Connectivity
Posted by Fred Jandt
Editor, Mass Transit
How connected are you? I don’t mean the Tony Soprano kind of connected, or even the head of a major corporation kind of connected. I mean technologically connected. How in touch are you with what’s going on in technology? And by relation, how connected is your transit system?
Most transit systems have some sort of trip-planning set-up on its Web site. Many even have automated alerts sent via text message or e-mail to riders who sign up for the service. But is this the level of your system’s connectivity?
In California a group of tech-savvy riders have banded together to come up with new ways to track their local system. They have even staged a two-day “camp” to pool their creative resources and come up with better solutions. This isn’t the first time this sort of thing has happened, though, having already taken place several times in Canada.
California seems to be the nexus for this type of activity in the United States. Of the 20 or so agencies listed on Google Transit, nearly half are from California. Not surprising, but with only 12 states listed on Google Transit, the question is why more agencies don’t use the resource.
Take Vancouver’s TransLink for example. They have launched a massive Internet undertaking called iMove (www.i-move.ca) that incorporates the various modes of transit with alerts on construction and traffic delays. This invaluable resource has uses by more than just transit riders and I think could well be the first of a series of similar Web sites.
This whole edition of the MT Position sprung from a couple of things. The first was spending the long weekend trying to see if it was feasible to drop our home landline and just go with cell phones and cell-based Internet service. It also came from the recent announcement that Verizon and AT&T just launched unlimited service plans (the first of many I am sure) for a flat fee. Sprint has had a similar service, including unlimited phone, text and Web usage, but only in select locations so far.
So the question arose, how connected are you and your transit agency? Because if you aren’t you had better catch up because your riders already are.
For the latest industry news, check out MassTransitMag.com’s Daily News section.
Thanks for reading the MT Position updated every Friday,
February 22nd, 2008 at 9:31 am
ITS is great! The problem that most often occurs is when softare is selected by IT people (god forbid), a commitee consisting of non-departmental or administration who don’t understand the concept of transit, paratransit or capability of the people who use it.
We were forced to change from a simple scheduling/dispatching software that never never gave us a problem to an overpriced,convoluted,archaic in it’s functionality system that is not the worst system I’ve ever seen but the very worst I have used in over 18 years of software. Our system has spent over 1/4 million dollars on a software our department literally hates and despises using everyday because it is not user friendly, the manufactuer will not listen. They think operations are suppose to conform to software not software conform to the needed operations. And of course if a problem occurs this company is famious for blaming the end-user however a few months later they almost always send out a “patch” to fix the problem. It takes a reservationist approximately 60% longer to take a reservation and I would estimate our customer service attitude has diminished at least 40% because it is just too burdensome to look for that little trip opening that use to take 30 seconds and now takes 5 - 10 minutes. Moral is at an all time low and after almost 4 years it is growing worse. I even had an FTA staff member say “I don’t know why systems are still using that “thing”! Of couse the ITS geeks love what is going on inside the computer but I have never talked to another end-user who likes it. There is always some type of problem with it because it is too complex and it does not need to be. Lesson to be learned. You would not let a mechanic pick out accounting software - don’t let anyone else (especially ITS) pick out paratransit scheduling/dispatching software. Any ITS system is best when it performs the function needed not 80% of what is not needed.
Nate
February 22nd, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Seattle’s Metro Transit has http://mybus.org which was developed a number of years ago, and tracks the real-time position of your bus and estimated arrival time. It has great data, but the presentation is very web 1.0, somewhat difficult to navigate on handheld devices, etc. It seems to have been dormant for several years, and its a shame that it hasn’t evolved since then.