Geographic Information Systems Applications in Transit (2004)

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

3 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION BACKGROUND The use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in tran- sit has been of interest to transit researchers and practitio- ners for at least a decade. There were some early attempts in 1992 and 1993 to record the level of use within transit agencies (FTA GIS surveys), and between 1995 and 1999 three national conferences were held on the theme of GIS in transit. These events showed that GIS use in transit is closely linked to the environment within which it is nur- tured; that is, its history within the organization is an im- portant factor in its present deployment. In the period since 1993, transportation has been one of the fastest growing areas of GIS deployment, although its rate of growth has slowed since 2001 as the technology has matured and be- come more widespread among transportation agencies. During this period the capabilities and user friendliness of GIS have changed considerably, such that the ability to use these tools is becoming broader based. There is less need to rely on specialists to derive value from the GIS. Simulta- neously, transit agencies’ approach to using GIS has be- come more scalable, from basic infrastructure projects to enterprise implementations. Whatever the stage of GIS de- velopment it still needs an underlying infrastructure of in- formation technology (IT) and spatial data that requires regular maintenance. Despite this level of interest and widespread use within the industry, there has not been a comprehensive review of the state of the practice. This synthesis provides an over- view of the use of GIS in transit planning and operations. Some topics are covered in more detail than others where sufficient information exists to allow a detailed review. The focus is mainly on transit bus systems, which provide the majority of transit service in the United States; however, examples of commuter rail and metro rail uses of GIS are included where appropriate. This synthesis will contribute to the knowledge and understanding of GIS in transit and could encourage further research and development of these issues. PROBLEM STATEMENT Transit agencies need to provide efficient service to re- spond to customer demands and shifting land use. A GIS has the capacity to support operations, planning, manage- ment, and customer services that can lead to a more effec- tive allocation of limited resources within transit agencies. For a GIS to become truly functional, an effective infra- structure consisting of data, people, and tools is needed. Despite the benefits of GIS in transit operations and plan- ning, the use of GIS is not widespread, and even where GIS is installed it is often used for specific low-key applications rather than being fully integrated with the agency’s infor- mation systems and business processes. As hinted previ- ously, this may be because of the complexities and costs of setting-up and managing a GIS program or it could be be- cause of institutional inertia to a new technology and con- cern of its impact on established business processes. There- fore, significant barriers to implementing GIS in transit agencies still exist. The synthesis will analyze these con- straints and how they may limit GIS uptake; as a corollary, it will also evaluate some success stories and how the bar- riers were overcome. SCOPE Over the years, GIS technology has been implemented for a variety of purposes within the transit industry. With this have come many new uses, benefits, and challenges. The purpose of this effort is to survey a variety of transit agen- cies to document current practices, effective applications, and challenges. Some of the GIS issues addressed in this report are: • • • Data—including data collection and maintenance; data integration with related spatial data sets, includ- ing scheduling, infrastructure, operations, and plan- ning; and inter- and intra-agency data coordination and sharing. Human capital—including hiring, training, profes- sional development, and organizational structures. Tools/applications—including: – Information technology, including hardware, software, and custom tools; – Operations, including vehicle and facility man- agement, vehicle location, routing and scheduling, and real-time traffic information; – Planning, including route and facility planning, automated passenger counting (APC) systems, ridership reporting, demographic analysis, and modeling tools; – Management, including safety, security, and inci- dent response; system performance and reporting; asset management; and finance; and

4 – Customer services, including trip itinerary plan- ning, customer relations, real-time customer in- formation, public information, and marketing. APPROACH This synthesis documents the state of the practice in appli- cations of GIS technology. Using a review of relevant litera- ture and a survey of selected transit agencies, it draws from a range of resources, as well as a number of case studies. The report identifies areas of common concerns, documents the value of GIS, and profiles innovative and successful prac- tices, as well as lessons learned and gaps in information. In addition to the survey, this synthesis relies substan- tially on in-depth case studies of some of the leading users of GIS together with a broader-based literature review of the state of the practice, including analysis of the results of GIS surveys among small- and medium-sized transit prop- erties. The case studies allowed for a more detailed review of GIS applications, as well as evaluation of constraints in applying GIS technology, which would have been difficult to collect in a survey format. Five large transit properties were visited and discussions were conducted with the GIS staff and managers of the GIS programs. A large amount of information was collected and is synthesized in this report. ORGANIZATION OF REPORT Following this Introduction, chapter two provides a review of GIS services and practice in transit agencies. This in- cludes a literature review of more than 130 publications, with some of these examples of how GIS is being used in practice. This chapter also includes a review of resources to support GIS deployment in transit agencies, such as GIS standards, intelligent transportation systems (ITS), and transit GIS research at universities. Chapter three summa- rizes the results of the GIS in transit surveys conducted by Bridgewater State College (Bridgewater, Massachusetts) in collaboration with the FTA. These surveys polled mainly small- and medium-sized agencies and illustrate the growth and uses of GIS in these agencies between 1993 and 2003. Chapter four synthesizes the results of five case studies on the use of GIS in large transit properties. The comparative analysis of their GIS programs highlights similarities as well as differences in emphasis in their GIS deployments. Chapter five describes in more detail the GIS programs in the five case studies. These agencies are among the leading users of GIS in transit and provide examples of innovation, some of which are unique to each agency, whereas some are more commonplace and provide pointers to the future uses of GIS in the transit industry. Finally, chapter six pre- sents the conclusions of this synthesis project and makes some suggestions for future studies.