Data Collection Plan

  • Ridership monitoring helps control if the service provided is adequate to the passenger demand
    • Point checks
    • Ride checks
    • Determine passenger boardings
  • Route/branch performance monitoring ensures the effectiveness of existing services with respect to their variable operating costs and usage
  • The National Transit Database (NTD) was established to accumulate financial and operating data on mass transit
    • A transit agency with ten or more vehicles in peak service must submit reports to the NTD
  • The FTA uses the information for many purposes, such as making “formula” grants under the Urbanized Area Formula Program
    • Formula grants are apportioned according to an agency’s operating expense, passenger miles and revenue miles
  • There are specific requirements in seeking approval from FTA:
    • Written sampling plan to clearly describe the sampling and factoring methodology
    • Written calibration plan to identify outlying data and ensure proper counting operation
    • Concurrent application of NTD reporting by new and old methodologies over a fiscal year, and a comparison between the two methods
    • Certification by a qualified statistician that the methodology meets or exceeds FTA’s prescribed confidence and precision level of 95% +/- 10%
  • Using NTD data, FTA runs annual formula calculations to determine the allocation of formula grant funds to the urbanized areas

On-Time Performance

  • On-time performance is normally calculated by randomly sampling timepoints and recording whether the transit service is on-time, late, or early
  • It is a measure of system reliability and influences customer satisfaction
  • Most large transit systems use AVL or APC data to determine on-time performance

Passenger Complaints

  • All employees should be reminded that everyone in the community has the right to express concerns about transit operations
  • One should also remember that the mere allegation of impropriety, however, does not establish proof that a violation has occurred

Market Research

  • It provides important information that identifies and analyzes the market need, market size and competition from both riders and non-riders
  • Transit agencies use market research for a variety of purposes:
    • Scheduling and operations planning
    • Long-range planning and design
    • Perform analyses
    • Market penetration and market segmentation analyses
    • Data gathering on mode choice and travel patterns
    • Consumer perceptions and preferences
    • Pricing elasticity
    • Customer satisfaction
    • Trip planning
    • Supply and demand
    • Crime mapping
    • New product and service evaluations