Sustainable transport at MIT : improving area bus services

Everyday each member of the MIT community makes a decision about how they will travel to school or work. Using the Commuter Habit Survey and information regarding local bus services as guides, this report analyzes the existing transportation options available to MIT students, staff, and faculty. People are grouped by mode choice depending on whether they commute using public transit or private MIT shuttle service, walk, bike, drive, carpool, or use another mode entirely. Understanding these market groups help focus the recommendations of this report to maximize the service efficiency while also being budget conscious. In addition to researching MIT commuters' choices, an in-depth analysis was conducted for the MBTA bus routes that serve the MIT area of Cambridge and the MIT Shuttle services. Both services were evaluated in terms of on-time performance and MIT-affiliated ridership. Recommendations for the MBTA include route revisions on Route 64 and 70/70A, which increase access to Kendall Square and the MIT Campus, and service improvements on Route 1. Several alternatives are presented regarding methods to improve the MIT Daytime shuttle performance. The top recommendation focuses on utilizing EZ Ride in place of the Northwest Shuttle, an extended Boston Daytime route, and a more efficient Tech Shuttle route. In the future, MIT members should have online tools available to help plan their commute in an environmentally friendly and efficient manner.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Authors dc:creator

• Beasley, Aimee K
• Hsu, Victoria H

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• John Attanucci and Mikel Murga.

• Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/50621

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/50621