The Takeaway

The Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (KCATA) is now running its second pilot involving microtransit, shuttles whose schedules and routes can adjust based on changes in passenger demand. Microtransit’s supporters say it can provide better experiences for riders who can request a trip specific to their origin and destination, as well as lower costs for transit agencies able to substitute shuttles for full-sized bus service.

KCATA’s first microtransit pilot launched in March 2016 with a startup called Bridj. That pilot was terminated one year later at a cost of $1.3 million after providing 1,480 total rides. In January 2019, KCATA and Johnson County, KS launched a second pilot called RideKC Microtransit in partnership with TransLoc and Kansas City Taxi Group. Unlike the Bridj pilot, RIdeKC Microtransit offers off peak trips, door-to-door service, and reservations made via the web and phone. RideKC Microtransit’s monthly ridership has been more than 15 times higher than Bridj’s, and the project has been extended an additional six months with a new Saturday service. KCATA is currently determining the cost/rider compared with fixed-route service.

The Setting

The Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (KCATA) manages public transportation in the Kansas City metropolitan region, including seven counties across Missouri and Kansas. The agency provides about 42,000 trips per day on its fleet of bus, streetcar, and paratransit vehicles. Johnson County currently contracts with KCATA to manage the day-to- day activities of its public transportation network. While KCATA manages contracted service, Johnson County both funds and makes policy decisions regarding service provision in Johnson County.

With an interest in innovative approaches to transit, in mid-2010, KCATA leaders grew curious about micotransit, a term used to describe on-demand shuttle services that transport passengers within a limited geographical area. Microtransit service usually has no fixed schedule or route; instead riders request a trip in real time, usually through an app. Microtransit’s boosters argue that the service could provide a better customer experience while saving transit agencies money, compared with a fixed-route, full-sized bus. Skeptics have questioned whether the microtransit cost/rider can ultimately be competitive.

The Project

KCATA’s startup called Bridj came to the attention of KCATA’s then-CEO through an article in The Wall Street Journal. A cold email to the company’s executives led to an in-person meeting a week later, followed soon by a contract to launch a microtransit service using $1.3 million in local funds. Bridj began operating in March 2016, serving several neighborhoods as well as downtown Kansas City. The service was available only during weekday morning and afternoon rush hours, and passengers were required to download an app in order to book a trip. Bridj used an algorithm to adjust routes in real time, with passengers often required to walk a few blocks to or from their origin and destination. The shuttles, which were purchased by KCATA, could accommodate up to 12 passengers, and drivers were more formally dressed than those on fixed route services.

A total of 1,480 trips were provided during the year that the Bridj pilot was in operation at a cost of $1.3 million, equating to almost $1,000 per trip. Jameson Auten, KCATA’s SVP for Operations and Innovation, said that the agency gained valuable information about the potential users of micromobility services; more than half of riders were between 19 and 35 and four out of five made more than the local median income of $46,000. Lisa Womack, KCATA’s Director of Mobility Services, says that three of the primary reasons the Bridj pilot didn’t attract more riders were that few commuters knew about it; some customers resisted using an app; and neighborhoods serviced by Bridj already had access to a number of fixed-route services. Bridj went out of business in 2017.

KCATA and Johnson County soon had a chance to apply what it learned from the Bridj pilot to another microtransit project. TransLoc, a company owned by Ford, approached KCATA in 2018 with an unsolicited proposal. KCATA invited Johnson County, KS to join the conversation, and the county ultimately provided $250,000 for a six-month pilot called RideKC Microtransit. KCATA would provide planning and day-to-day management activities, Johnson County would provide the vehicles and program funding, TransLoc would provide software, and Kansas City Taxi Group would offer drivers and dispatch services. KC Microtransit launched in January 2019.

RideKC Microtransit trips had to originate and end within a 50-square mile area of Johnson County south of downtown Kansas City that was lightly serviced by fixed route buses (the eligible area included a transit center offering no-cost transfers downtown). The fare would be $1.50, the same as riding a bus. KC Microtransit started with three shuttles and grew to seven shuttles as of July 2019, with four or five in service on a given day. Some of the vehicles were originally purchased for the Bridj pilot.

RideKC Microtransit drew lessons from the Bridj pilot to make several important changes to the service design. Instead of limiting service to peak hours, RideKC Microtransit would be available weekdays between 6 AM and 8 PM, and the service would provide door to door service so that passengers didn’t have to walk to a stop. Rides could be requested through an app—but also through a web browser or with a phone call. RideKC and TransLoc also invested heavily in marketing the new service, with direct mail and in-person outreach at public spaces like malls.

Outcomes

Ridership in RideKC Microtransit has been much higher than during the Bridj pilot. From January to July 2019 over 12,800 trips were taken at a subsidy of around $20/rider (as of August 2019).

The agency is currently calculating the relative cost savings or expenditures vis a vis fixed route service. The agency is also preparing to survey riders about their experiences with KC Microtransit.

In July, Johnson County extended the pilot an additional six months, to January 2020. The city of Overland Park, KS provided additional funds to extend service on Saturday, with a goal of providing access to the city’s weekend farmer’s market. The RideKC Microtransit program has been popular with local officials and riders, and KCATA expects to expand the service area in the future, both in Johnson County and across the state border into Missouri.

Lessons Learned

KCATA’s Lisa Womack suggests that agencies considering microtransit decide up front what success measures they care most about, and then design their program to capture data to see if they are achieving targeted goals.

She says that the current service area of 50 square miles is a little too large to service with the current fleet, leading to occasional peak trip travel times of up to 60-90 minutes. She recommends agencies start with a smaller area at first, and make sure it is one that is lightly served by existing transit service that could negate the need for microtransit. She also recommends that agencies invest heavily in marketing; otherwise eligible riders may not learn of the offering.

For more information contact Art Guzzetti, APTA Vice President-Mobility Initiatives & Public Policy at aguzzetti@apta.com.

Get the latest information on the work being done by the public transit industry’s standards development program.

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR

Washington, DC – The Standards Development Oversight Council (SDOC) governs all activities related to APTA’s standards development. The SDOC provides overall direction for the development and maintenance of standards in the public transportation industry. It is imperative that the members of the committees and subcommittees review and approve document publication requests in a timely fashion. This is important to ensure that APTA standards development policies are being adhered to, which accelerates our document update process.

A new way for us to communicate is APTA’s latest innovation, APTAconnect, an online platform designed to increase member engagement. APTAconnect is more advanced and user-friendly than APTA’s earlier committee collaboration pages and will help you stay better engaged with colleagues between conferences and committee meetings.

The APTAconnect platform is for discussions, networking and collaboration. This is the place to ask questions and provide answers. It’s also a way to share best practices and learn from one another and provide an opportunity to share resources and documents. Meeting notices, agendas, and documents will be posted at www.APTAconnect.com.

APTA’s staff rolled out this initiative as a pilot to several committees and it was well received. If you are on an APTA committee, you have already been given access through your APTA account. I encourage you to visit your online communities and participate in the discussions to help make committee membership even more valuable. The shift from collaboration pages to APTAconnect might have some growing pains associated with changing from one application to another, so please be patient as we all work together to maximize the new service.

APTAconnect will be a great tool in moving more of our standards development activities to web conferences and conference calls, reducing the number of face-to-face meetings required to one a year. This tool also will reduce costs and travel time away from the office and give us the ability to accomplish much more between meetings.

ASSOCIATION NEWS

The APTAU 2019 “FutureView” Webinar Series

APTAU continues to offer its new, six-part marquee webinar series, FutureView, which brings together practitioners from all facets of our industry to analyze and address the most pressing challenges and opportunities facing public transportation today and into the future.

You can still register for the next FutureView webinar on “Increasing Bus Electrification in the Transit Industry – Workforce Implications”, from 3:00-4:15 p.m. ET on Wednesday, September 11. A recording will also be posted on APTA.com shortly after the live webinar.

APTAU’s in-house team of industry experts and renowned speakers from across the industry invite participants to join them in discussing such critical topics as travel behavior trends, mode loyalty, approaches to Mobility as a Service, public transit system vulnerabilities, emerging technologies, workforce development, strategies for building political support for public transportation and more. Through the FutureView series, APTA members share insights and best practices with their peers and discover strategies to better position their systems and businesses to capitalize on and define the changing mobility landscape. As an industry, we can write our own future. See what yours might look like with APTA’s FutureView!

You can view the first four webinars in the FutureView series at any time.

STANDARDS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

Bus Transit Systems

The Brake and Chassis Working Group leadership hired a new contractor to accelerate the review and publishing of documents. The group had two full working sessions in the first half of 2019. They met Feb. 14-15 at the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority facility in St. Petersburg, FL, and May 22-23 in Louisville, KY. The group successfully balloted four documents. Both APTA-BTS-BC-RP-008-18, Transit Bus Brake Valve Treadle Assembly Maintenance, and APTA BTS-BC-RP-001-05, Transit Bus In-Service Brake System Performance Testing, have gone through public comment and CEO review. The two others, Remanufacturing or Rebuilding of Transit Bus Brake and Chassis Components and Troubleshooting Transit Bus Air Systems, will complete public comment in September 2019. The contractor is making the final changes requested by the voting members and the document will be ready for public review. The group has scheduled its next meeting for Sept. 11-12 at Detroit DOT’s facilities to work on two topics: disc brake (on/off) and S-cam.

The Bus Rapid Transit Working Group held its first in-person meeting in Hartford, CT, Jan. 9-10, hosted by Connecticut DOT. The group reviewed six recommended practices and decided on how to approach the update of the documents. It decided to merge two of the documents into one, then the five subgroups began work on revising the documents. The full working group met Aug. 6-7 in Minneapolis, hosted by Metro Transit, where members continued progress on these documents.

The Bus Procurement Guidelines Working Group has completed its update of the new electric bus components, submitting the new section to the larger working group in February. The new section received more comments and revisions than anticipated from the larger working group membership. These comments were addressed via a series of four-hour conference calls and consensus was reached on several outstanding topics (surrounding warranty and other issues). The document is now ready for public comment. We anticipate a great deal of interest in the proposed document and the likelihood of receiving many comments to be reviewed.

Passenger Rail Equipment Safety Standards (PRESS)

The Construction and Structural Working Group continues to update several documents: APTA-PR-CS-S-006-98, Attachment Strength of Interior Fittings for Passenger Railroad Equipment; APTA-PR-CS-S-007-98, Fuel Tank Integrity on Non-Passenger Carrying Passenger Locomotives; APTA-PR-CS-S-011-99, Cab Crew Seating Design and Performance; APTA-PR-CS-S-012-02, Door Systems for New and Rebuilt Passenger Cars; APTA-PR-CS-S-015-99, Aluminum and Aluminum Alloys for Passenger Equipment Car Body Construction; APTA-PR-CS-S-016-99, Passenger Seats in Passenger Rail Cars; APTA-PR-CS-S-018-03, Fixed Workstation Tables in Passenger Rail Cars; APTA-PR-CS-RP-019, Pushback Couplers in Passenger Rail Equipment; and APTA-PR-CS-S-035-19, Alternative Design and Construction of Passenger Railroad Rolling Stock.

The Mechanical Working Group published several documents related to Passenger Electronic 26C Emulation Braking System—Performance Requirements, ECP Passenger Cable-Based Braking System—Performance Requirements, ECP Passenger Cable-Based Brake System Cable, Connectors & Junction Boxes—Performance Requirements, ECP Passenger Cable-Based Brake DC Power Supply—Performance Requirements, Intratrain Communication Requirements for ECP Cable-Based Passenger Train Control Systems, ECP Cable-Based and Passenger Emulation Braking System—Approval Procedure, ECP Passenger Cable-Based Braking System—Interoperability Procedure and ECP Passenger Brake System—Configuration Management.

The Inspection and Maintenance working groups advanced several documents to public comment, including a revised APTA PR-IM-S-001-98 Passenger Rail Equipment Battery System Periodic Inspection and Maintenance, APTA PR-IM-S-004-98 Passenger Car Handbrake Periodic Inspection and Maintenance, APTA PR-IM-S-006-98 Passenger Car Draft Gear Periodic Inspection and Maintenance, APTA PR-IM-S-008-98 Passenger Car Electrical Periodic Inspection and Maintenance, APTA PR-IM-S-009-98 Passenger Car Tread Brake Shoe and Disc Brake Pad Periodic Inspection and Maintenance, APTA PR-IM-S-010-98 Passenger Car Brake Disc and Disc Brake Unit Periodic Inspection and Maintenance, APTA PR-IM-S-014-99 Modification Methodology for the Periodic Inspection and Maintenance of Passenger Cars, and APTA PR-M-S-018-10 Powered Exterior Side Door System Design for New Passenger Cars.

Rail Transit Systems

The Operating Practices Working Group published the new recommended practice Crash and Fire Protected Inward and Outward Facing Audio and Image Recorders in Rail Transit Operating Compartments and revised previous recommended practices for Rail Transit System Customer Relations and Rail Transit Systems Station Procedures.

The Operating Practices Working Group has also revised the standards for Rail Transit System Emergency Management Requirements, Standard for Training Rail Operators, Standard for Train Operating Personnel Returning to Work, Standard for Train Operator Hours of Service, Transit Supervisory Program Requirements, and Standard for Fitness for Duty.

The Elevator and Escalator Technical Forum published revisions to recommended practices Heavy Duty Transportation System Escalator Design Guidelines and the recommended practice for Heavy Duty Machine Room Less Elevator Design Guidelines.

Security

The Security and Emergency Management Working Group continues to develop several documents related to emergency management programs, safe mail handling, continuity-of-operations-programs (COOP), security and emergency management aspects of special events, and emergency communication strategies. The group has balloted and advanced five documents for public comment: First Responder Familiarization of Transit Systems, Regional Emergency Planning and Participation in Mutual Aid, Creating an Alternative or Backup Operations Control Center, Suspension of Service of Public Transportation System, and Recovery and Shelter of Transit Vehicles and Nonrevenue Equipment During Emergencies.

The Infrastructure & Systems Security Working Group continues to review several documents, including Physical Security for Public Transit, Security Considerations for Public Transit, Station Security, and Security Risks.

The Enterprise Cybersecurity Working Group is preparing a recommended practice, Supply Chain, for working group ballot. Meanwhile, the Control and Communications Security Working Group is reviewing a proposal for expanding the use of its railcar white paper.

Sustainability and Urban Design

The Urban Design Working Group is updating APTA-SUDS-UD-RP-007-13, Integrating Art into Capital Projects. The group met in February to discuss final revisions to the document. It was sent for working group ballot in mid-March and was approved on April 10. The group is finalizing a recommended practice on Transit Urban Design Guidelines. It will be sent for working group ballot shortly after the editing process is completed and then sent for final approval. The group convened in Boston on July 31 to review existing Urban Design Standards documents and prioritize updating each.

The Sustainability Working Group continues to make progress on its update to APTA SUDS-CC-RP-002-11, Guidelines for Climate Action Planning. The group met in February and met again at the end of July to finalize the draft.

The Transit Asset Management Working Group published APTA SUDS-TAM-RP-005-19, Improving Asset Management Through Better Asset Information, and APTA SUDS-TAM-RP-004-19, Communicating Your Transit Asset Management Plan, in early 2019. Two documents are currently going through the publication development process: Building Internal Stakeholder Support for Your Asset Management Program and Communication and Coordination with External Stakeholders for Transit Asset Management. These documents are expected to be published by the end of 2019. The group met in August to discuss finalizing the Recommended Practice for Procuring Software to Support Transit Asset Management, as well as topics for new guidance.

COLLABORATION

The Path Forward

You don’t have to see the person you’re communicating with to share your thoughts. The use of email, texting, instant messaging, web conferencing, video chatting, and social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram make it possible to conduct discussions without being present for a meeting.

There are pros and cons for technology-based versus face-to-face communications for business professionals. The APTA Standards Development Program is moving forward using a technology-enabled model. While in-person communication is generally preferred by most members and permits better networking and social interactions, web conferencing, instant messaging, and email provide increased bandwidth for conducting discussions and accelerate the development process.

Time is the greatest barrier to our work. Finding a time when all stakeholders can meet in person to have a discussion is challenging. Technology-enabled discussions greatly reduce this factor by providing short, concise discussion opportunities, recordings, file sharing and information in real time, and allowing for continued discussions when the group is not convened. Face-to-face meetings will not be eliminated, but they will be curtailed to one meeting a year, and web or video conferencing will increase in addition to the use of collaboration tools like APTAconnect to share files and conduct curated conversations on various topics. These changes provide huge gains by reducing meeting and travel costs and they give stakeholders more time to provide their insights into the development of our documents.

THE ROI

Your Feedback Is Important!
What are the gaps in industry standards and federal regulations that you feel APTA Standards should address during Fiscal Year 2020? Please take a moment to complete this one-question micro survey.

FTA conducted an independent evaluation of APTA’s Standards Development Program in September 2018. Overall, results were positive, and the information below conveys stakeholders’ satisfaction rate.

Question: Does your organization see a cost or time savings benefit or value from the standards publications?

Question: Does your organization see a cost or time savings benefit or value from the standdards publications?

RECENTLY PUBLISHED STANDARDS

• APTA SUDS-TAM-RP-004-19, Communicating Your Transit Asset Management Plan
• APTA RT-OP-024-19, Crash and Fire Protected Inward and Outward Facing Audio and Image Recorders in Rail Transit Operating Compartments
• APTA RT-EE-RP-001-02, Rev. 3 Heavy-Duty Escalator Design Guidelines
• APTA RT-EE-RP-004-02, Rev. 3 Heavy-Duty Machine Room-Less Elevator Design Guidelines
• APTA RT-OP-RP-008-04, Rev. 2 Rail Transit Customer Relations Programs
• APTA RT-OP-RP-009-04, Rev. 2 Rail Transit System Station Procedures
• APTA RT-OP-RP-019-14, Rev. 1 Rail Transit Operations Supervisor Program Requirements
• APTA RT-OP-RP-015-09, Rev. 1 Train Operator Hours-of-Service Requirements
• APTA SS-CCS-WP-005-19, Securing Control and Communications Systems in Transit Bus Vehicles and Supporting Infrastructure
• APTA PR-M-S-020-17 R1, Passenger Electronic 26C Emulation Braking System—Performance Requirements
• APTA PR-M-S-021-17 R1, ECP Passenger Cable-Based Braking System—Performance Requirements
• APTA PR-M-S-022-19, ECP Passenger Cable-Based Brake System Cable, Connectors & Junction Boxes – Performance Requirements
• APTA PR-M-S-023-19, ECP Passenger Cable-Based Brake DC Power Supply—Performance Requirements
• APTA PR-M-S-024-19, Intratrain Communication Requirements for ECP Cable-Based Passenger Train Control Systems
• APTA PR-M-S-025-19, ECP Cable-Based and Passenger Emulation Braking System—Approval Procedure
• APTA PR-M-S-026-19, ECP Passenger Cable-Based Braking System—Interoperability Procedure
• APTA PR-M-S-027-19, ECP Passenger Brake System—Configuration Management

Due to the number of documents under review APTA has extended this public review and commenting period to Friday, September 13, 2019.