The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) recently announced a change in transit regulations that will seem unique to some in the industry: some requirements are actually being removed.
FTA officials recently published changes for reporting to the National Transit Database to the Federal Register. Among these changes was a much smaller comparison time needed for certification of Automatic Passenger Counters (APC) in transit vehicles, because of the increased accuracy of those counters.
“Our staff constantly looks for ways to make sure that data we get from the transit industry is accurate,” said Carolyn Flowers, Acting FTA Administrator. “However, we also understand that technology and the industry are progressively improving efficiency. We want to recognize those improvements and make sure regulations that are no longer up-to-date are adjusted.”
The FTA’s previous policy required transit agencies to conduct a year-long, side-by-side collection of APC data, alongside manual counting by operators. The purpose of this side-by-side collection was to ensure that the APC equipment worked properly under a variety of real-world conditions, and also to ensure that the transit agency had an established process for handling occasion equipment malfunctions or data anomalies.
This was a very time consuming and expensive process for agencies to conduct.
Now, thanks to the maturity of modern APC equipment, the FTA recognized that this level of comparison was not needed to make sure the APC results would meet data quality standards demanded by the National Transit Database.
So, with the publication of the new standards in the Federal Register, the new certification process will only require comparison between automatic and manual counts for between 15 and 50 trips, substantially reducing the burden on transit agencies.
The changes were published October 11.
Paul Kincaid
Associate Administrator
Communications and Congressional Affairs
