Modular Transit Technology CalACT April 2017 From Humpty-Dumpty to Integrated Transit Stack Cliff Chambers, Mobility Planners LLC www.mobilityplanners.com

From High Value to Complete Frustration 😀 From High Value to Complete Frustration Technical skills? Customization? Affordability? Modular capability? Proprietary or open source software? Reliability? Customer Satisfaction?

Champaign-Urbana Transit District Small urbanized area, home of U of Illinois Early adopter of transit stack: 2006 Real time information from my hotel room, at bus stop or from my Palm “Treo 700” Great Automated Passenger Counter (APC) data for long-range transit study

2007 AM Peak Boarding Heat Diagram Automatically generated APC data Led to successful Tiger grant for rapid bus corridor

….10 years later at rural transit agency X Integrated Transit Stack CUMTD Was here

…..and 10 years later You cannot make up these stories: Data by stop for routes sent by vendor in alphabetic order?#!! “Chrystal report” format completely inflexible Texas boarding data not geo-coded, useless Passenger real-time data non-functional APC and real-time data history requests to popular vendor for: Schedule adjustments to a mainline transit route: Ca. rural transit agency Route restructure analysis for Texas small urbanized area

From Old School to New school Manual ridecheck of sample of stops for schedule adherence Periodic manual collection of boarding and alightings as part of Transit Development Plan Manual compilation of cash fares, day passes, and monthly passes Passenger calls Interactive trip planners provide multimodal options APC data provides regular reports on schedule adherence and changes in boardings at key stops Real time passenger transit information Customizable monthly report and easy data inquiries to answer Board requests Information equivalent for paratransit passengers

The Bus, Merced County Old Routes Old School, Manual Heat Map Circuitous and Inconvenient Origins to Merced College

Heat maps of boardings provide guidance to connecting key activity centers Convenient, direct routes, minimizing transfers APC and real time information provider and source: Synchromatics

Building a Transit Stack from Scratch

Transit Management System Guidance Challenge: How to Build Transit Stack from Scratch….Part of Simi Valley SRTP Process Important Components: What is available and will be incorporated: Hire the right technical guidance Open source data building on GTFS Real-Time Multimodal app with real-time choices, powered by available vendor Reconfigured website with trip planner real-time data access Streamlined information at key bus stops Implementation funding needed: DONE, grant funded

Transit Stack Development-Page 2 What is being developed and could add value: GTFS-Ride: A draft data format to share ridership, boarding and alighting data in standard format at stop and route level:  https://github.com/ODOT-PTS/GTFS-ride/blob/master/spec/en/README.md GTFS-flex: A data format to describe demand-responsive transportation (for trip discovery). Trillium is workings to implement in trip planner: https://trilliumtransit.com/2016/10/21/announcing-the-flexible-transit-trip-planner/ Development of Transactional Data Specifications for Demand-Responsive Transportation (TCRP G-16) : http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=4120

Transit Stack Development –Page 3 What needs future development: Seamless integration of real time, APC, and farebox data into customizable reports How to integrate planning and performance information from VCTC Intercity Bus and CONNECT How to integrate human service transportation into suite of trip options Integration of BOTH Lyft and Uber availability in real-time as trip choices Improved modular flexibility for multi-vendor transit stacks