TransSee has added a new feature for users and transit agencies to its web app, which includes a series of charts and reports that show the details of transit operations and reliability.
Users select a transit agency that supports tracking history and a route with free premium features and a selection of reports will appear at the bottom of the stop list.
“It is important for transit users to know everything they can about the reliability of transit service,” said Darwin O’Connor, owner and developer of TransSee. “Transit agencies and transit advocates have much to gain from information about bunching, gaps and schedule adherence of transit vehicles, allowing them to be informed about the quality of service without relying on anecdotes.”
Transit agencies with tracking history have a limited number of routes where these reports are available at no charge. To gain access to all the data requires TransSee Premium which costs $1.00 for one week to $20.00 for six months per user.
Supported reports and chart
The operation chart shows the movement of all vehicles on a route over one day. With this view, delays, bunching and gaps can easily be seen. There is an option to include the scheduled position, so schedule adherence can also be viewed.
The performance chart shows route headway and schedule adherence information for one branch at a time. Information includes a calculation of the average waiting time the riders experience vs the waiting time expected according to the schedule. This takes into account the effect of bunching on rider experience.
Also, the chart has the average schedule adherence and the scheduled and actual speed between stops. This shows the places where routes fall behind or get ahead of schedule.
The link times report shows a list of travel times and scheduled travel times between any two stops for the specified date and time range. The link times chart shows a scatter plot of travel times as well was the scheduled travel time.
The stop history report has the gap, schedule headway and schedule adherence for a selected stop on a route. The stop history chart has a scatter graph of actual gaps between vehicles for up to five selected days with a scheduled headway line.
In the advanced search, users can select multiple routes, a date range as well as a time range, days of the week, full and reduced service days which take weekends and holidays into account, branches as well as ranges of fleet numbers.
The first and last stop report lists the start and end times for each trip. The headways and waiting times report includes averages of schedule headways and actual gaps between vehicles as well as average waiting times experienced by riders which take into account bunching. The speed and schedule adherence report has the total distance travelled, revenue hours and actual and scheduled average speeds. These two reports support grouping by a variety of options, with any combination supported.
The data is gathered by TransSee through the continuous tracking of all transit vehicles through publicly available APIs. TransSee then measures the gap between the buses at each stop and the scheduled time between buses. This gives TransSee the ability to generate these charts and reports containing the key measures of service reliability.
TransSee also has other features for riders, including using this data to provide predictions based on actual past travel times, and showing real time maps of vehicle positions.
“We purposely designed and developed TransSee as a web app,” said O’Connor, “This ensures that anyone and everyone can use it quickly and seamlessly, whether they’re on a mobile, tablet or desktop computer without the need to download yet another app on their device.”
If TransSee doesn’t support a transit agency, support can be added through a standard API, like GTFS real-time, or a custom implementation. TransSee says it is prepared to generate customized reports and queries. TransSee says in exchange for the endorsement as the official app for a transit agency, it will share usage data and advertising revenue.
