Leveraging GIS to Implement an Automated Bus Announcement Program GIS in Transit Conference Metro Transit, Minneapolis/St. Paul

Metro Transit Facts Regional Population 3.7 Million 250,000 Weekday Daily Boardings 123 Bus Routes, 2 light rail lines, 1 commuter rail line Employ 2,800 staff (1,450 Operators) 81 million rides per year

Metro Transit Facts Opening first Arterial BRT Line June 2016; 10 more corridors planned

Where can GIS have a role in a major project? 1. Project Development A.Communication B.Ad hoc Analysis 2. Daily Enterprise Operations 4 Develop Reports, Applications, etc. to make Informed Decisions Data Development and Management Enterprise Databases ( ArcSDE, Data Warehouses )

Why Automated Announcements? 5 People Struggle to Navigate Inconsistent Operator Announcements Help Individuals with Disabilities Difficult to See at Night

Why Automated Announcements? Customers Surveyed –76% Very Helpful –18% Somewhat Helpful –6% Not Helpful 132 Bus Operators Surveyed –58% Very Helpful –33% Somewhat Helpful –9% Not Helpful

Why Automated Announcements? Required by ADA Regulations Sec –The entity shall announce at least at transfer points with other fixed routes, other major intersections and destination points, and intervals along a route sufficient to permit individuals with visual impairments or other disabilities to be oriented to their location. “Internal” announcements made on interior of bus –When buses share the same route or stop, the agency is required to provide a means by which an individual with a visual impairment or other disability can identify his/her proper bus “External” announcements made on exterior of bus 7

Internal Announcements Made on bus when bus enters designated bus stop zones – GPS Activated Route 2 Eastbound Example 8

Internal Announcement Content Development 9 Original plan to announce all stops Identified Need to Develop ‘Phrasemaker’ Database –12,000+ bus stops –Need to integrate transfer, major intersections, interval and Transfer Points Unforeseeable issue with file interface to buses allowed time to examine tradeoffs of announcing all stops vs. what’s required by ADA

Internal Announcement Content Development 10 MS Visio is a great, easy to use tool for communicating data and work flows in a project

Internal Announcement Content Development Trade Offs Announcing All Stops vs. ADA Requirements –All Stops Easy to communicate Helps avoid unnecessary stopping More labor to maintain Could be annoying to customers and Operators –ADA Requirements Operators can make announcements when hardware doesn’t work or exist Complies with ADA Requirements Mitigates WAV file challenges **Leveraged GIS to Analyze and Compare Scenarios 11

Internal Announcement Content Development Transfer points, destination points, major intersections, and intervals 12 ADA Requirement Scenario Customer Information Software (ATIS Trapeze Inc.) Plotted Transfer Database 86,400 records Determined 77,000 were transfers in downtowns Determined had to refine enterprise GIS data management in ATIS Made ATIS software enhancements to identify transfers to be announced Example of enterprise GIS

Internal Announcement Content Development Transfer points, destination points, major intersections, and intervals 13 ADA Requirement Scenario Customer Information Software (ATIS Trapeze Inc.) Customer Information Dept. identified about 200 transit destination points (landmarks) to announce Example of enterprise GIS

Internal Announcement Content Development Transfer points, destination points, major intersections, and intervals 14 ADA Requirement Scenario Can be locally defined Traffic signals, stop signs, roundabouts, arterial road intersections, etc. Intersections are ever-changing

Internal Announcement Content Development Transfer points, destination points, major intersections, and intervals 15 ADA Requirement Scenario Explored Arterial Road Classifications Mapped intersection points

Internal Announcement Content Development Transfer points, destination points, major intersections, and intervals 16 ADA Requirement Scenario Explored traffic signal, stop sign, roundabout information MetroGIS and other regional GIS entities do not have the data Determined ‘traffic signals’ was our definition of major intersections

Internal Announcement Content Development Transfer points, destination points, major intersections, and intervals 17 ADA Requirement Scenario Traffic Signals Contacted cities, counties, DOT for traffic signal GIS data DOT, Minneapolis, Saint Paul, 2 of 3 counties all had GIS data City availability inconsistent

Internal Announcement Content Development Transfer points, destination points, major intersections, and intervals 18 ADA Requirement Scenario Traffic Signals Buffered signals by 250’ to capture bus stops at signalized intersections Developed Model Builder solution to merge and maintain data

Internal Announcement Content Development Transfer points, destination points, major intersections, and intervals 19 ADA Requirement Scenario Intervals are announcements intended to “fill in the gaps” of long distance stop segments or long gaps in announcement spacing FTA determined announcements every two minutes sufficient, announcements more than 5 minutes apart insufficient With the exception of express routes, we have few long distances between stops and announcements Identified Interval Bus Stops in GIS

Internal Announcement Content Development 20 Comparing All Stops versus ADA Requirement Scenario

Internal Announcement GPS Zones Have the ability to adjust zone distance for each stop Default setting 800 feet (long city block 660’ feet, short city block 330’ feet) Used Street Centerline GIS Data to Help Identify High Speed Approaches (2,000 foot buffer) Regional Street Centerline Initiative 21

External Announcements Made every time Operator opens the front door Announce information matching overhead sign –[Route] –[Branch] –[Direction] –[Destination(s)] 1,200 external phrases maintained to support route system External volumes reduced 8:00 PM – 7:00 AM “Route 5. M. Southbound. To Mall of America via Chicago Avenue.” 22

External Announcements FTA Requirement –When buses share the same route or stop, the agency is required to provide a means by which an individual with a visual impairment or other disability can identify his/her proper bus 23

Interactive Announcement Map Includes mapping of phrases, buffers, landmarks, route alignments

Interactive Announcement Map Internal interactive map getting developed Needed to publish GIS layers in ArcSDE and data in enterprise locations Announcement Zones ATIS Landmarks Bus Stop Locations WAV files Announcement Phrases Includes mapping of phrases, buffers, landmarks, route alignments GIS Data Sharing Portals - and

Where can GIS have a role in a major project? 1. Project Development A.Communication B.Ad hoc Analysis 2. Daily Enterprise Operations 26 Develop Reports, Applications, etc. to make Informed Decisions Data Development and Management Enterprise Databases Bus Stop Mapping ATIS Transfers ATIS Landmarks Zone Management Traffic Signal Model Builder High Speed Approaches Announcement Zones Phrases Stop Locations WAV Files Transfer Analysis Major Intersection Analysis Comparing Scenarios Roads with Multiple Routes GIS Interactive Map

Announcement Project Lessons Learned Develop Solid Concept of Operations Plan Early On Perform Peer Agency Outreach Communicate Announcement Guidelines Early to Project Stakeholders Audio Files are Large Phrasemaker Application Valuable FTA Provides more Guidance than General Requirements Volumes Settings Vary by Bus Manufacturer **GIS Valuable Tool to Implementing Project 27

Significant Contributions 28 Bus Stop Coordinator DBA Application Developer Diversity GIS Application Developer Customer Information Bus Maintenance Bus Hardware and Software Specialists

Looking Ahead 29 On Board Real Time Display

30 Jason Podany Business Systems Analyst, Transit Technology Systems Leveraging GIS to Implement an Automated Bus Announcement Program Questions?