The Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) in Baltimore began administering the “Rate Your Ride” program on Jan. 9.

The Central Maryland Transportation Alliance created the program in September 2010 and operated it on a pilot basis until October 2011, receiving more than 6,500 responses.

This program allows public transportation riders to give instant feedback on the quality of their ride, using a text-message-based questionnaire. Rider responses have led to service improvements on several bus routes and provided lessons about how agencies can best use this type of data.

“Our thanks go out to the Transportation Alliance for starting the Rate Your Ride program and for giving us an opportunity, not only to participate from its inception, but also to continue it into the future,” said MTA Administrator Ralign T. Wells. “We see a great deal of potential in this platform for customer feedback as a tool both for making service improvements and for keeping the lines of communications open with our customers and community stakeholders.”

The agency is incorporating the data submitted through Rate Your Ride into its current set of performance metrics to help identify trends and make better decisions about prioritizing service adjustments.