TCRP Report 11: Impact of Radio Frequency Refarming on Transit
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T RANSIT C OOPERATIVE R ESEARCH P ROGRAM SPONSORED BY The Federal Transit Administration TCRP Report 11 Impact of Radio Frequency Refarming on Transit Communications Transportation Research Board National Research Council TCRP OVERSIGHT AND PROJECT TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH BOARD EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 1996 SELECTION COMMITTEE CHAIR ROD J. DIRIDON OFFICERS Int'l Institute for Surface Transportation Policy Study Chair: James W. VAN Loben Sels, Director, California Department of Transportation MEMBERS Vice Chair: David N. Wormley, Dean of Engineering, Pennsylvania State University SHARON D. BANKS Executive Director: Robert E. Skinner, Jr., Transportation Research Board AC Transit LEE BARNES Barwood, Inc. MEMBERS GERALD L. BLAIR Indiana County Transit Authority EDWARD H. ARNOLD, Chair and President, Arnold Industries, Lebanon, PA MICHAEL BOLTON SHARON D. BANKS, General Manager, AC Transit, Oakland, CA Capital Metro BRIAN J. L. BERRY, Lloyd Viel Berkner Regental Professor & Chair, Bruton Center for Development Studies, SHIRLEY A. DELIBERO The University of Texas at Dallas New Jersey Transit Corporation LILLIAN C. BORRONE, Director, Port Commerce, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (Past SANDRA DRAGGOO Chair, 1995) CATA DWIGHT M. BOWER, Director, Idaho Department of Transportation LOUIS J. GAMBACCINI JOHN E. BREEN, The Nasser I. Al-Rashid Chair in Civil Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin SEPTA WILLIAM F. BUNDY, Director, Rhode Island Department of Transportation DELON HAMPTON DAVID BURWELL, President, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, Washington, DC Delon Hampton & Associates E. DEAN CARLSON, Secretary, Kansas Department of Transportation RICHARD R. KELLY RAY W. CLOUGH, Nishkian Professor of Structural Engineering, Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley Port Authority Trans-Hudson Corp. JAMES C. DELONG, Director of Aviation, Denver International Airport, Denver, CO ALAN F. KIEPPER JAMES N. DENN, Commissioner, Minnesota Department of Transportation New York City Transit Authority DENNIS J. FITZGERALD, Executive Director, Capital District Transportation Authority, Albany, NY EDWARD N. KRAVITZ DAVID R. GOODE, Chair, President & CEO, Norfolk Southern Corporation The Flxible Corporation DELON HAMPTON, Chair & CEO, Delon Hampton & Associates, Washington, DC PAUL LARROUSSE LESTER A. HOEL, Hamilton Professor, Civil Engineering, University of Virginia Madison Metro Transit System JAMES L. LAMMIE, President & CEO, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Inc., New York, NY ROBERT G. LINGWOOD ROBERT E. MARTINEZ, Secretary, Virginia Department of Transportation BC Transit CHARLES P. O'LEARY, JR., Commissioner, New Hampshire Department of Transportation GORDON J. LINTON CRAIG E. PHILIP, President, Ingram Barge Co., Nashville, TN FTA WAYNE SHACKELFORD, Commissioner, Georgia Deparment of Transportation WILLIAM W. MILLAR LESLIE STERMAN, Executive Director, East-West Gateway Coordinating Council, St. Louis, MO Port Authority of Allegheny County JOSEPH M. SUSSMAN, JR East Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, MIT MIKE MOBEY MARTIN WACHS, Director, Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Los Angeles Isabella County Transportation Comm. DON S. MONROE Pierce Transit EX OFFICIO MEMBERS PATRICIA S. NETTLESHIP The Nettleship Group, Inc. MIKE ACOTT, President, National Asphalt Pavement Association ROBERT E. PAASWELL ROY A. ALLEN, Vice President, Research and Test Department, Association of American Railroads The City College of New York ANDREW H. CARD, JR., President and CEO, American Automobile Manufacturers Association JAMES P. REICHERT THOMAS J. DONOHUE, President and CEO, American Trucking Associations Reichert Management Services FRANCIS B. FRANCOIS, Executive Director, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials LAWRENCE G. REUTER DAVID GARDINER, Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency WMATA JACK R. GILSTRAP, Executive Vice President, American Public Transit Association MICHAEL S. TOWNES ALBERT J. HERBERGER, Maritime Administrator, U.S. Department of Transportation Peninsula Transportation Dist. Comm. DAVID R. HINSON, Federal Aviation Administrator, U.S. Department of Transportation FRANK J. WILSON T. R. LAKSHMANAN, Director, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, U.S. Department of Transportation New Jersey DOT GORDON J. LINTON, Federal Transit Administrator, U.S. Department of Transportation EDWARD WYTKIND RICARDO MARTINEZ, National Highway Traffic Safety Administrator, U.S. Department of Transportation AFL-CIO JOLENE M. MOLITORIS, Federal Railroad Administrator, U.S. Department of Transportation EX OFFICIO MEMBERS DHARMENDRA K. SHARMA, Research and Special Programs Administrator, U.S. Department of Transportation JACK R. GILSTRAP RODNEY E. SLATER, Federal Highway Administrator, U.S. Department of Transportation APTA ARTHUR E. WILLIAMS, Chief of Engineers and Commander, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers RODNEY E. SLATER FHWA FRANCIS B. FRANCOIS TRANSIT COOPERATIVE RESEARCH PROGRAM AASHTO ROBERT E. SKINNER, JR. Transportation Research Board Executive Committee Subcommittee for TCRP TRB JAMES W. VAN LOBEN SELS, California Department of Transportation (Chair) TDC EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR DENNIS J. FITZGERALD, Capitol Dist. Transportation Authority, Albany, NY FRANK J. CIHAK LILLIAN C. BORRONE, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey APTA LESTER A. HOEL, University of Virginia SECRETARY GORDON J. LINTON, U.S. Department of Transportation ROBERT J. REILLY ROBERT E. SKINNER, JR., Transportation Research Board TRB DAVID N. WORMLEY, Pennsylvania State University T RANSIT C OOPERATIVE R ESEARCH P ROGRAM Report 11 Impact of Radio Frequency Refarming on Transit Communications JEFFREY J. MAUL and JOHN J. GREICHEN Arthur D. Little, Inc. Cambridge, MA Subject Area Public Transit Research Sponsored by the Federal Transit Administration in Cooperation with the Transit Development Corporation T RANSPORTATION RESEARCH BOARD NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS Washington, D.C. 1996 TRANSIT COOPERATIVE RESEARCH PROGRAM The nation's growth and the need to meet mobility, TCRP REPORT 11 environmental, and energy objectives place demands on public transit systems. Current systems, some of which are old and in need Project C-5 FY '94 of upgrading, must expand service area, increase service frequency, ISSN 1073-4872 and improve efficiency to serve these demands. Research is ISBN 0-309-05714-0 necessary to solve operating problems, to adapt appropriate new Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 96-60355 technologies from other industries, and to introduce innovations into the transit industry. The Transit Cooperative Research Program Price $20.00 (TCRP) serves as one of the principal means by which the transit industry can develop innovative near-term solutions to meet demands placed on it. The need for TCRP was originally identified in TRB Special Report 213—Research for Public Transit: New Directions, published in 1987 and based on a study sponsored by the Urban Mass Transportation Administration—now the Federal Transit NOTICE Administration (FTA). A report by the American Public Transit Association (APTA), Transportation 2000, also recognized the need The project that is the subject of this report was a part of the Transit for local, problem-solving research. TCRP, modeled after the Cooperative Research Program conducted by the Transportation Research longstanding and successful National Cooperative Highway Board with the approval of the Governing Board of the National Research Council. Such approval reflects the Governing Board's judgment that the Research Program, undertakes research and other technical activities project concerned is appropriate with respect to both the purposes and in response to the needs of transit service providers. The scope of resources of the National Research Council. TCRP includes a variety of transit research fields including The members of the technical advisory panel selected to monitor this planning, service configuration, equipment, facilities, operations, project and to review this report were chosen for recognized scholarly human resources, maintenance, policy, and administrative practices. competence and with due consideration for the balance of disciplines TCRP was established under FTA sponsorship in July 1992. appropriate to the project. The opinions and conclusions expressed or implied Proposed by the U.S. Department of Transportation, TCRP was are those of the research agency that performed the research, and while they have been accepted as appropriate by the technical panel, they are not authorized as part of the Intermodal Surface Transportation necessarily those of the Transportation Research Board, the Transit Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA). On May 13, 1992, a memorandum Development Corporation, the National Research Council, or the Federal agreement outlining TCRP operating procedures was executed by Transit Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation. the three cooperating organizations: FTA, the National Academy of Each report is reviewed and accepted for publication by the technical panel Sciences, acting through the Transportation Research Board (TRB), according to procedures established and monitored by the Transportation and the Transit Development Corporation, Inc. (TDC), a nonprofit Research Board Executive Committee and the Governing Board of the educational and research organization established by APTA. TDC is National Research Council. responsible for forming the independent governing board, designated as the TCRP Oversight