The Role of ITS in Communicating with Transit Riders

Carol Schweiger, Assistant Vice President

ITS America 2007 Annual MeetingJune 5, 2007

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Presentation Outline

Introduction Literature Review Characteristics of Communicating with Riders Communication Costs Effectiveness of Rider Communication Techniques Project Results, Conclusions and Recommendations

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Introduction - Rider Communication

Affects access to public transport services Affects customer perception Can build ridership Can maintain ridership Contributes to “high quality” service. Examples:

Real-time arrival/departure informationOn-board information and amenities (e.g., wireless Internet)Automated fare payment

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Introduction – Communication Dimensions

Who and where riders are located Content, format and accessibility of communication Communication timing and frequency Communication dissemination media and access Capital and operations and maintenance costs associated with

communication

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Literature Review

Customer needs for communication and access to information well understood

Confirms challenge to measure the effectiveness of communication – no one overall measure of effectiveness

Difference between U.S., and European and Asian experience in using electronic media to disseminate communication

Public transit embraced more in Europe and Asia than in U.S.Technology use more prevalent in Europe and Asia than in U.S.

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Characteristics of Communicating with Riders

33 responding agencies Most prevalent communication types:

Operational informationRoute and schedule informationProposed service changesPublic meeting informationSecuritySafetyGeneral informationTransit in the community

Wide variation in content and frequency of communication

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Content and Frequency of Communication

Operational information:Real-time - next vehicle arrival/departure timePeriodic/one-time basis - regarding detours and delaysOne-time basis - trip and/or connection time

General information most prevalent of all communications Safety and security information on periodic basis - reminders about

suspicious activities and packages Dissemination of safety/security information not being done by as

many agencies as those disseminating general or real-time information

Trend toward providing certain operational information in real-time, while continuing to provide general information on periodic basis

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Use of Technology

Internet (website) (22%) Kiosk (5%) E-mail or page (5%) Electronic sign at transit stop/station (3%) On-board electronic sign (1%) Mobile telephone (1%) Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)-enabled device (1%) Wireless device (e.g., PDA, iPod) (1%)

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Dissemination Media

From Federal Transit Administration’s “Customer Preferences for Transit ATIS”

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Methods Used to Determine Content

Operational and general information:Complaint information (30 and 26 agencies, respectively)Consulting with riders (25 and 20 agencies, respectively)No external input (21 and 17 agencies, respectively)Based on another agency’s communication (13 and 16 agencies, respectively)

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Communications Costs

Few agencies understand and can report costs Costs reported for:

WebsitesTrip itinerary planning systemsInteractive voice response (IVR) systems

Wide variations in costs. Examples:Capital costs for website range from $4,200 to $550,000Capital costs of trip itinerary planning systems range from $25,000 to $600,000Capital costs of IVR systems range from $85,000 to $16,000,000

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Communications Effectiveness

Conduct surveys to determine if reached market Consult with advisory committee to determine accessibility Use of surveys and rider feedback to determine understandability Rider feedback through focus groups, citizen advocacy groups and

surveys to determine timeliness Employee monitoring and feedback to determine timeliness Determining whether expected changes due to the

communication actually occurred:Ridership statisticsVolume of calls to customer informationNumber of complaintsHits on the website

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Project Results

Limited identification of most effective way to communicate with riders. Need to

Differentiate among types of communications and ridersIdentify point at which communication occurs in travel chain

Source: Ministry of Transport and Communications, Finland

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Project Results (continued)

Consistency most important:Consistency among sources of information within an agencyConsistency of information provided to the customer

Simplifying information makes it more effective.* Examples:Bus stop timetablesAccessing information on vehicles arriving/departing at a particular stop

*Balance between simplifying information and customizing it difficult to achieve

Major challenges:Reaching specific audience and in affordable/effective wayNeed for multiple media and multiple languagesTimeliness of information

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Key Conclusions

Need to account for variety of factors:Stage of the travel chainDemographic characteristics of recipientsOwnership of and ability to use technology

Establish process for testing, and monitoring accuracy and timeliness

Select appropriate dissemination media based on content of communication and rider demographics

Develop “information strategy” Ensure internal processes/resources in-place for delivering

consistent quality of information Maintaining or increasing ridership should not be only metric that

determines effectiveness

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For Future Study

Determining specific measures of effectiveness by type of communication

“Model” could be used by agencies to determine most effective dissemination media

Much more information required about capital, and operations and maintenance costs

More information regarding communicating safety and security should be provided to agencies

More in-depth information regarding a communication project from concept-to-deployment should be made available to agencies