All EXPO 2011 attendees can experience quality educational sessions without leaving the show floor! These educational sessions, presented by exhibitors, will cover topics related to public transportation technical, management, and operations issues.

Here’s a preliminary list of Transit Technology Showcases:

Real-Time Passenger Information in the Greater Iowa City Area: Bongo. Bongo is a regional, real-time passenger information system that serves the public transit agencies in Iowa City and Coralville, IA, and the University of Iowa.

The Foothill Transit Electric Bus Development Story. This session follows the electric bus development process at Foothill Transit in West Covina, CA, from dream to grant to construction to revenue service.

Induction Coils: Satisfying ADA Requirements for the Hearing Impaired. As transit systems deal with the needs of passengers with disabilities, often the hearing impaired do not receive as much attention as those with more visible disabilities. The installation of Induction Coils on train platforms, cars, and ticketing areas can help hearing-impaired riders by supplementing their hearing aid “T” coils.

How Integrated Payment and Information Systems Can Be the Key to Solving Tomorrow’s Urban Gridlock. Today’s smart-enabled public transit payment systems can be leveraged for macro integration among all public and private modes in a city or region—including bus, rail, ferry, tolling, bicycles, taxis, and private vehicles—to be part of the solution for better transport and urban planning.

Safety Beyond Regulations: Key Learning from High-Risk Operators. Learn fundamental issues related to transit organizations that manage operations with high exposure to serious accidents. This session will focus on methodologies for addressing the challenges and reducing potential for high-severity events.

Low Maintenance Capacitor-Based LED Emergency Lighting Systems. This session offers an overview of the advancement in both LED and Capacitive Storage technology, leading to lower power consumption, long service life, and reduced maintenance compared to conventional incandescent/fluorescent and battery technologies.

New Technology Resilient Wheels for Light Rail Vehicles. The session will explore and compare the European design alternative to the Bochum Wheel and will showcase ride characteristics and costly tooling investments.

Integrated Fare Management. Integrated Fare Management is a next-generation solution for automatic fare collection and management to enable a single payment across multiple transportation modes. It can result in lower capital and operating costs for transport providers, an enhanced customer experience for riders, and simplicity and interoperability across the entire value chain. 

Improve Your Bottom Line with Behavior-Based Fuel Management Solutions. Because fuel is one of the largest fleet operating costs, agencies need new and innovative fuel management tools to help improve efficiency and fleet performance at a time when costs continue to rise.

Optimizing Transit’s Effectiveness in Lean Budget Times. Using various real-world examples, participants will explore a comprehensive plan of strategies and analytical techniques that can be employed to improve service reliability, reduce travel time, improve the customer experience, and improve service effectiveness and efficiency.

Moving Beyond Mobile CCTV with Advanced Security Applications. Deploying mobile surveillance systems on fleet vehicles allows transit agencies to play a vital role in protecting our communities. Today’s challenge is how to adapt to additional security technologies and integrate these systems with platforms that enable proactive monitoring, rapid incident response, and better decision-making based on real-time information.

New Ways of Providing Customers with Real-Time Information. Real-time traveler information requires accurate schedules and vehicle location information. In the past, this information could be provided only as an extension of CAD/AVL systems. Today it can be provided as an add-on to systems even if no real-time vehicle hardware is installed.

Achieving Consensus: Addressing Noise Issues When Planning for Mass Transit. Come learn how audio-visual simulations can demonstrate multiple transit technologies in various settings and offer realistic replications of the indoor or outdoor sound impact at varying distances and types of ground surfaces.

Best Practices for Applying PSIM in Your Transit Operation. Transit agencies have been quick to adopt Physical Security Information Management technologies, but the resulting flood of data can obscure the big picture. This session lays out the key trends and challenges impacting today’s transit security command centers.