Financial Management Oversight & Other Guides

Regional Directive on Application ProceduresRegional FMO Checklist (PDF)Guidance for Transit Financial Plans (PDF)

Land Use Policy

Transit benefits from maintaining and extending the pre-automobile design of American cities; that is, a mixture of land uses within compact corridors easily served by transit lines. Many cities have zoning ordinances and subdivision regulations that do not permit such development to be...

Marketing, Information and AVL

Providing information to customers is an oft-neglected but crucial aspect of providing high-quality transit service. One aspect is to provide information that will attract additional ridership to new or improved service (see discussion of Marketing below). Equally important...

Fare Collection

The time required for on-board fare collection can slow bus operations significantly. The more successful the service is, the greater the problem, as additional passengers create delays at every stop. Some fare collection policies put a greater burden on customers, such as the requirement to...

Stops, Spacing, Location and Design

Bus stop spacing has a major impact on transit performance. Stop spacing affects both access time and line-haul time, and therefore affects the demand for transit service. In general, there is a tradeoff between: (a) closely spaced, frequent stops and shorter walking distance,...

Vehicle Design

Low-floor bus technology has evolved substantially. European fleets adopted low-floor bus technology in the 1980s. Early models had only a partial section of low-floor access (with a sloped floor or steps to access the rear of the vehicle). Full section, low-floor vehicle...

Signal Priority

Traffic signal priority is simply the idea of giving special treatment to transit vehicles at signalized intersections. Since transit vehicles can hold many people, giving priority to transit can potentially increase the person throughput of an intersection.

A passive...

Bus Lanes

As the term is used in this guide, a bus lane is a traffic lane on a surface street reserved for the exclusive use of buses. With curbside bus lanes, bicyclists and right turners are usually permitted. In a very few cases, carpools are also allowed. Reserved lanes help buses pass congested...

Bus on Expressway

Metropolitan areas in the US are well served by networks of radial and circumferential high-performance limited-access highways ("expressways"). Express bus routes were in many cases routed to these facilities soon after they were opened to traffic. Many express routes, "Freeway Flyers," as they...

Busways

A busway is a special roadway designed for the exclusive use of buses. A busway can be in its own right-of-way, or in a railway or highway right-of-way. Short stretches of streets designated for exclusive bus use are sometimes also called busways. A busway can also be built in an...