BEST PRACTICES
T IS ALL ABOUT THE DATA! THAT’S
what we hear again and again. But, is it
just about the data? At INIT, we believe
it goes even further than that. Data helps us
to understand conditions and fi nd solutions
so that we can make the right decisions.
INIT’s statistics solution allows you to
collect, analyze and profi t from your data.
Managing this process must fi rst start
with diff erentiating between the data and
its properties. In order for the data to be
useful, specifi c information such as mileage
driven, arrival and departure times,
passenger or ticketing counts, and fuel
consumption should relate to your route,
trip, vehicle, driver, GPS coordinates, and
stop or timing points. Once collection
and analyzation is accomplished, managing
all that information becomes much
easier and can then be used to meet your
short and long-term goals.
Determining the priority of your data
depends on your goals and objectives, or
more importantly, your vision. Th e International
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26 | Mass Transit | MassTransitmag.com | JULY/AUGUST 2017
Association of Public Transport
(UITP) outlines its vision statement
by saying, “We are working to enhance
quality of life and economic well-being
by supporting and promoting sustainable
transport in urban areas worldwide.” Th e
emphasis on “quality of life” keeps the
focus on what’s important.
Decisions based on data allow you to
reach particular goals like on-time punctuality,
better headway or service completeness,
improved revenue mile costs,
or increasing passenger miles. A longer
term goal, for example, increasing public
transport use by 30 percent in the next 3
years, is then easier to achieve. It stands
to reason that smoother operations allow
you to off er better service, which increases
quality of life for your passengers.
Prioritizing also leads to quality decisions
for service enhancements, such as
off ering free Wi-Fi on public transportation,
or providing real-time information
tools to keep passengers informed about
schedule changes.
Once the priority and goals of the data
are defi ned, you are now able to profi t. For
instance, driving times can be infl uenced
when the unplanned stops between stations
is considered. Th is leads to simple
solutions, such as scheduling longer driving
time, or more innovative solutions
like the introduction of TSP (traffi c signal
priority) — or even implementing a
separate bus line.
Moreover, you can explain long dwelling
times at stops when you analyze the
passenger exchange at single doors and
recognize that most passengers enter
the bus through the fi rst door. A simple
solution for this would be to schedule a
buff er in the driving time, or at the stops.
An even better option would be to implement
an electronic ticketing system
which would save time at stops and allow
your drivers to stay focused on their major
task of driving.
INIT’s data analytics tool, MOBILEstatistics,
automatically loads, analyzes, and
evaluates your data to give you the tools
you need to make intelligent decisions. Th e
data are presented in easy to understand
dashboards, maps, tables and graphs.
In addition to helping transit agencies
manage, prioritize, and utilize their data,
INIT specialists off er continual support
through training on how to work with data
to improve operations. Annually, INIT
brings customers together for workshops
and user group meetings to provide insight
and off er more profi tability through
education and collaboration. In addition,
INIT developers release new soft ware versions
every three weeks with more improvements
and new evaluation features.
So, it’s about what you can do with
the data to support sustainable transportation
off erings to impact the future
of mobility.
I
Chesapeake, Va.
Iwan Wiens
Statistics
Manager
INIT