GIS Makes the Commute a Whole Lot Easier

Nelessen Associates Inc. Uses State-of-the-Art Shuttle Service

Bergen County, New Jersey, may not be a household name to people across the country, but it does possess a quality common to many large counties in the United States: traffic.

Bergen County has the largest population in the nation's most densely populated state and maintains a workforce of more than 450,000 people, the vast majority of whom drive to work, explaining Bergen County's status as the New Jersey county with the highest auto registration. Many more people also commute into Bergen County from surrounding communities. Compounding the congested traffic is the fact that Bergen County is the shopping capital for the entire state of New Jersey.

Officials at Bergen County, recognizing the tremendous need for a public transportation program that would free up its heavily congested streets, sent out a request for proposals (RFP). The contract was awarded to A. Nelessen Associates Inc. (ANA), Princeton, New Jersey.

Contractor Used GIS Data to Set Routing Plans

ANA proposed a first-of-its-kind Community Commuter program. Using GIS technology, ANA planners analyzed a wealth of data on both residential and business districts within the County and devised the best local street routing and planning strategies possible.

"The County was not impressed by any of the standard solutions such as fixed bus route extension systems, route systems, or any other alternatives that would be manually dispatched by human beings via radio," says Ronald J. Tindall, ANA project manager.

ANA planners proposed a transit service that provides stops within walking distance of every residence and provides arriving and departing service for every major employment center. Stops are spaced 3,000 feet apart in residential neighborhoods or as close as 1,200 feet in town centers. The service would pick up riders in 10 minutes and deliver them within 20 minutes to their destination. The projected implementation date for the Community Commuter service is the first quarter of 1998.

"We set out to provide a service that gives people an affordable, comfortable, relatively short ride to any destination they request, wherever it may be," says Tindall.

ESRI GIS Software Recommended As Best Route

Once the goals for the transit service were outlined, Anton C. Nelessen, company founder and president and professor of regional planning at Rutgers University, solicited assistance from several of the planning program's graduates. "His former students recommended the only way to go was ESRI's GIS software, which was used in the University's computer application labs," says Tindall. "They pointed out that the software would allow us to convert demographic census data and locational data on businesses and residents to valuable map information that would help determine where stops had to be."

ANA planners calculated that the average five-minute walk covers approximately 1,500 feet. Using 3,000-foot diameter polygons as the core measuring unit, the planners then determined the optimum location sites throughout residential and business districts.

Using ArcInfo, GIS technician Robert Svadlenka overlaid 3,000-foot diameter circles on maps showing the pilot area's residential areas and major centers. Data on a number of demographic and locational variables were then linked to each polygon, so ANA staff can continually evaluate and reassess areas. "Each stop is given an identification number and has a polygon called a traffic analysis zone (TAZ) attached to it," says Tindall. "And each TAZ is linked with all sorts of data."

The projected 3,000-foot circles, the center of which would determine pickup/drop-off sites, were then overlaid on orthophotographs of the pilot area. The photographs display current land use, streets, and employment and open space areas that are not on the street/road coverage. Planners could then refine the site selection process by relocating sites that met the 1,500-foot criteria but were impractical.

GIS Process Eliminated Location Error Problems

"The GIS process eliminated the need to go out to 107 stops to verify that the locations were in fact on streets and not in the middle of an overpass on a highway or in the middle of a cemetery or some other location that couldn't be serviced by the vehicles," says Tindall. "We could make a judgment based upon the land coverage of building types and where the roadways and streets were, and we could adjust stops so they were placed in the most appropriate locations such as near an intersection. Using ArcView GIS we adjusted the stops on the orthophotos. Then, in ArcInfo, we adjusted the stop point coverage to match the photo, foot by foot."

Phase One of the pilot project deploys 40 vehicles to cover the 18 square-mile area. Each vehicle is linked to a central computerized dispatch system that uses maps and locational data of each bus stop. Information on vehicle location and the status of pickup/drop-off locations are processed using GPS equipment. Routing for shuttle service was determined using ArcInfo to calculate the shortest route, mileage, and cost from all 107 stops to any location. The cost of each trip is determined by travel length, with prices ranging from $2.00 to $3.00 and the patron paying for only two trips maximum per day.

Plan Offers Families Alternatives to Added Cars

Research at ANA has shown that the average New Jersey family could use the service all year and save $2,000 to $3,000 from not operating a second or third car, which is common in Bergen County. "We are not proposing or suggesting that people not drive; we are simply offering an alternative to owning a second or third car," says Tindall.

Tindall points to GIS as one of the key technological components in planning the commuter service. "ArcView GIS was user-friendly, giving us the ability to perform tasks quickly and without a lot of technical background," says Tindall. "And it gave us an excellent visual representation of the areas that we wanted to emphasize." Coverage maps were printed in color and used in the study reports and for public presentations.

Get More Information

For more information, contact Ron Tindall, AICP, A. Nelessen Associates Inc. (tel.: 609-497-0104, fax: 609-497-0105).