For Steve Spade, general manager of Sun Tran, Sun Van and Sun Link in Tucson, Arizona, transit service is about creating “raving fans.” Drawn from “Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service,” a book by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles, this theory posits that all businesses should be focused on understanding customer expectations. Once […]
By Roger Helmy, Trapeze Group Time and time again, when we have faced adversities, we have rallied only to become even stronger. The COVID-19 pandemic is no different. While COVID-19 brought new challenges to transit, it also showed us the importance of making sure transit is positioned to manage whatever challenges lay ahead. We need […]
As various industries do their part to support social distancing measures, the “new normal” way of operating has posed challenges, and driven innovation. The transit industry is no exception, and as transit operators have continued to play a key role in supporting essential services and providing transport for those who need it, they have also […]
The Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA) provides fixed-route and paratransit services for greater Columbus and Central Ohio — orchestrating more than 19 million annual passenger trips for the area’s 1.2 million residents. COTA has around 1,170 employees and maintains a fleet of 321 fixed-route transit vehicles, 75 paratransit vehicles, and 12 micro-transit vehicles. As such, […]
ABC Companies is helping operators meet the challenges of passenger transport and driver safety in the post-pandemic era. The company’s CLEANS™ (Contact Limitation & Eradication of Airborne Noxious Systems) product suite offers business owners a “layered” approach to enhance safety measures for passengers onboard, and more importantly for their drivers. “Making drivers and riders feel […]
MCI packages resources to keep motorcoach travel moving ahead As operators resume their schedules and rebuild business, MCI is dedicating itself to helping customers get back on the road with new processes and procedures—and a strong emphasis on passenger care. “Our main goal is to support our customers’ efforts to inspire passengers to ride again […]
Picture this: you have implemented the latest video compression technology (H.265) on your fleet of 20 buses. Each bus has 12 cameras and you downloaded two hours of footage per bus to a USB. You’re excited to review the high-quality video on your 2015 computer, but when you insert the drive, open your computer video […]
BUSRide spoke with key transit thought leaders about integrating new Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) with legacy technology. Their in-depth discussion explored the risks associated with poor integration; unique challenges faced by early adopters; first steps toward integrating disparate systems; and the value of data warehousing. What problems do “disconnected” systems pose for agencies? David Mugica: […]
Contributed by TripSpark staff Long-time TripSpark partner Blacksburg Transit (BT) won the American Public Transportation Association’s 2019 Outstanding Transit System award for North America, in the small urban system category. Tim Witten, ITS and Special Projects Manager for BT talks about how Big Data has helped improve customer experience, planning and service. What TripSpark products […]
The fundamental job of fixed-route and paratransit services are the same: get passengers from point A to B in the shortest amount of time. There are other similarities but, right now, it’s the differences that matter. Paratransit already uses different scheduling software because they don’t travel along a fixed route; they are often door-to-door. So, […]