CTE Public Transit & Multimodal Transportation 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What federal agency administers grants for public transit capital and operating assistance in the United States?
- Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
- Federal Transit Administration (FTA) (Correct answer)
- Federal Railroad Administration (FRA)
- Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS)
Correct answer: Federal Transit Administration (FTA)
The Federal Transit Administration (FTA), within the US Department of Transportation, administers programs that fund transit capital projects, operations, and planning through formula and competitive grants.
Question 2: What is 'headway' in public transit operations?
- The distance between the front of one vehicle and the rear of the preceding vehicle
- The scheduled time interval between consecutive transit vehicles on a route (Correct answer)
- The time a transit vehicle dwells at a stop to board/alight passengers
- The terminal layover time built into a schedule
Correct answer: The scheduled time interval between consecutive transit vehicles on a route
Headway is the time gap between successive transit vehicles on the same route at the same point, directly affecting service frequency and passenger wait times.
Question 3: What is Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and what distinguishes it from standard bus service?
- BRT uses articulated buses on shared lanes with no service differentiation
- BRT is a high-capacity bus service with dedicated lanes, off-board fare payment, level boarding, and frequent service resembling rail transit (Correct answer)
- BRT operates exclusively on elevated guideways
- BRT is standard bus service with real-time arrival information
Correct answer: BRT is a high-capacity bus service with dedicated lanes, off-board fare payment, level boarding, and frequent service resembling rail transit
BRT combines the flexibility of buses with rail-like features — dedicated bus lanes, station platforms with off-board fare payment, level boarding, frequent service, and transit signal priority — to provide faster, more reliable service.
Question 4: In transit planning, what does 'mode share' measure?
- The percentage of fleet vehicles in revenue service at peak hour
- The fraction of total person trips or VMT made by a specific travel mode (Correct answer)
- The ratio of transit riders to automobile occupants on a corridor
- The percentage of transit routes operating on time
Correct answer: The fraction of total person trips or VMT made by a specific travel mode
Mode share (or modal split) measures the percentage of total travel demand — trips, person-miles, or VMT — attributed to each travel mode (transit, auto, walking, cycling, etc.).
Question 5: What is a 'transit-oriented development' (TOD)?
- A federal program funding transit agencies for new bus depots
- Compact, mixed-use development within walking distance of high-frequency transit stations designed to promote transit ridership (Correct answer)
- A development exclusively for transit workers near rail yards
- A zoning overlay that prohibits automobile parking near transit stations
Correct answer: Compact, mixed-use development within walking distance of high-frequency transit stations designed to promote transit ridership
TOD creates walkable, mixed-use communities centered around transit stations, combining residential, commercial, and employment uses within a quarter- to half-mile radius to maximize transit ridership and reduce auto dependence.
Question 6: Which transit performance metric measures the number of passengers carried per revenue vehicle mile?
- Farebox recovery ratio
- Passengers per revenue vehicle mile (Correct answer)
- Load factor
- Revenue per platform hour
Correct answer: Passengers per revenue vehicle mile
Passengers per revenue vehicle mile (riders/RVM) measures service productivity by quantifying how many riders are carried for each mile of revenue service operated.
CTE Public Transit & Multimodal Transportation 1
What federal agency administers grants for public transit capital and operating assistance in the United States?