Hamilton Street Railway (HSR) transports over 21 million passengers throughout the city of Hamilton, Ontario each year and their 217 vehicles serve over 3,000 bus stops. Recently, HSR implemented ITS technology to streamline operations and comply with an Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) mandate requiring transit agencies to announce every bus stop on every route. Mentor Engineering is proud to have their technology chosen to help keep public transit accessible to all transit riders. Carol Wildeman, Senior Project Management for HSR talked to us about their technology implementation experience.
1. It seems that as a transit agency you really value technology and invest in it. Why is having a good, responsive transportation system so important to your city?
In days gone by, we have been at the forefront of technology, and we were one of the first transit agencies in Canada to have an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system. Our previous systems were getting a little elderly so we were at the point where we had to reinvest in our existing system. We found over the years we could reduce a lot of our costs with technology. By adding ITS technology we now have a much bigger focus on the kind of information we can provide to our customers.
2. What features of the ITS system are your dispatchers most excited about?
One of the things they want to do is send our operational notices via text message. Currently, they write them out and post them on the board in the garage, but the problem is that not all of our drivers come into the garage so they never see them. This way, we’ll be able to send our notices out in real-time using text messaging so everyone will be able to read them.
3. What has been the impact of adding a voice annunciator to your transit system?
Certainly, the public likes it. With this technology in place we were able to go to the Ontario Human Rights Commission and say that we have a system, and this is how it works to announce every bus stop. We were able to give a report of how often each driver was on task. We were able to demonstrate to the OHRC that our system is up and it’s working.
4. How much resistance to the system was there from the drivers?
When the system went in the drivers by and large were all for it. They felt that this was being put in to help them, and without it they would be required to announce all the stops themselves. The fact that we made the investment to put in a system that would automatically announce all the bus stops, our drivers really saw this as a benefit to them.
5. What does the future hold for your organization?
I would say that our customers are looking for more information that is easier to access. We’ve been looking at adding wayside signs for our terminals. Customers are going to want real-time information from our IVR system and our website in an easy-to-handle format.
Though it’s still in the beta phase, Portland’s TriMet Open Trip Planner represents a large step forward for transit passengers who want to use the internet to plan a trip across the city. The planner lets travelers select a starting or ending date and time and then enter the parameters of their trip, which can include:
Quickest Trip / Safest Trip / Fewest Transfers
Maximum Walk (incrementally from a tenth of a mile to 30 miles)
Wheelchair accessibility (Yes / No)
Travel by Transit / Bus and Train / Bus Only / Train Only / Walk Only / Bicycle Only / Bicycle and Transit
In addition, the Open Trip Planner also reads information from the U.S. Geological Survey Data Set and can tell travelers the ascent/descent of their planned trip, a feature that will be particularly handy for cyclists.
But perhaps the best feature of all is that Trimet’s new trip planner is completely open source, meaning that agencies from around the world will be able to use it, and keep improving it, for free. And 3rd party developers will be able to use it for developing any type of smartphone app they can think up.
With cities and counties facing a large transportation funding shortage, California’s Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) has recently introduced a text messaging program designed to save money on its communications with passengers and cut down on call center activity. The service lets passengers text a bus stop and number to the transportation agency’s call center to find out arrival times of the next three buses at that stop. This program will help OCTA cut its call center budget, which costs the agency more than $160,000 a month.
To read more about the OCTA initiative, click here.
Located in Raleigh, North Carolina, Wake Coordinated Transportation Services manages the contractors who provide trips throughout Wake County. The agency has been using a complete Paratransit ITS Solution since June 2009. Ray Woodall, Transportation Broker, discusses the benefits ITS has brought to his operation.
1. Have you seen a change in how dispatchers and drivers communicate?
All of the dispatchers are alive! No, actually, there’s been a very significant improvement in terms of the communication between drivers and dispatchers because with mobile computers, dispatchers can send trips directly to the vehicles. This frees up dispatchers to provide drivers with additional information they may need throughout the day. Plus it’s helped clarify addresses, names, destinations and things like that. When dispatchers repeat details over the radio it doesn’t necessarily get translated in the same way as when it’s written down on a driver manifest. With the system, drivers have the written information right in front of them on their screen. That has helped them to improve their ability to deliver services and increase their on-time performance as well.
2. Has the system affected the complaint resolution process?
It has helped some customer complaints drop, particularly with issues of being on time or late for pickups. We have seen a reduction in the number of monthly complaints that we had been receiving. If there is a complaint that is lodged because of a late pickup or drop off, we can go in and use the data from the mobile computer to tell the passenger “this is when the driver arrived” and “this is how long you were on the vehicle.” A lot of times when a complaint comes in saying, “it took me two hours to get home,” when you give them the data from the Ranger it turns out to be thirty minutes. It’s made it a lot easier to resolve those issues because it’s kind of tough to argue with the hard data. Now that customers know we can do that, it’s helped contribute to a reduction in those types of complaints.
3. Have you seen any changes in the office and bus work environments since you started using the system?
The stress level has gone down considerably. Radio traffic has decreased in terms of providing additions or changes to the schedule but we have been able to use the radio to provide other types of information to drivers, such as daily safety messages and more general information about traffic or construction issues. Dispatchers have been able to use the radios to provide that type of information instead of devoting so much radio time to modifications and schedule changes. It’s been a win-win on both sides, with the mobile computers and the use of the radio.
4. Has the data entry process been affected?
The time we spend on data entry has absolutely lessened. When I used to go into the scheduling application I would have to go back at least 7-10 days to pull up verified data. Now I can go in and the services that were done, for example, on Monday, are available for me to review on Tuesday because they’ve already been verified. We’ve been able to have the verification clerk assume other duties because the automatic data entry has simplified the process for her.
5. Has the system affected your fleet’s on-time performance?
We’ve seen a significant increase. We have an on-time performance requirement in our contracts with our vendors. In order to meet the requirements of the contract, they have to be at a performance level, for example, of 92% for the month. We’ve seen that go up on average 2 to 4 points per month. The only time that we see any issues with that is when they first bring new hires on board. The percentage will drop slightly for a couple of weeks, but it starts climbing right back up again. We’ve had some great success as far as on-time performance goes.
6. Where have you seen the most changes in your operation?
The greatest change that we have seen is the improvements in the ways that the drivers, schedulers, and dispatchers are doing the scheduling. With dispatch being able to do on-the-fly changes it’s certainly helped keep the schedules more in-line with using vehicles as efficiently as possible, which in turn improves on-time performance. There’s also been an improvement in the quality of data we’ve been able to get back from the vehicles with the mobile computers.
This blog post, courtesy of The Transit Pass, argues for the role of public transit in reducing the number of automobile accidents in the United States. The author points out that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) accounted for 37,261 motor vehicle fatalities in 2008. Compared to this figure, public transit options such as train, bus and light rail provide a safer way to travel overall. The article also argues that the cost of human life should be a bigger issue when considering infrastructure costs. Read the entire article for a different perspective on the advantages of public transit.
Fixed-route transit ITS solutions were created to help transit agencies deal with the unexpected, including everything from sick employees to traffic jams. A thorough solution should keep your agency running smoothly and efficiently, no matter the reason.
To that end, we’ve created a demo that shows how the various functionalities of an ITS solution can keep an agency on track in one of the most outrageous situations we could imagine: an attack by a group of giant lizards. They’ve invaded the town of Quietville and are making life rather challenging for the local transit agency and its passengers.
While this is obviously a touch on the fanciful side, if a mob of oversized reptiles bent on chaos can’t disrupt the Quietville transit agency, what can? Check out the demo and see who wins.
Here is an interesting article in support of agencies opening their transit data. It discusses how transit agencies in big urban cities, like New York, San Francisco and Boston, are making their raw data available to the public, ushering in an era of what the geek community is calling transit-data democracy. Now, information ranging from which subway stops have working elevators to service alerts about construction and delays are available to the public, developers and entrepreneurs.
The article draws parallels to George Orwell’s book, “1984,” concerning the broader implication opening transit data might have on society. However, it is argued that unlike “1984”, technological advances have effectively provided a greater democratization and decentralization for individuals.
When transit agencies are reluctant to release their transit data they frequently allude to concerns about the accuracy of data and how it will be used. But riders are often already getting inaccurate data, so by making transit data public, developers and entrepreneurs can use this information for good, giving people the ability to plan and navigate their trips easily and simply.
To read the entire article, click here. To learn more about the open transit data debate, go here to download a free white paper.
If you haven’t heard by now, Federal Transit Authority (FTA) Administrator Peter M. Rogoff recently announced a $775 million competitive grant program for its Bus and Bus Facilities “State of Good Repair” initiative. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has also recently released several “Notices of Funding Availability (NOFA),” outlining new grant opportunities for transit systems. To read more about these funding opportunities, go here.
If applying for grant funding is unchartered territory for you, or if you would like to gain more clarity around the process, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy at DOT is presenting a seminar, “How to Compete for a DOT Discretionary Grant” on May 18 in Washington, DC. For more information, click here. The DOT website will also make a webcast available at http://www.dot.gov/
Managing a fleet of any size requires timely information exchange between drivers and dispatch. Inefficient radio communication can slow customer service and turn dispatch offices and buses into stressful, noisy work environments.
Watch this short demo and learn how a Transit ITS solution makes driver/dispatcher communication a breeze with two-way text messaging, Automatic Vehicle Location, and safe cell phone capabilities. Click here to watch the demo.
With the proliferation of transit mapping and mobile applications available, giving your passengers the best trip-planning tools possible can seem like a difficult task. Scott Davis, the founder of ThirstyHead.com, has put together a great overview of the many websites, applications and APIs that can help your customers use transit more effectively. He also provide links to many informative websites and the General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS), where agencies can easily start the process of opening their transit data to the public. Providing your passengers with these resources will make them more confident when using transit, resulting in increased ridership and improved customer satisfaction. Click here to read the entire article.
A blog for those of us who live and work in fleet management. Topics include engine diagnostics, driver safety, mobile workforce management, CAD/AVL, vehicle maintenance, truck distribution, global computing, work order management, and field services.
Free White Paper: Decreasing Driver Distraction
With driver distraction being a leading cause of vehicle accidents, selecting an in-vehicle computer for your fleet that lets you control when drivers/device interaction is crucial to your fleet’s safety, as well as your bottom line.
Hamilton Street Railway (HSR) transports over 21 million passengers throughout the city of Hamilton, Ontario each year and their 217 vehicles serve over 3,000 bus stops. Recently, HSR implemented ITS technology to streamline operations and comply with an Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) mandate requiring transit agencies to announce every bus stop on every route. Mentor Engineering is proud to have their technology chosen to help keep public transit accessible to all transit riders. Carol Wildeman, Senior Project Management for HSR talked to us about their technology implementation experience.
