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COVERAGE OF THE 2018 APTA ANNUAL MEETING

Big Data Helps Reveal Value of Public Transit

Regina Clewlow, chief executive officer and co-founder, Populus, a data platform for private mobility operators and cities, delivered an opening presentation on how public transit agencies can cope with the “disruptions” of transportation network companies and other nontraditional modes at the Sept. 26 Closing General Session, “Discovering Transit’s Value Messages in Big Data.”

“Transit is rapidly evolving,” Clewlow said, citing the “unprecedented pace” of private mobility services operated by businesses, autonomous vehicles (AV), bikesharing and scooters along with ridesharing companies. She used the term “mass transit” to refer to bus and rail transit, using “public transportation” for the larger context.

She described how mass transit provides more benefits than the newer technologies, including improved rider health (citing statistics showing that a 1 percent increase in transit use correlates with a 0.2 percent decline in obesity rates), minimal increase in congestion compared with AVs replacing single-occupancy cars and higher wages related to business expansions served by transit.

However, agencies will need better data on impacts of shared mobility if they are going to plan well for the future, she said.

Panelists, from left: William T. Thomsen, Regina Clewlow, John M. Nations, Flora M. Castillo and Rob Gannon.

Serving as moderator, William T. Thomsen, member of the APTA Executive Committee and president/CEO, Urban Engineers of New York, P.C., posed the question: “How might we uncover this new advocacy message and use data to help tell transit’s story and make its case?”

John M. Nations, president and CEO, Bi-State Development Agency, St. Louis, outlined opportunities to share public transit’s value vis-à-vis healthcare. He noted that conversations about access to healthcare tend to focus on health insurance, rather than how to get a patient to a facility.

“There will be a return on investment if you invest in the transportation component,” he said. “We can look at how hospitals can partner with public transportation agencies to get patients to facilities. By putting industries together with the data that’s available, you can show that an increased investment on the transit side can lead to savings on the health side.”

Flora M. Castillo, a New Jersey Transit Corporation board member employed in the healthcare field, agreed. She described “three Rs”: redefining, reframing and reconnecting public transit’s mission as mobility managers/integrators to improve the safety, health and wellbeing of the community. Studies show that public transportation ranks highly as a consideration for hospital patients, and this provides opportunities for public transit agencies to form new partnerships, she explained.

Clewlow then described three challenges that public transit agencies must address: make better use of the data that systems currently generate; address the amount of data not digitized; and improve access to the data generated by the growing segment of new mobility services.

“Dockless vehicles, requiring no infrastructure, can be easily distributed in lower-income areas,” she said. “Working in partnership with these companies and using this data, we can explore expanded access to mobility and first-, last-mile solutions and develop new policy frameworks to help achieve our goals.”

Rob Gannon, member of the APTA Board of Directors and general manager of King County Metro Transit in Seattle, described how companies such as Amazon and Microsoft areseeking opportunity in “robust communities.” Public transit can show itself as “an engine of economic development.”

As a company evolves, Gannon said, it starts to focus on creating the competitive advantage by locating where it can attract top talent. “Public transportation draws the workforce into a region; we make a region viable for companies,” he said.

Public transportation generates significant data, Gannon explained, but “our platforms are not as agile as they need to be; they really aren’t equipped to focus on big data and its utilization in a way that can keep pace with today’s consumer. The question is, how do we become better stewards and users of our data.”

Nations described public transit as an essential component of a successful economic development strategy. Data derived from the community tells an agency many things about customer focus. He described how, for those who are transit dependent, getting to a healthcare facility can make for a long day. His agency has secured a grant to partner with a local health department to put mobile screening units at transit stations and also a grant to form a partnership to bring fresh food kiosks to stations. He explained that, realizing the value of public transportation in the community, the private sector is now investing in and helping improve transit in St. Louis.

Clewlow revealed a significant statistic in closing: “When Uber and Lyft started, 33 percent of people in U.S. had smartphones. Now it is approximately 80 percent,” she said. “That shapes how people are moving in cities.”

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