Texas A&M Transit Plan and Bike Share

ABSTRACT This report offers the feasibility study of Texas A&M University Transit and Bike Share planning. It proposes the optimized bus routes and bike share locations.

PLAN 674: TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM ANALYSIS/FALL 2016 Prepared by: Pranjal Dixit Sai Praneeth Kalakuntla Saima Musharrat Gopika Nair

PLAN 674/Fall 2016/Texas A&M University Transit Plan

Table of Contents Table of FIGURES ......................................................................................................................... 2 LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................................... 3 1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 4 Background ................................................................................................................................. 5 Overview of the Transportation System in Texas A&M ............................................................ 6 Transit ...................................................................................................................................... 6 Bicycle ..................................................................................................................................... 9 Problem Statement .................................................................................................................... 10 Objective ................................................................................................................................... 10 2 TEXAS A&M TRANSIT STUDY ............................................................................................ 11 Data ........................................................................................................................................... 11 Methodology ............................................................................................................................. 11 Activity Nodes in College Station-Bryan and TAMU Campus ............................................ 12 Student Population Density ................................................................................................... 13 Major Boarding and Alighting Points ................................................................................... 14 Proposed Transit Plan................................................................................................................ 15 Proposed College Station/Bryan Traffic Analysis Zones (TAZ) .......................................... 15 Proposed Transit Routes ........................................................................................................ 16 Route 2................................................................................................................................... 17 Route 9................................................................................................................................... 18 Route 26................................................................................................................................. 20 Route 31................................................................................................................................. 21 Route 34................................................................................................................................. 23 Route 36................................................................................................................................. 24 Route 40................................................................................................................................. 25 Weekend Route: WHOOP ..................................................................................................... 26 Performance Measure of Proposed Transit Plan ................................................................... 27 3 TEXAS A&M BIKE SHARE STUDY ..................................................................................... 28 Data ........................................................................................................................................... 28 Methodology ............................................................................................................................. 29 Bike Share Location Suitability Analysis .............................................................................. 30 1

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Proposed Bike Share Locations................................................................................................. 31 Proposed Bike Share Locations: On campus ......................................................................... 31 Proposed Bike Share Locations: Off-campus ........................................................................ 32 Future steps ............................................................................................................................... 33 4 CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................................... 34 5 REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................... 34

Table of FIGURES Figure 1: Location of Texas A&M University ............................................................................... 4 Figure 2: Land Use Map of College Station-Bryan ........................................................................ 5 Figure 3: Student Population by Number and Gender in Texas A&M ........................................... 5 Figure 4: TAMU Transit Routes ..................................................................................................... 7 Figure 5: TAMU On-Campus Transit Routes ................................................................................ 7 Figure 6: TAMU Bus ...................................................................................................................... 8 Figure 7: TAMU Transportation Services Bus Ridership Data ...................................................... 8 Figure 8: TAMU Transportation Services Bike Lanes Map ........................................................... 9 Figure 9: Activity Nodes in College Station-Bryan ...................................................................... 12 Figure 10: Activity Nodes in TAMU Campus .............................................................................. 12 Figure 11: TAMU Transit Planning Concept ............................................................................... 13 Figure 12: TAMU Student Population Density Map .................................................................... 13 Figure 13: Major Boarding Data ................................................................................................... 14 Figure 14: Major Alighting Data .................................................................................................. 14 Figure 15: Proposed TAMU Traffic Analysis Zones ................................................................... 15 Figure 16: Existing TAMU Transit Routes and Buffer around Bus Stops ................................... 16 Figure 17: Proposed Transit Routes.............................................................................................. 16 Figure 18: Existing Route 2 .......................................................................................................... 17 Figure 19: Proposed Route 2......................................................................................................... 18 Figure 20: Existing Route 9 .......................................................................................................... 19 Figure 21: Proposed Route 9......................................................................................................... 19 Figure 22: Existing Route 26 ........................................................................................................ 20 Figure 23: Proposed Route 26....................................................................................................... 21 Figure 24: Existing Route 31 ........................................................................................................ 22 Figure 25: Proposed Route 31....................................................................................................... 22 Figure 26: Existing Route 34 ........................................................................................................ 23 Figure 27: Proposed Route 34....................................................................................................... 24 Figure 28: Existing Route 36, Figure 29: Proposed Route 36 ...................................................... 24 Figure 30: Existing Route 40, Figure 31: Proposed Route 40 ...................................................... 25 Figure 32: Proposed Weekend Route ........................................................................................... 26 Figure 33: Performance Measure of Proposed Transit Plan ......................................................... 27 Figure 34: 2015 TAMU Survey on Mode of Transportation ........................................................ 28 2

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Figure 35: TAMU Bike Share Location Planning Concept .......................................................... 29 Figure 36: TAMU Bike Share Location Suitability Analysis ....................................................... 30 Figure 37: Proposed Bike Share Locations On Campus ............................................................... 31 Figure 38: Proposed Bike Share Locations Off-Campus .............................................................. 32 Figure 39: Proposed Bike Share Locations along with Proposed Transit Plan ............................ 32 Figure 40: Bike and Run Heat Map from Strava .......................................................................... 33

LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Performance Measure of Proposed Route 2 ................................................................... 18 Table 2: Performance Measure of Proposed Route 9 ................................................................... 20 Table 3: Performance Measure of Proposed Route 26 ................................................................. 21 Table 4: Performance Measure of Proposed Route 31 ................................................................. 23 Table 5: Performance Measure of Proposed Route 34 ................................................................. 24 Table 6: Performance Measure of Proposed Route 36 ................................................................. 25 Table 7: Performance Measure of Proposed Route 40 ................................................................. 26 Table 8: Performance Measure of Proposed Weekend Route ...................................................... 26

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1 INTRODUCTION Texas A&M University-College Station is a public flagship university in the state of Texas.

Located in the middle of four large metropolitan cities of Texas- Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio (Fig. 1). Texas A&M in many ways is a small city on its own with its food service, recreation centers, health centers, research centers, police force and transportation services. The land use map of the two adjacent cities (Fig. 2), College Station and Bryan, shows that the campus is situated in the heart of the two cities with lands owned and reserved by the University. The commercial activities are along major roads surrounded by residential areas. There are some lands for industrial area and the most of the recreation spaces are along the periphery.

Mobility is a major factor in terms of experiencing the Texas A&M University campus. Students, faculties and staff take part in different activities such as class, meeting, recreation, lunch etc. resulting into thousands of trips every day. So, it is indispensable to provide adequate transportation options for the campus for several reasons: 1) a large portion of short distance trips make up the trip generation, 2) there is a large active transportation mode share, and 3) there is a relatively fixed activity schedules.

Figure 1: Location of Texas A&M University

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Figure 2: Land Use Map of College Station-Bryan

Background Given the size of 5,200 acres and the population of around 60,000 students on campus, there is an enormous amount of movements on and off campus each day. Every year the number of students has been increasing steadily. For example, the student population was 52,775 in Fall 2011 but it reached 66,425 in Fall 2016 (Fig. 3). Currently the percentage of female population is 47.67 and male is 52.33 (Fig. 3). The student population is a diverse group of people with 35% international students. Although the students’ socioeconomic status is more or less homogenous, their vehicle ownership pattern varies due to their ability to own a car with their parents’ financial support. This poses a challenge for the transportation planning on a campus.

Figure 3: Student Population by Number and Gender in Texas A&M

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Overview of the Transportation System in Texas A&M The Transportation Services of the Texas A&M University is the responsible entity for different activities on the campus. They manage the bus routes, maintenance of fleet, parking, garage, bicycle parking etc. In this report, we’ll be focusing on the transit and bicycle planning on campus.

Transit According to their website, the Aggie bus system employs 260 drivers at present, with 92 full-size buses and 4 smaller buses. 80+ buses are used for daily routes and others are assigned to charters.

There are approximately 35 - 40 seats depending on the body style and layout.

There are currently 8 on-campus and 10 off-campus buses in A&M (Fig. 5 & 6). Route placement is based on requests for service and student population density data in the Bryan-College Station area. Some of the routes have been in place for at least 10 years with minor changes made when needed. But the Transportation Services evaluate the routes to look for improvements. They are currently at maximum capacity with a fleet of 100 buses (Fig. 4). But to increase service would cost an approximate $90,000 to $180,000 per year per bus depending on the route as well as $500,000 to purchase each new bus.

Figure 4: TAMU Bus

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Figure 5: TAMU Transit Routes

Figure 6: TAMU On-Campus Transit Routes

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Transit carries over 7.5 million riders per year with an average of on-campus ridership of 19,000/day and off-campus ridership 31,500/day, including both to campus and back home (Fig. 7).

Figure 4: TAMU Transportation Services Bus Ridership Data

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Bicycle The Transportation Services considers the bicycle as a vehicle. The map of Bicycle Lanes of Texas A&M (Fig. 8) shows the marked bike lanes, bike routes and the bike dismount zone. The exact data on the bicycle ridership on and off-campus is still unavailable but the ridership has been increasing at a great rate for last few years.

Figure 5: TAMU Transportation Services Bike Lanes Map

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Problem Statement Managing the transportation system of this enormous campus is a difficult task. Referring to the Chapter 04: Mobility and Safety of the 2017 Campus Master Plan Update, “From an on-campus resident walking to class, to an o-campus resident that relies on transit to access campus, to service vehicles accessing buildings for deliveries and repairs, each of these systems have to align harmoniously to create seamless, convenient and safe experiences for everyoneâ€?. Safety is also a big concern over convenience due to the characteristic of the issue.

Objective PLAN 674 Fall 2016 class was assigned the task of investigating and designing the transit and bike share locations of Texas A&M University-College Station. The objective of the report is to plan for a transit master plan supplemented by bike share program. Transit is one of the most efficient transportation mode is especially effective to serve the transportation needs on campus. However, transit may not be cost effective due to its the high cost for fuel and bus purchase as well as maintenance. Besides, bike share has become increasingly popular on campus in recent years. So, a transit plan complemented by bike share and proposes may be the ideal solution for a campus like Texas A&M University. This report investigates the feasibility of a campus transit plan and bike share locations and proposed the routes and locations for them.

The report is divided into three major parts: 1) Literature review of Campus Transit and Bike Share 2) Texas A&M Transit Study and Proposal 3) Texas A&M Bike Share Study and Proposal

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2 TEXAS A&M TRANSIT STUDY Data In order to analyze the transit planning of Texas A&M, the following data were collected    

Streets Student population and their address by UIN Average boarding data Average alighting data Activity nodes

For the design of the bus routes, the frequency of transit use needed to be looked at. As both on and off-campus bus routes were being considered, locating the student population was the first step. The average boarding and alighting data were needed to investigate the daily ridership of the bus routes. In addition to that, the most common points of interest, referred as activity nodes, were identified to locate current and potential transit stops. The data and shapefiles were collected from TAMU Transportation Services and the network was created using Brazos County streets shapefile on ArcGIS Network Analyst.

Methodology After taking the student population data as shapefiles, student population density within the fivemile area of the campus was generated on ArcGIS. By the use of Geocoding and Spatial Join tool on ArcGIS, the population density was embedded according to their addresses on the map. Major boarding and alighting locations were identified on ArcGIS in order to analyze the locations that are being used as the most common transit stops. The Traffic Analysis Zones (TAZ) in College Station and Bryan were identified to analyze the travel behavior in those specific areas. Through analysis, the study then proposes the most optimized bus routes with maximized benefits.

Figure 9: TAMU Transit Planning Concept

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Activity Nodes in College Station-Bryan and TAMU Campus The Activity Nodes in College Station-Bryan (Fig. 10) and TAMU Campus (Fig. 11) show the most popular points of the area. The mapping of these nodes give an idea about the production and attraction points.

Figure 10: Activity Nodes in College Station-Bryan

Figure 11: Activity Nodes in TAMU Campus

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Student Population Density The Student Population Density Map (Fig. 12) shows the red areas as the most densely populated areas by the students. The density gradually decreases as it goes from red to green. This map helps to identify the need of having transit route to the dense areas.

Figure 6: TAMU Student Population Density Map 13

PLAN 674/Fall 2016/Texas A&M University Transit Plan

Major Boarding and Alighting Points The Major Boarding Points (Fig. 13) on campus are MSC, Trigon, Kleberg, Reed Arena, Wehner, Beutel, White Creek and off-campus are Blinn College, College Main, Gardens and the Woodlands. The Major Alighting Points (Fig. 14) on campus are MSC, Trigon, Kleberg, White Creek, Wehner, Fish Pond and off-campus are Blinn College, Aggie Station, HEB and the Woodlands.

Figure 7: Major Boarding Points

Figure 8: Major Alighting Points 14

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Proposed Transit Plan After having the study done, we proposed a transit plan for on and off-campus locations. In the proposed transit plan,     

Few modifications have been made to the following routes: 2, 9, 26, 31, 34, 36, 40 One new WEEKEND route has been added: WHOOP (Route 10) Withdrawn route 35 All other routes have been kept the same as before Proposed a route to RELLIS Campus.

Proposed College Station/Bryan Traffic Analysis Zones (TAZ) Figure 15 below divides the TAMU campus into Traffic Analysis Zones (TAZs) that are based on homogeneous activity areas bounded by geographical or major transportation facilities. The TAZs map assumes that each zone is characterized by a specific use or activity that influence travel behavior to and from the zone.

Figure 9: Proposed TAMU Traffic Analysis Zones

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Proposed Transit Routes After taking a quarter mile buffer around the existing bus stops (Fig. 16), we superimposed the Student Population Density Map with it and proposed new transit routes (Fig. 17).

Figure 10: Existing TAMU Transit Routes and Buffer around Bus Stops

Figure 11: Proposed Transit Routes 16

PLAN 674/Fall 2016/Texas A&M University Transit Plan

Route 2 Replant, Route 2 is the most underutilized bus route on-campus (Figure 12: Existing Route 2Figure 12). It connects the campus with the far-flung Texas A&M Health Science Center. Since the school is cut away from the main campus, students prefer taking their cars rather than taking the campus bus. Our proposal is to extend this line to connect it to the new RELLIS campus being planned on SH 47 (Figure 13). The RELLIS campus is slated to be the next big thing and is estimated to educate close to 10,000 students. The extended route would continue along the same route until the Health Science Center and then follow the SH 47 to go to RELLIS. The route length will increase by 87% but the route performance can be increased with increased ridership to RELLIS (Table 1).

Table 1: Performance Measure of Proposed Route 2

Figure 12: Existing Route 2

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Figure 13: Proposed Route 2

Route 9 Route 9, named Vet School, connects the TAMU campus to Veterinary school and parts of West campus (Figure 14). The route change will result in the bus also connecting School of Public Health (Figure 15). Previously, Route 2 would make a stop on School of Public Health before proceeding towards Health Science Center. This detour resulted in more time spent along the busy Raymond Stotzer Parkway. With Route 9 adding an extra stop at School of Public Health, Route 2 can now proceed directly to Health Science Center and then onto RELLIS. The additional stop would now compensate for the change in Route 2 (Table 2).

Table 2: Performance Measure of Proposed Route 9

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Figure 14: Existing Route 9

Figure 15: Proposed Route 9

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Route 26 Route 26, Rudder is one of the busiest off-campus routes since it connects a huge student population on the south and South-east side of campus (Figure 16). It also connects Kroger, which is a center for student grocery shopping. The proposed route would run along the Southwest Parkway and take a right onto Dartmouth St, then Krenak Tap Rd, before joining the existing route along Central Park Lane (Figure 17).. This detour serves 14% more student population (Table 3).

Table 3: Performance Measure of Proposed Route 26

Figure 16: Existing Route 26

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Figure 17: Proposed Route 26

Route 31 Our route planning principle also was based on the idea that the Aggie Spirit will be used by students not only to connect them to campus but also seamlessly connect students to various activity nodes around time with less transfers. Previously, Route 31 known as E-Walk, connected students on Wellborn side of Southwest Parkway to the campus (Figure 18). Students, had to take the bus to campus and transfer to either 26 or 27 to get to a grocery store or Post Oak Mall. with our proposed route extension, we integrate Route 31, 26 and 27, presenting an opportunity for students to transfer onto other routes on Anderson St without having to travel back to campus for transfers (Figure 19) (Table 4).

Table 4: Performance Measure of Proposed Route 31

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Figure 18: Existing Route 31

Figure 19: Proposed Route 31

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Route 34 Route 34, known as Fish Camp, currently connects student housing on the far side of Harvey Mitchell Parkway to the campus (Figure 20). The proposed route extension will connect the new student housing on Deacon Dr. on the other side of Wellborn Rd (). That area is currently connected by Route 40, Century Tree (Figure 24). That results in buses traveling a long distance just to serve 1 stop. with Route 34 serving this one stop, the Route 40 can now serve other areas effectively (Table 5).

Table 5: Performance Measure of Proposed Route 34

Figure 20: Existing Route 34

Figure 21: Proposed Route 34

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Route 36 Route 36, Cotton Bowl currently serves students on the heavily populated South College Station on the west side of the Wellborn Rd (Fig. 28). The bus currently covers the areas around Holleman Dr. W, Penberthy Blvd, Luther St and Marion Pugh Dr. which is overlapped by Route 35 and Route 40 at various intersections. Our proposed changes to route 36 would serve the areas covered

by Route 35: Jones Butler Rd and Luther St W (Fig. 29)(Table 6). Route 36 will connect students from these areas to Trigon whereas Route 40 would connect the same area to West Campus and MSC.

Table 6: Performance Measure of Proposed Route 36

Figure 22: Existing Route 36

Figure 23: Proposed Route 36

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Route 40 Route 40, Century Tree is one of the newer routes introduced in Fall 2016. It connected students in the newer student housing on Deacon Dr and Rock Prairie Rd on the western side of Welborn Rd along with students residing at The Junction and The Cottages (Figure 24). The route currently also connects The Barracks on Deacon Dr. With Route 34 being extended to now serve The Barracks, Route 40 has now been truncated and the route length will be decreased by around 40% (Fig. 31)(Table 7). The proposed route also will traverse along the Marion Pugh Dr. giving the students an option to reach West Campus which previously was possible only by going to Trigon and then transferring to other On-campus routes.

Table 7: Performance Measure of Proposed Route 40

Figure 24: Existing Route 40

Figure 25: Proposed Route 40

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Weekend Route: WHOOP The new weekend route aims to connect students on East side and North side of campus to various big box retail stores like Walmart and HEB. This route traverses through student housing which has a huge majority of international students who do not have access to cars (Table 8). Currently students have to take a bus to campus and then transfer to route 27 or 26 to reach Kroger or HEB on south side of campus. This becomes challenging during weekends when headway is 1 hour and making transfers become difficult. This route will be a circuit connecting HEB and Walmart in Bryan which is technically closer but currently not served (Figure 26).

Table 8: Performance Measure of Proposed Weekend Route

Figure 26: Proposed Weekend Route

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Performance Measure of Proposed Transit Plan The Performance Measure of the Proposed Transit Plan (Fig. 33) shows that the transit route length will be decreased from 112.31 miles to 106.91 miles without the RELLIS Campus but it will be 119.41 miles with the RELLIS Campus added on the route. Instead of serving the current population of 16,977 the proposed transit plan will serve 17,653 students. The Passenger per Service Mile will also increase from 151 to 165 without the RELLIS Campus. It will be 148 with the RELLIS Campus but an important portion of students will be served this way.

Figure 27: Performance Measure of Proposed Transit Plan

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3 TEXAS A&M BIKE SHARE STUDY Bike Share is a growing need on campus because it is• • • • • • • •

More efficient movement around campus Decreases single occupancy vehicle use Reduces strain on campus parking Reduces campus traffic congestion Improves the health of students & employees Increases the perceived value of the campus to prospective students & employees Reduces the number of bikes in residence halls Reduces personal bike theft and abandonment

The TAMU survey on the mode of transportation students use to get to campus and while on campus (Fig. 34) show that bike is becoming more and more a popular mode of transport.

Figure 28: 2015 TAMU Survey on Mode of Transportation

Data In order to analyze the bike-share locations, the following data were collected:      

Parks Bike Lanes Bike Racks Sidewalks Commercial/ Retail land use areas Bus Stops

The data and shapefiles were collected from City of College Station website. One of the limitations in this analysis was that we were unable to plot the locations of off- campus bike racks.

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Methodology The Bike Share Location Planning Concept (Fig. 35) shows that the shapefiles of the data mentioned above were given as inputs in ArcGIS and a buffer was set for each category. Then we digitized the map on TAMU website which has the locations of existing bike racks on campus.

Equal weightage was given to all the factors considered for bike share suitability analysis. This was necessary to understand the existing bike holding capacity of the University. Later we used raster calculations in ArcGIS to generate our intended map.

Figure 29: TAMU Bike Share Location Planning Concept

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Bike Share Location Suitability Analysis The map shown in Figure 30 indicates the areas that are low suitable and highly suitable for bikeshare locations. The area marked in red shows highly suitable areas; which are MSC, Fish Pond, Wehner for On- Campus locations, and wolf-pen creek park, HEB, and few others adjacent to the parks for off- campus locations. Probably, if we could locate the off- campus bike rack locations, we would have got more suitable bike- share locations.

Figure 30: TAMU Bike Share Location Suitability Analysis

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Proposed Bike Share Locations Proposed Bike Share Locations: On campus By refining the bike share suitability analysis map and looking at the areas around the high suitability areas, we decided to propose bike share in the locations marked in Figure 31 in blue dots.

Figure 31: Proposed Bike Share Locations On Campus

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Proposed Bike Share Locations: Off-campus We followed the same steps while proposing bike share locations off-campus. But we made sure to not give any location on the major roads but to give locations near bus stops within a quarter mile from commercial or retail centers, and parks. The parks have bike trails inside, so a bike share location near it would encourage people to rent out a bike for a couple of hours (Fig. 38 and 39).

Figure 32: Proposed Bike Share Locations Off-Campus

Figure 33: Proposed Bike Share Locations along with Proposed Transit Plan 32

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Future steps The map shown in Figure 34 is future reference when the city decides to improve the sidewalk connectivity and adding bike lanes. The map above indicates where people in College Station prefer to bike or run the most. Their preferred locations are the north side and south side of the city. The green indicates low preference and red indicates highest preference areas. These could be the first phase priority map for improving the pedestrian infrastructure.

Figure 34: Bike and Run Heat Map from Strava

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4 CONCLUSION Texas A&M University in College Station, is growing rapidly in enrollments every year and it has grown much bigger than a mere college town. With a good proportion of these enrollments made up by international students, who do not own a car, it is imperative to look at Texas A&M Transit Service to be more than just a campus connector. Hence, our proposed route changes were based on the idea of having a better integration of routes which did not necessitate traveling to the campus to transfer to another bus to run their errands or do their groceries. We also proposed a route up to RELLIS campus. The campus is slated to educate up to 10,000 students when complete and having a transit access is vital for the future. It is also necessary to strike a balance between transit, bike and other modes of travel to enhance the connectivity in the town. The bike share program is directed to address this particular aspect. It would present students to explore the areas, be it exploring beautiful trails at the Wolf Penn Creek Park or to grab a quick bite at various restaurants along University Dr. Texas A&M as a public university can act as a living laboratory for more transit and bike-ped oriented mobility. The campus is still growing and there will be more buildings and students added in the coming years, so accommodating their needs is an ever-changing process.

5 REFERENCES   

Texas A&M Transportation Services Mr Bart Benthol from BCS MPO Dr. Tim Lomax

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