Transit agencies are looking for all different ways to improve safety and enhance rider experiences so buses and trains can run efficiently and safely.
Transit technology has improved drastically in the past decade to enhance systems. Now technology being developed outside of the transit realm is offering agencies an opportunity to improve services and take their operations to levels never imagined before.
“Innovation is happening,” said Jonathan Brooks associate transportation researcher for the Texas Transportation Institute. “It affects us in transit.”
Brooks and other TTI leaders discussed the future of transportation Oct. 11 at the American Public Transportation Association Expo, so transit leaders can see some of the opportunities available to them.
Brooks said the advent of new technology is allowing for transit agencies to find new ways to reach out to riders and planners in order to find new ways to better serve riders and businesses.
Technology has always shaped transportation. In 1898, Brooks said the first worldwide meeting for urban planners saw major issues for cities using horse drawn trolleys because of all the dung they produced, but technology — mainly the development of the internal combustion engine — reshaped how people moved and cleaned up cities.
Technology is still doing this, but current development trends are evolving faster than before, with Brooks saying a computer is projected to have a computation power greater than the human mind by 2023.
“Smart phones didn’t even exist seven or eight years ago,” he said. “And look at where we are now.”
Keeping Riders safer
Technology allows for new types of data creation in transportation, so it can influence how agencies protect their riders.
Robert Wunderlich, director of the Center for Transportation Safety at TTI, said data can aid in reducing accidents in transit agencies by finding new ways to look at the root cause of incidents. He said TTI worked with Dallas Area Rapid Transit on finding the cause of its average of 880 bus accidents per year to see why such issues occurred.
“You spend a lot of time everyday on crashes,” he said. “It’s a disruption of service. At best, it’s a disruption of service. At worse, someone has gotten hurt or killed.”
During the DART project, Wunderlich said TTI combed through accident records and found sideswipe accidents happened in 30 percent of all incidents; 15 percent involved a rear ending and 2 percent involved pedestrians, however, those are most concerning at the pedestrian always loses in such a crash.
When drilling down data, Wunderlich said in a sample of crashes looked at, only 20 percent of sideswipes matched police reports due to a lack of standardization in reporting.
In sideswipes alone, data showed buses were moving 55 percent of the time, stopped 21 percent of the time and eight percent of the time were making a left turn, most commonly in an intersection with a dual left turn.
In pedestrian crashes the vast majority happened while someone was in an intersection. About 63 percent happened when the bus was heading straight and 20 percent happened on left turned, of which Wunderlich said two-thirds happened in the far side of the intersection.
“Honestly, this is something that should never happen,” Wunderlich said.
Data showed DART can try to prevent accidents with the use of high visibility outlines on the back of buses, eliminating the rear bus wraps, adding electronic signs and alerting drivers of stopped buses. A smattering of pedestrian involved accidents happened when riders were getting bicycles off the racks in front of the bus and operators wouldn’t see them removing lower straps. Wunderlich said this issue showed the opportunity to pilot a program where those putting bikes on the front of buses get cards they hand to drivers when they get off to remind them of the bikes.
Improving service
Data collection is also allowing for transit agencies to plan and meet the needs of riders in areas where many unique issues face riders.
Data collection allows for better mobility management programs. Meredith Highsmith, assistant research scientist, TTI said studies in the San Francisco Bay Area showed incorporation of all players is key in mobility management. In Marin County, Calif., a similar study showed proactive planning is key to strong mobility management along with a dedicated funding source for mobility management.
“The unique thing about Marin County is they now they have a single line to call into and you answer a few questions and align the best transportation solution for that individual,” she said.
Technology is also allowing transit agencies to test the feasibility of alternative fuel buses without having to buy them. Lauren Cochran, assistant research scientist, transit mobility program for TTI said the agency created a tool allowing agencies to look at total cost of ownership of different fleet types with different variables to understand how much each fuel type would cost a fleet during the lifetime of the vehicle.
Brooks said the use of new technology also offers new ways to plan for ridership and find new options for customers.
A new survey undertaken by TTI with the Houston-Galveston Council of Governments is working on a survey with commuters to question them about their preferences between major highway corridors, which get congested and what commuters prefer.
The survey allows for researchers to reach riders from desktop computers and customized surveys for mobile devices and tablets. It also allows for reaching out to riders using the printout surveys in both Spanish and English, which were then distributed to employers across the area to get a survey of all riders.
Brooks said another option being used in Arlington, Va., even customizes questions to respondents to see their preferred modes of transportation given their actual daily commute and how it would look if different modes of transportation are used.
“It’s a lot easier to break down silos between agencies,” he said. “Interoperability is increasing.”
Joe Petrie | Associate Editor
I came to Mass Transit in 2013 after spending seven years on the daily newsbeat in southeastern Wisconsin.
Based in Milwaukee, I worked as a daily newspaper reporter with the Waukesha Freeman from 2006-2011, where I covered education, county and state government. I went on to cover courts for Patch.com, where I was the main courts reporter in the Metro Milwaukee cluster of websites.
I’ve won multiple awards during the course of my career and have covered some of the biggest political events in the past decade and have appeared on national programs.
Having covered local government and social issues, I discovered the importance of transit and the impact it can have on communities when implemented, supported and funded.
