Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Communicating with Travelers Unit 8: Improving Transit Quality

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Outline Ways of communicating with travelers Impact of real-time information Service alerts New transit info tools

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood DISCUSSION QUESTIONS As a transit user, what information is important for you to know? How should this information be shared?

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood TCQSM – Basic Information Passengers need to know – How to use transit service? – Where to go to access it? – How to pay fare and how much? – Where to get off near their destination? – Any transfers required? – When services are scheduled to depart and arrive? Service Alerts

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood TCQSM – Means of Info Printed - timetables, maps, service change notices Posted - system maps or notices Audible announcements - stops, train directions, fare zone Visual displays - on-board or in stations Transit agency staff - station agents or tourist info staff Telephone information - info lines, automated menus, SMS Online information Smartphone apps - trip planning, fare info, real-time Transit infrastructure - shelters, signage

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood History of Schedules Schedule Paper SchedulesDigitizationInteractivity 10 9:36

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Moving toward real-time Schedule information is no longer enough Customers need to know when the vehicle is coming to trust the service More passengers have mobile devices to access information

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Smartphone Ownership

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Smartphone Non-Smartphone No Cell Phone n = 51 n = 339 n = 161 n = 148 n = 144 n = 185 n = 249 n = 303 n = 58 Cell Phone Type based on Age

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Cell Phone Ownership

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Filling in the gaps in mobile access

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood How does real time information change user perceptions and behavior? IMPACTS OF REAL-TIME

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Real-time Information

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Real-time Information

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Seattle - Change in Satisfaction “I no longer sit with pitted stomach wondering where is the bus. It's less stressful simply knowing it's nine minutes away, or whatever the case.”

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Seattle - Perception of Safety Perception of Safety – 79% no change – 18% somewhat safer – 3% much safer Safety correlated with gender – χ 2 = – p-value=0.001

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Seattle - Perceived and Actual Wait Time Without real time, perceived wait > actual wait With real time, perceived wait = actual wait Value of real time >> more frequent service GroupReal TimeScheduleDifferenceT-stat (p-value) Mean Typical Wait (0.00) Aggravation Level (0.81) Actual Wait Time (0.03)

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood 18 Method Used panel regression to assess ridership impact in city with gradual roll out of RTI on a route by route or borough by borough basis Conclusions Real-time Information lead to ~2 % increase in ridership In NYC, average increase of ~115 rides per route per weekday (median of 1.6%) Increase in NYC mostly on largest quartile of routes (median of 2.3%) Limitations Too Short Timescale – could take years to see true impacts Aggregate Analysis Chicago and New York City

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood 19 Tampa Method Used before-after control group design to test if individual riders were taking more trips after getting real-time information Web-based survey, participants were asked about experience using real-time information Significant improvements in the waiting experience Decreases in self-reported usual wait times Increases in satisfaction with wait times and reliability Little evidence supporting a change in transit trips Only surveyed existing riders

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood SERVICE ALERTS Telling riders if something goes wrong with service

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Service Alerts

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Service Alerts Today Websites s Text- message Facebook Twitter

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Service Alerts Today

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Ideal Service Alerts Ideally Inform riders about alerts – Real-time – Individually Barriers – Data in standard format – Easy input without human chain of information

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Service Alerts in apps

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood What should the next transit info tools be? NEW TRANSIT INFO TOOLS

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Google Transit

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood GTFS General Transit Feed Specification routes.txt stops.txt trips.txt stop_times.txt calendar.txt agency.txt shapes.txt

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood HopStop

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood OpenTripPlanner

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Mapnificent

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Walk Score: Apartment Search

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood How does Open Data help? Agency responds to special requests by developers Small subset of riders find this specific tool useful. Transit Agency App Developers Riders DATA Anyone can access data Many riders access a diverse market of tools powered by GTFS. Agency produces data and opens it once.

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Open Data Trends (2013)

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Major points from the TCRP Synthesis reading What else did you learn from the TCRP Synthesis on real-time transit information?

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Major points from the TCRP Synthesis reading Critical consideration is agency’s ability to develop, manage, and maintain mobile applications in-house or manage third-party application development and services. Strong relationship between open-data approach and resources to create useful and accurate real-time mobile applications. Real-time transit information on mobile devices more prevalent than use of other traditional media (signs, interactive voice response) Not all existing and potential customers will have mobile devices, and not all applications will satisfy the needs of all customers. Personalization of information is critical to the success of providing information on mobile devices.

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Conclusion Real-time information increases the perceived safety and decreases perceived wait time. Service alerts allow agencies to communicate issues and delays to passengers. With the opening of transit data, a plethora of applications have sprung.

Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Reference The materials in this lecture were taken from: TCRP Report 165, “Transit Capacity and Quality of Service Manual, 3 rd edition”, Ferris, B., Watkins, K., and Borning, A. (2010) “OneBusAway: Results from Providing Real-Time Arrival Information for Public Transit.” Proceedings of CHI. Various papers from K. Watkins research group at Georgia Tech Wong, James, et al. "Open Transit Data: State of the practice and experiences from participating agencies in the United States." Transportation Research Board 92nd Annual Meeting. No TCRP Synthesis 91, Use and Deployment of Mobile Device Technology for Real-time Transit Information,