Central Ave SunRunner BRT Construction Project, Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority

The Challenge | Evaluation Process | Results | Conclusion

Executive Summary

Anticipating and preparing for significant residential and commercial growth in the downtown St. Petersburg and South Pasadena areas, including supporting portions of the St. Petersburg Plan2050 long-term planning, the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA) and the City of St. Petersburg identified the need for a new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) service to enhance mobility between St. Pete Beach and downtown St. Petersburg along 1^st Avenues North and South. The objective was to provide public transit service to support projected growth areas within 1⁄4-mile of stops along the routes with the potential to expand transit-supportive zoning practices up to and beyond a 1⁄2-mile where transit connectivity can be fostered and continuous.

The Challenge

The corridor was originally serviced by five separate local bus routes, including a Central Ave. bus trolley service, but the corridor had no direct transit service linking communities and attractions in central St. Petersburg to South Pasadena or St. Pete Beach in the west. One of the other key objectives for the BRT is providing transit service for events at Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays Major League Baseball Team, located along 1^st Ave. South at 13^th Street.

Through the acceptance of the SunRunner Rising Development Study, the PSTA, in coordination with the City of St. Petersburg, and Pinellas County, constructed a 10.3-mile East-West Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line from downtown St. Petersburg to St. Pete Beach via 1^st Ave. North (westbound) and 1^st Ave. South (eastbound). The BRT line, now called SunRunner BRT, is the first of its kind in the Tampa Bay, FL metropolitan area and officially began operation in October 2022.

The Solution

As part of the SunRunner BRT project, a robust ITS solution that included a Transit Signal Priority System (TSP) was needed. The new ITS solution also had to seamlessly integrate with the existing dispatch system while controlling the traffic signals and providing priority to the SunRunner BRT buses. In addition, the new solution needed to provide center-to-center capabilities for BRT management coordination with two Traffic Operation Centers (Pinellas County and City of St. Petersburg).

To accommodate and provide the new levels of traffic signal management required, the existing Advanced Transportation Management System (ATMS) software application was upgraded to the cloud-based Centracs^® Mobility ATMS that includes a Connected Vehicle (CV) route-based TSP capability to provide the BRT signal priority along the east and west corridors for the City of Saint Petersburg and Pinellas County. The ATMS and TSP system interfaces with PSTA’s Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) system for SunRunner buses, as well as EMS Emergency Vehicle Dispatch Systems in the future. The upgraded ATMS includes Signal Performance Measures (SPM) for 51 signalized intersections along the SunRunner BRT routes. In addition, upgrades to the intersections included 21 new traffic signal cabinets, and 50 CV-ready traffic signal controllers to support the new ITS communications and TSP.

Results

Within the first year of operation, the SunRunner BRT has provided new levels of mobility for one million riders. It has also provided schedule reliability of bus stop arrivals at or below average travel times along the routes, particularly at high traffic volume times. The TSP call acceptance rate is better than 99.75 percent. This has enabled the SunRunner BRT bus service to maintain a service reliability frequency of 15 minutes on average.

As a result of the headway reliability performance, the SunRunner BRT also provides a 35 percent reduction in travel time compared to the Central Ave. bus trolley service along the parallel corridor in downtown St. Petersburg. In addition, the SunRunner BRT sees a 70 percent rider increase for the Tampa Bay Rays baseball game days over regular commuter day ridership with minimal change to service frequency or headway reliability, which is an indication that the BRT, combined with the ITS solutions, is providing a viable and sustainable mobility alternative for the entire community.

Conclusion

The SunRunner BRT features the latest ITS software solutions and systems integration, including TSP and SPM technologies. TSP allows SunRunner buses to communicate with traffic signals along the route to maximize green lights as the buses approach each signalized intersection while Centracs Mobility’s SPM enables the PSTA and the City of St. Petersburg to continually optimize traffic signal programming for transit schedule reliability. Moreover, the updated Centracs Mobility cloud platform ATMS with TSP and SPM, as well as the technology infrastructure upgrades help future proof the SunRunner BRT service.