Project/Program Name: Automatic Passenger Counting (APC) and Data Management System
Description: Pilot project for automatic acquisition and reporting of ridership, running time and stop utilization data for bus and light rail, including data warehousing, business intelligence, stop and route correlation, GPS positioning and first use of IEEE 802.11 for automatic wireless vehicle-to-wayside data transfer.
Scope: requirements identification, passenger counters, logic units and GPS on 33 pilot buses and light rail cars; fare register data interface for capture of operator login and assignment information; GPS re-radiators to provide GPS positioning at critical underground locations; WiFi access points for automatic data download; upgrades to national standards to allow vehicle data networks to support APC technology; data warehouse servers, post processing, business intelligence software, user guides, training, pilot evaluation.
Project Owner: NJ TRANSIT
Stakeholder Agencies/Departments/Suppliers: NJ TRANSIT Planning, NJ TRANSIT Bus Operations, NJ TRANSIT Information Services, Raytheon/Orbital TMS, Wayfarer Group
Involvement: business analysis, system engineering, project management, construction management, project scheduling, project controls, quality assurance (as NJ TRANSIT employee)
Notable Challenges: new development, software defects, limited Information Services support, management changes
Results Achieved: Successful pilot of APC, data warehousing and business intelligence technology. System distinguishes between total and peak zone ridership, determines passenger load throughout each trip, as well as running time and running time variation. Allowed service planning to identify overcrowded trip segments as well as unproductive trip segments that could be eliminated without impact to customers, and to adjust trips and reallocate resources to relieve overcrowding without increasing total operator hours.
Critical Actions: Identified configuration management issues and coached the development team through code reviews to improve quality. Clarified concepts and confirmed feasibility by prototyping required logic flows, data structures and calculations.
Period of Involvement: 1998 - 2003