Dr. Brendon Hemily presented “From SOP to DRIP to Business Intelligence: Challenges of Using ITS Data for Transit Planning & Management” on March 5, 2021 for the UT-ITE seminar series. The webinar was presented jointly with UTTRI’s Transit Analytics Lab (TAL).
Hemily opened by saying that he wanted to share practical perspectives of some of the key challenges of using ITS data in transit planning and management to enrich students’ academic work.
First, he surveyed the types of automated transit data that are generally used: Computer-Aided Dispatch/Automatic Vehicle Location (CAD/AVL), which provide location and time-stamped information that is comparable to schedule; Automatic Passenger Counting (APC); and Automatic Fare Collection (AFC), primarily smart card or account data which can be geocoded. Other data sources include Transit Signal Priority (TSP); General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS); and Vehicle Health (mechanical alarms). Increasingly, Location-Based data using Bluetooth and Wi-Fi traces, Social Media, and Crowd-Sourced data are also employed. There is also Metadata that goes with all of this.
Hemily next gave an historical overview on the development of transit data, illustrated with examples from his own professional experience in the field where he has been active for decades.
He stated that transit technologies offer tremendous opportunities to support transit planning and management, but progress in the industry to seize on these opportunities has been slow. Asking “Why is it so hard for transit agencies to use data?” Hemily outlined many reasons why ITS data is not used more by the transit industry, and provided insights on the organizational and technical challenges faced by transit agencies in adapting to the new world of Big Data.
Hemily notes that transit data played, and continues to play, a very important role in helping transit agencies pivot to respond to the COVID crisis.
He went on to discuss data analytics research themes, and wrapped up his presentation with a look at linking performance to customer satisfaction. Q&A followed the seminar.
Hemily referred in this seminar to a discussion paper he authored for US DOT / ITSA entitled “The Use of Transit ITS Data for Planning and Management, and Its Challenges; a Discussion Paper (PT-ITS #15-2).” A brief summary is shown below.
From the earliest days of the development of Transit Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), there was a recognition among the most progressive transit systems that the data that would be created by Transit ITS (e.g. Automatic Vehicle Location, Automatic Passenger Counting, Advanced Fare Collection) would be an incredibly valuable resource, which could be used to create information to enhance planning and management, and support business processes and decision-making. This can greatly enhance the ability for managers to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the services provided by transit systems.
However, transit agency staff often remain perplexed by the volume and complexity of the data and the challenges in using it. The challenge of how to use Transit ITS data remains one the most often heard concerns expressed by transit agency staff at Transit ITS meetings.
The objectives of this discussion paper are to:
- Provide a high-level overview of the potential uses of Transit ITS data for planning and management purposes;
- Identify the various challenges in using the data; and
- Recommend research and other initiatives that would enable transit agencies to make more effective use of the data, and position the transit industry for a future of ubiquitous data and data-driven decision making.
About the speaker
Dr. Brendon Hemily is an independent transit consultant with 35 years of international transit experience, and serves as Senior Advisor to the UTTRI Transit Analytics Lab (TAL). He focuses on best practices and innovation in the transit industry, in the areas of policy, management, planning, and the effective use of advanced technology,
Prior to 2000, Brendon worked at the Canadian Urban Transit Association (CUTA), where he was responsible for all of CUTA’s research, statistical, and technical services.
Brendon has a PhD in Transportation and a MS in Civil Engineering, both from MIT, and a BA in Economics from Columbia University.
He is Chair of the TRB Public Transportation Group, which has 13 committees, and chairs the Advanced Public Transit Systems Technical Committee of ITS Canada.