passenger transfer facility operations and services primarily by means of a review of the literature followed by a three-tier analysis through site visits, institutional aspects, and user views and opinions. Institutional aspects were captured by means of a survey administered to representatives from transit service providers sharing three intermodal passenger transfer facilities: a BART station and a Caltrain station in the San Francisco Bay area and the Santa Fe Depot in San Diego where buses, commuter rail lines, and the San Diego Trolley come together. User views were captured by means of a survey administered to users of the BART station. From the literature, numerous barriers associated with the successful implementation of passenger intermodal operations and services were identified along with strategies to overcome these barriers. From the site visits, differences across public transit modes, i.e., between rail and bus, across different urban regions, were identified in the level of use of intelligent transportation system technologies and the level of overall coordination among transit service providers sharing a facility. The institutional survey reveal interesting facts regarding how agencies collect and share data and cooperate at the intermodal facilities under investigation as well how facilities are managed and the degree to which agencies use or are planning to use intelligent transportation systems technologies. The user survey was in the San Francisco Bay Area, with findings revealing user insight into how such a facility operates and the services it provides including information on user behavior, the transfer process, user history for this facility, a rating of the facility, and a demographic profile.