EXPO LIVE
Inclusive Mobility,
On Demand
RouteMatch Booth 2533
TRANSIT AGENCIES EVERYWHERE HAVE
been looking at a variety of ways of partnering
with transportation network companies,
rideshare services and have been looking to
add more fl exibility in their own scheduling,
as well.
Providing transit riders with the personalized,
on-demand service they’re looking for
is something RouteMatch has been working
with several transit agencies on with its Route-
Match Mobility.
Vice President Transit Solutions Pepper
Harward said it’s important to them that the
leader in mobility in the community is the
public transit system. “Transit is the heart of
the mobility ecosystem,” he said. “Connecting
vulnerable groups to society … it’s not mobility
if it’s not inclusive.”
Th e delivery of service is becoming more
collaborative, whether in-house across all
modes managed by the agency, as well as collaboration
with third-party companies. And
even when it comes to planning the journey,
people expect that level of personalization the
collaborative process provides.
Working with York Region Transit, Harward
said they’re starting with their paratransit
service fl eet and moving to same-day,
on-demand paratransit. He explained that it’s
currently limited to “favorite trips” for the rider,
who can have up to about 10 locations set
up as a “favorite.”
In addition to being able to schedule sameday
service, it is being pieced together with
other parts of service and with a 4 percent
move to other modes, they’ve saved on average,
75 percent of the cost. Th e biggest thing,
however, Harward said is that it opens up 7
percent more capacity on the paratransit fl eet.
YRT has been operating this for about six
months and the next step will be pushing it out
to some of its lower-performing fi xed routes.
Leveraging Technology, Providing
Innovative Mobility Solutions
Keolis Booth 3119
INSIDE THE CONVENTION CENter
at the American Public Transportation
Association’s EXPO in
Atlanta, Georgia, visitors had the
opportunity to take a test ride
in a Navya autonomous shuttle
operated by Keolis.
“In Switzerland we are on open
roads where there are also pedestrians
and cars,” Navya Head of
Marketing Nicolas De Cremiers
said. “We are the only one to be in
construction, manufacturing and
deployment. Most of our pilots last
a year. We want to know how
they run in diff erent conditions;
if you only do a pilot
for a few days, you don’t get
a good idea.”
When the shuttle piloted
in France during for
a month they had about
500,000 people.
“People play with the shuttle,”
Cremiers said of any pilot.
“People eventually get a better
understanding of the shuttle.”
He explained that people would
play ‘chicken,’ testing the shuttles
stopping ability. “In Paris
they played with it at first, but
now, since it took them from
their train station to their office,
they like it.”
One of the roles of the pilot
is to see how people react to
the shuttle in a dense area. At
the beginning, the speed of the
shuttle was very slow, but after
three months, it was bumped up.
The battery range is about 11
hours and takes about 7 hours
to charge, or a quick charge of
four fours. While the top speed
is about 20 mph, it typically runs
at about 10 mph.
The most transformative technology
in transit has been the impact of automated
data and how we can use the
information gathered to analyze and
improve service , and how that information
can be shared with customers.
OCTOBER 10, 2017 | MassTransitmag.com | Mass Transit | Expo Daily | 37
Carrie Butler
General Manager, Lextran
The multisensory
technology
includes cameras
to detect
obstacles, a
GNSS antenna
to communicate
between the
GPS sensor and
a base station
to determine the
precise position
of the vehicle,
odometry to
measure the
displacement and
speed of each
wheel.
Photos by Leah Harnack/Mass Transit
