TCRP Report 84: e-Transit: Electronic Business Strategies for Public Transportationdocuments principles, techniques, and strategies that are used in electronic business strategies for public transportation. TCRP Report 84 is being published in multiple volumes; Volume 8: Improving Public Transportation Technology Implementations and Anticipating Emerging Technologies summarizes the value of current technologies used in public transportation, describes methods for improving the success of technology implementation, and identifies five promising emerging technologies with application for transit agencies. This report may be used specifically by chief executive officers (CEOs) and chief information officers (CIOs) of transit agencies, transit managers, program and project managers, intelligent transportation systems (ITS) professionals, and the public transportation industry in general.
New information and communication technologies are revolutionizing the way services are delivered and organizations are structured. Electronic business processes change the ways organizations operate and conduct business. Opportunities to lower operations and maintenance costs and improve efficiency have changed relationships between transit agencies and their suppliers and customers, and electronic business processes are likely to change industry structures in the long term.
The declining costs of communications, data storage, and data retrieval are accelerating the opportunities spawned by the Internet and other information and communications technologies. Choosing and sequencing investments in technologies, processes, and people to reduce costs and increase productivity present challenges to the transit manager, who must weigh the costs, benefits, and risks of changing the ways services are delivered. To assist in meeting such challenges, TCRP Project J-09 produces a multiple-volume series underTCRP Report 84.Theresearch program identifies, develops, and provides flexible, ongoing, quick-response research designed to bring electronic business strategies to public transportation and mobility management.
Improving Public Transportation Technology Implementations and Anticipating Emerging Technologiesis the eighth volume in the TCRP Report 84 multiple-volumeseries. Battelle, in association with TranSystems, Matthew Coogan, and E-Squared Engineering, reviewed literature, trends, and developments of the past few years related to public transportation and technological advancements. Also, the research team conducted 16 interviews with representatives from both the United States and abroad to determine the extent to which transit agencies worldwide are using various types of information technologies. The research team obtained information on the experiences of transportation providers that have deployed newer technologies, the range of objectives transit agencies have for using current and near-term technologies, and the promises these technologies may hold for transportation operations and the people they serve. In addition, the researchers conducted a focus group that included transit CEOs, CIOs, and senior-level technology personnel from U.S. public transportation agencies to discuss obstacles that impede the adoption of current and near-term information technologies in public transportation and mobility services. Finally, the researchers describe five emerging technologies, how they might be applied, the range of costs, and the benefits of each.
Status: The Report is published as TCRP Report 84, Volume 8.
