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The Happy Bus System Will Now Make Riders Even Happier By Getting Them Where They Want to Go On-Time

Faculty and staff, as well as Slippery Rock University students, are now just one phone call away from tracking the arrival of the next bus. The Student Government Association(SGA) recently installed the GPS-based NextBus passenger information system on the campus buses it operates to help SRU become more environmentally friendly while providing up-to-date bus stop information.

The SGA Shuttle made its debut route around the campus loop in January of 1994. The Shuttle, or the "Happy Bus" as it’s affectionately known to many students, has been a Slippery Rock icon ever since.

The Shuttle takes trips to various regional shopping centers throughout the year.  In August of 2008, a second Shuttle was added and new routes were created to get students where they need to be.

The nine-stop, on-campus 20-minute route runs 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays; the 12-stop, off-campus 30-minute loop runs 7:20 a.m. to 4:20 p.m. The evening route runs 4:30-9 p.m., and the late-night bus, operated Thursday through Saturday, runs 10 p.m. to 2:30 a.m.

Passengers can now access information about the popular “Happy Bus” schedules either by a dedicated phone line or by selecting “Slippery Rock University” on the NextBus.com website. The system tracks both the on-campus bus and its off-campus cousin that travels to area apartment complexes and stores.

Improving Sustainability with Leading Edge Technology

Tyson Johnston, SGA vice president for public relations, said the idea for the bus schedule computer systems was submitted by SGA to the Green Fund last spring.

“We applied for a Green Fund Grant for $20,000 to help pay for the system, and were selected to receive funding,” Johnston said.

The new systems cost $40,000 with SGA funds covering the remaining half.

“They can hop on a nice warm bus and come to campus,” Johnston said. In addition to saving time, riding the bus will also help faculty and staff save money on gasoline.

Johnston said the system also allows the SGA to count the number of passengers on the buses at any given time as well as track at which stops passengers are getting off.

“Those reports are helpful because it lets us know which stops are being used, which aren’t, and it allows us to make our schedule better,” Johnston said.

One commenter to a NextBus article in the student news site,TheOnlineRocket.com indicated how useful the new system can be:

You can use your Smartphone to get the arrivals information, you can use SMS Texting, you can set alarms that tell you when the bus is coming a set number of minutes before it is predicted to arrive, i.e. send an alert 12 minutes before the bus is predicted in real time to arrive at my stop every weekday morning.

NextBus Info Simplifies System Management

Reporting tools enable efficient operation of the shuttle system. For example, SGA’s Johnston noted that the system also allows the SGA to count the number of passengers on the buses at any given time as well as track at which stops passengers are getting off.

“Those reports are helpful because it lets us know which stops are being used, which aren’t, and it allows us to make our schedule better,” Johnston said.

All in all, the NextBus system will improve transportation life for both riders and managers.

Advice on How to Pursue Those Federal Transit Dollars

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Federal Transit Administration have issued guidance to assist state and local agencies in preparing for implementation of the stimulus bill.  The guidance includes Q&As and actions that can be taken to expedite economic recovery projects.  According to FHWA, projects such as traffic signal upgrades, traffic monitoring and weigh-in-motion equipment, ramp metering, dynamic message signs, road weather information systems, and similar operational strategies can be included as part of larger projects or as standalone projects. 

To download Q&A’s from the FHWA that should provide answers to many of the questions you’ve certainly been wondering about, click on the link below:

Excellent Whitepaper Just Released on Intelligent Transportation Investments

The ITS Joint Program Office has also announced the availability of a white paper that informs public agencies about investment opportunities in ITS and related operational strategies.

The white paper, “Investment Opportunities for Managing Transportation Performance through Technology,” is now available for your information and use. This white paper was prepared by the U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) to inform public agencies about investment opportunities for the economic recovery and stimulus package being developed under the Obama administration. 

The paper contains information about types of projects that support the operation of the transportation system, such as intelligent transportation systems (ITS). It is divided into three sections:

• Summary – .PDF

• Background – Paragraphs on each technology option mentioned – .PDF

• Appendix – One-page summaries of the technology with benefits information – .PDF

College and university transit agencies share many similarities with their larger municipal and regional transit agency cousins. Both typically provide fixed route, paratransit, and other demand-response services including charter services. They use the same equipment and employ bus operators who are required to have the same qualifications. Vehicle breakdowns, accidents, employee turnover, and passenger complaints are normal events for both as well.

We have identified five important differences between these types of agencies which significantly affect how they manage certain aspects of their operations and planning. These differences affect how quickly the agencies can purchase new technology, how they will use that technology, and how their customers will react to that technology.

1. Funding

College and university operated transit systems are primarily self-supporting auxiliary enterprises that generate revenue through transit fees and/or parking fees. A minority of the systems receive financial support from the institution’s general fund. However, very few college and university systems have access to Federal and state transportation funds. These transit systems are typically operated as ‘closed’ systems whereby only institutionally affiliated individuals may make use of the service. Federal and state funding is usually only available to agencies which provide service to the general public.

This presents a challenge to college and university transit agencies. Passenger fares are often ‘pre-paid’ when the student, faculty, or staff member pays the transit and/or parking fee at the beginning of each academic period. Public transit agencies operate using traditional fares and can increase revenue through various fare pricing strategies and marketing campaigns. Academic institutions operate their transit systems on a fixed budget, and can only increase revenue by increasing the transit and/or parking fees. Increasing revenue by raising these fees is a lengthy process. Student fees provide the bulk of the funding and are set two to three years in advance.

The level of transit ridership does not directly affect the revenue collected at a university or college transit agency. Since the fares are ‘pre-paid’ the revenue is collected even if very few students actually use the service. This can be helpful to ensuring the transit agency’s financial success during periods of low demand, but can be a great challenge when demand increases. Improving and adding service as demand increases is very difficult due to this static nature of college and university transit budgets. Many of these agencies operate on a premise each year whereby they either use their funding completely or lose what money remains. As a result, very little money is set aside and not allocated to existing line items. This can make even minor service level improvements a difficult and lengthy undertaking.

2. Capital Improvements

Closely related to the funding considerations is the college and university transit agency capital improvements process. College and university transit agencies typically have a ‘plant fund’ for capital projects that is maintained through regular allocations from their operating budgets. The purchase of new rolling stock, parking structures, maintenance and administration facilities, and large scale Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) infrastructure are all funded through this plant fund.

All participants in the ITS market, vendors and transit agencies, must understand that the procurement cycle for college and university transit agencies can be much longer than that of their larger municipal and regional agency cousins. The combination of static annual budgets, difficulty in increasing revenue from year to year, and the long term allocation of plant funds to improvements in existing infrastructure, can make it very difficult for a college and university transit agency to purchase ITS enhancements. What capital money these systems have is often allocated years in advance to facility rehabilitation or rolling stock replacement.

The dilemma for ITS providers is that the transit agencies want the technology but have a difficult time finding the funding for it. The providers must be willing to invest several years into the relationship with the transit agencies in order to facilitate a sale.

3. Service Planning

Service planning at college and university transit agencies can be a delicate process. Students are highly vocal critics of what they foresee as a poorly operated transit system. This combined with equally vocal parents, money-donating alumni, and the wishes of the surrounding community, creates a situation where transit service is not provided as efficiently or effectively as it could be. Transit service that is underutilized may continue to be provided at the behest of an individual with political clout. Transit service that is sorely needed may be denied as a method to effect change in the student concentration of certain residential areas.

Even in light of their ability to access IT resources, college and university transit agencies can be very ‘data-poor’ when it comes to the population they serve. Few agencies invest the time and effort required to ensure that their finite resources are being used to perform the greatest good. Agencies should periodically obtain information concerning student, faculty, and staff residential addresses from their campus registrar’s office. This ‘geo-data’ can be used in a Geographic Information System (GIS) to determine where the highest concentra tion of campus affiliates is located, and whether or not the existing transit service is adequately serving them. A GIS can make this task very easy by overlaying the concentration of campus affiliates on an area map, and including layers representing the existing transit routes.

4. Customer Base

The students, faculty, and staff at institutions of higher learning are generally very technologically savvy. Colleges and universities are some of the most IT-connected organizations in the country and the use of technology is readily apparent throughout each institution. Students register for classes and pay their bills online. Faculty members conduct classes and assign coursework online. Staff members register for benefits and complete their timesheets online. This comfort level and familiarity with new technology provides ITS vendors the ability to make some advantageous assumptions. For example, communication modes such as the Internet, WAP-enabled cell phones, and SMS text messaging can all be incorporated into an ITS project with the assumption that the users will have both the knowledge and equipment needed to access the information.

Campus affiliates are used to incorporating new technology into their daily lives. The transit agency and ITS vendor will have relatively little difficulty in persuading the passengers to use new technology and to believe in the technology’s merits. An example of this new transit technology is the Real-time Passenger Information System (RTPIS). This system provides transit passengers with information concerning bus arrival times at each passenger stop instantly or in ‘real-time.’ Users can access this information through a variety of methods, including the Internet, WAP-enabled cell phones, SMS text messages, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) telephone systems, and digital signage located at the bus stops.

5. Employee Recruitment and Retention

College and university transit agency employee recruitment and retention presents several challenges. These agencies are typically much smaller than municipal or regional agencies and as a result, employee salaries can be much lower for similar jobs. This makes recruiting and retaining high quality employees difficult. Employees may work in their positions at these agencies just long enough to gain experience for a more lucrative private sector position. The resulting revolving door makes it difficult to maintain consistent policies, procedures, and strategic plans.

Many agencies don’t have a formal method for gathering and permanently storing the combined institutional ‘memory’ of their various employees. As critical employees leave, their knowledge is lost to the agency and their work must be recreated. Many agencies find that they are simply treading water and are not able to make significant advances in service improvements and institutional planning.

College and university transit agencies attempt to counter this problem by providing benefits that private employers cannot. Free tuition for the employee, employee’s spouse, and employee’s children is often provided and can have a significant financial impact on the family’s budget. Public colleges and universities may also allow employees to participate in state-sponsored retirement plans, including defined benefit pensions. Lastly, employee leave is often more generous with up to 40 paid days off (holiday, sick, and vacation) per year.

Texas Tech

At the April 2008 APTA University Conference, Austin Pennington, the Vice President of the Student Government Association at Texas Tech proved what students can accomplish when they are truly motivated. In this case they found a way to fund an university transit system from the ground up.

Seven years ago it became glaringly evident that Texas Tech needed some form of organized public transportation. There was an overwhelming amount of drunken college drivers on the road resulting in accidents and DUIs.

The entire busing system was set and changed by the students. A student referendum was created to get buses on campus. In order to fund this endeavor, the students were required to pay a bus fee per credit hour on top of tuition, which generated approximately $2.4 million, $2.2 million of which were directed to transportation. The result was that of the 28,000 students attending Texas Tech, there were approximately 2 million riders per vehicle, substantially reducing the amount of accidents and DUIs, getting drunk college drivers off of the road.

Western Washington University

Devin Branson, associated students alternative transportation coordinator from Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington presented their experience funding their transit system at the APTA Reno Conference. He spearheaded the initiative to create a UPass system with the town of Bellingham and their transit system.

Devin deduced that there were four possible revenue sources: individual student UPass purchases, general university funds, parking fees, and a student approved fee in which a new transit fee would be created. The students decided to create a new transit-specific fee, which paid for a universal bus pass, late night shuttle service, physical improvements to the buses themselves, as well as staff support.

With the help of the Alternative Transportation committee, Devin was able to develop a financial estimate of how much students would need to pay. Initially they determined that $28 per quarter for each student would be an accurate amount. However, the capital overhead was too high and the excess capital would have to be submitted to the federal government. Therefore, they reduced the cost to $25 per quarter for each student to avoid excess capital to turn over to the government.

The UPass bus initiative was met with 80% student approval. After determining a $25 cost per pass, the transit system had a $2 million budget to work with to fund all costs including replacement buses, fueling, and marketing the system to students.

Their goals for the future include expanding their late night shuttle buses as their top priority. They have received grant funding, but are trying to pay for the system using only student money. However, currently their biggest obstacle is that there is not enough money for replacement buses.

The most important message from the “Financing Campus Transit Services” Session was this: “Student support is essential.”