Keeping Transportation Safe Post-COVID
questions for the future
of transit in a post-
COVID-19 World
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 to ask ourselves:
1. How do we demonstrate how essential transit is to
our communities?
2. How do we make transit safe for our riders and
our employees?
3. How do we improve the technology and processes that
agencies have today, to be better prepared for the future?
Making transit essential: The future of mobility on demand
As COVID-19 started to spread and governments enacted selfisolation
measures, ridership took an immediate hit.
In my local community, service frequency was cut in half. While
at home, I could see 40-foot buses pass with no more than one or two
riders. Would turning this into on-demand transit have made more
sense for some communities? If you could use those excess vehicles to
provide service in lower productivity areas, you could allocate more
frequency to the routes that need it based on demand. With mobility
on demand technology, an agency can effectively manage physical
distancing needs with a click of a button.
PASS, Trapeze’s paratransit software, provides customers with the
building blocks to transform to a true mobility on demand system.
It may only require one final piece to realize this type of solution and
enable you to pivot in the future - a mobile app. Not only will this help
future-proof your agency against the rise of new mobility players, but it
also helps you demonstrate the vitalness of transit to your community.
Keeping riders safe with real-time information
In a post-COVID-19 world, real-time information is no longer a
nice-to-have, but a must. And it is not enough to simply let a passenger
know when the next bus is coming.
Passengers want to see their bus approaching on a map, know
how full it is, if it has a bike rack available, if there is a detour ahead,
and more. With social distancing requirements, having this type
of real-time information is vital. If they know a vehicle is only 50
percent full, they can be assured they will get a seat while adhering
to physical distancing.
One agency that did an excellent job providing this type of
information to riders is Sun Tran, in Tucson, Arizona. They provide
real-time information to their passengers using Trapeze’s passenger
information tools. Riders can use their website or download an app
to see where their bus is, how full it is, and more – much like using
a TNC app.
Another agency, IndyGo, reached out to us to reconfigure their IVR
system to generate COVID-19 specific outbound phone calls to all their
paratransit passengers. Passengers received automated calls keeping
them up to date of the situation relating to their service needs. This is
another great way to provide real-time information to passengers and
automating it so there’s less manual work for your agency.
A critical look at transit technology
There are many ways that transit technology helped agencies
manage through COVID-19 – and ways technology can be further
utilized, right now, to improve business processes.
For example: self-service tools for operators and drivers. While the
technology has existed for years, only a few agencies leverage online
picking of work, holidays, and vacation. Imagine getting a notification
from your app, letting you know your pick is coming up in a few
minutes, and being able to make that selection wherever you are.
The technology has been available for some time. Now is the time
to focus on transforming this critical function. The requirements for
physical distancing will exist in the short – and maybe even longterm
- and these types of remote dispatching tools can ensure the
safety of your employees and your riders.
Agile technology for a post-COVID-19 world
During the pandemic, I witnessed transit agencies leverage existing
technology to offer new services.
Metro Mobility in Minneapolis used PASS to coordinate grocery
deliveries to its vulnerable population. Others leveraged our tools to
support contact tracing. If a driver or rider have a confirmed case of
COVID-19, a list of all possible transmissions can be created.
As more communities and businesses re-open, and agencies move
to regular service, it will become even more important to be able to
use your software in these agile ways.
Takeaways
As we prepare for a new normal, here are a few takeaways to
think about:
1. COVID-19 showed us that transit can act quickly. Continue to
evaluate how you can adapt to new challenges and use your existing
technology to compete with these players.
2. It’s time to figure out how to enable self-service tools so we can
enforce physical distancing and make showing up to work a lot
easier too.
3. To make riders want to ride transit again, we need to enforce safety
measures and elevate the rider experience, through providing more
seamless, up-to-the-second real-time information.
Roger Helmy is the chief of product at Trapeze Group. He leads product
management and design and ensures that our solutions are solving our
customers’ pain points. Roger is passionate about leveraging technology to create
safe, reliable, convenient, and cost-effective integrated mobility networks. Roger
is a graduate of the University of Toronto, with a B.A.Sc. in Electrical Engineering.
He enjoys spending time with his family and friends, listening to music, being
outdoors, and various sports. Visit www.trapezegroup.com for more information.
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