Transit Goes High-Tech

Advanced Public Transportation Systems (APTS) are transforming the way public transportation systems operate, providing decision-makers with tools to enhance safety, punctuality, timely information and quality of service.  These generally fall into three categories:  Traveler Information Systems, Electronic Payment Systems, and Fleet Management Systems.  These are described below:

Traveler Information Systems combine computer and communications technologies to provide information to travelers at home, at work, on the roadside, at bus and rail transit stations, or on the vehicle.  This enables transit providers to supplement printed route maps, schedules, and fare information with dynamic real-time information about route delays, arrival estimates, next stop and transfer possibilities.  Travelers can access real-time schedules and congestion information through telephones, cable television, personal computers, cellular phones, pagers, hand held computers, variable message signs, or kiosks.  Implementation will be a major opportunity and challenge as applications of real-time information systems become more widely distributed.

Electronic Payment Systems combine fare media, such as magnetic stripe cards or smart cards, with electronic communications systems, data processing computers, and data storage systems to make fare payment more convenient for travelers and revenue collection less costly for transit providers.  This means that travelers only need to carry one payment card to access all transit services within a region.  Also, these systems can help transit managers gather real-time data on travel demand for better planning and scheduling.

The flexibility offered by smart card systems permits operators to more easily implement fare changes by uploading new fare structures electronically to system payment and sales devices, rather than minting new tokens or recalibrating fare boxes.  Smart cards offer a benefit over magnetic stripe tickets in terms of security, flexibility and data capacity, but at a higher cost.  Some smart cards use radio frequencies to signal a card reader and require no physical contact between card and reader.  Hybrid cards contain both a smart card and a magnetic stripe.

Fleet Management Systems include a whole range of technologies used to improve fleet management, responsiveness and planning.  They include:

Transit Operations Software is used to develop and display information for a variety of transit decision-making activities including making real-time service adjustments (when service begins to deteriorate) and directing response to vehicle incidents and emergencies.

Communications Systems pass voice and data information (both raw and processed) between transit vehicles and transit agency dispatching centers.  Transit communications systems are comprised mostly of wireless technologies and applications.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are database management systems that organize and display layers of geographic data.  GIS provides operators, dispatchers, and street supervisors with visual information about transit systems, which impacts system management, responsiveness and planning.

Automatic Passenger Counters (APC) collect data on passenger boardings and alightings by time and location.  APCs makes data gathering much easier, more reliable, and less costly.

Traffic Signal Priority Systems technologies give transit vehicles the green light whenever possible, by either changing a signal from red to green when a bus, trolley or van is approaching, or prolonging a green light.  Signal priority produces faster, more reliable transit service and reduced operational cost.

Automatic Vehicle Location Systems (AVL) are computer-based tracking systems which allow transit operators to automatically locate fleet vehicles by using signals from signposts and Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites.  They provide the location data needed for operation of the systems listed above: software, silent alarms, automatic passenger counters, real-time passenger information, in-vehicle signs and annunciators, and traffic signal priority.

Recently, APTS deployments have increased substantially.  Studies by the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center show a 200 percent rise over the past five years.  Electronic Fare Payment Systems have grown by more than 130 percent.  Fleet Management System applications have more than doubled.  Increasingly, APTS technologies are being integrated with other ITS systems.  Conformity with the National ITS Architecture has facilitated this integration.  As more fleets implement their APTS plans, it is believed that transit agencies will reap system-wide benefits and provide better service to users.