Public Transit Technologies > Personalized Public Transit         Printer-friendly version

What Is It?

• Personalized Public Transit (PPT) provides transit services on a demand or as-needed basis.

Examples of personalized public transit are:

• Taxis
• Dial-a-Ride services
• Buses that operate on a fixed schedule but that can alter their routes to some extent to accomodate demand.

Key Results

In recent years, new technologies, primarily Computer-aided Dispatch (CAD) and Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL), have allowed operators to consolidate existing demand in fewer vehicles, serve a larger market, and reduce labor costs. Users typically enjoy reduced advanced reservation times, reduced waiting times, and faster travel times. Travel Impacts:To the extent that new technologies increase PPT ridership and enhance vehicle productivity, they lead to the following travel impacts:

• Reduction of total traffic
• Reduction of peak period traffic
• Shift from automobile travel to transit and paratransit

• Increased ridership.
• Reduced waiting times.
• Reduced advanced reservation time and accomodation of last-minute requests.
• Faster travel times.
• Enhanced schedule control and quick identification of slack times.
• Labor cost savings: the CAD systems allow higher volumes with the same number of dispatchers or less.

Costs

• Equipment costs.
• Labor: Setting-up of technologies, time required to learn new systems and maintenance by a system administrator.

Where is it implemented?

• Traditional PPT (without AVL and CAD) is implemented throughout the world.
• Advanced PPT with AVL and CAD is implemented on a limited basis in the United States, Western Europe, Japan and Australia. However, AVL and CAD systems are being increasingly deployed.

Author: Dimitri Loukakos