Kansas Rural Transit ITS: Pilots to Assist with Regionalization

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Kansas Rural Transit ITSPilots to Assist with
Regionalization

• Lisa Koch, AICP
• Kansas Dept. of Transportation

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Presentation Outline

• Kansas Transit Background
• Future Kansas Transit Business Model
• ITS Pilots
• Next Steps

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Kansas Rural/Specialized Transit

• Rural General Public Transit
• 100 Providers
• Providers vary in size and coverage area
• Specialized
• 75 Specialized Transit Providers
• Providers vary in size, coverage area, and
  client-type

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No transit service
No transit service funded by KDOT
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No Public Transit Service
No transit service funded by KDOT
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Kansas Transit Background

• Current Structure Coordinated Transit Districts
• Created in 1992 by statute to require regional
  coordination.
• Each CTD is managed by a volunteer
• Very Limited funding associated with
  administration of CTD
• Members are KDOT grantee transit providers
  (limited membership otherwise)

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Coordinated Transit Districts
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Future Business Model

• Mobility Management Districts
• 10-12 districts that defined by travel patterns.
• Each district would have one Mobility Manager
  that KDOT would fund directly
• Required to meet a specific level of service
• Can subcontract with other transit providers
• The lead agency will use One Call dispatching.

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CTD vs. MMD
Today CTD Proposed MMD
Coordination Not required Required
Dispatching Free-for-all One-Call
Level of Service Requirement No Yes
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ITS Pilots

• Using Rural Transit ITS Pilots to inform a future
  statewide business model change
• Pilots started in 2006
• Reno County Area Transit (Hutchinson, Kansas)
• DSNWK (Hays, Kansas)

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Background
Topeka
Hays
Hutchinson
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Reno County Area Transit

• 3 Fixed Transit Routes
• Paratransit Service
• 6-10 Vehicles in Operation

• 1-2 Dispatchers on Duty

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DSNWK (Hays, KS)

• Primarily Paratransit
• Limited Fixed Route
• 6-10 Vehicles

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Pilot Components

• AVL Automated Vehicle Location
• CAD Computer Aided Dispatch
• MDT Mobile Data Terminals
• Report Generation

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Server Location

• Both dispatch sites work off a central server,
  located at KDOT Headquarters in Topeka.
• Not a 24/7 service
• Regular updates/reboots
• Outages common

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Its wonderfulwhen it works

• On-time Performance is Better
• Pressure is off the Dispatchers
• More consistent routing (less dispatcher
  deviations)

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Consistency is Key

• More layers when troubleshooting problems
• CAD Vendor
• MDT Vendor
• KDOT (Topeka)
• Local
• No (or little) reduction in paperwork
• What do you do when there is no written manifest
  and the CAD system is down?

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Future For Pilots

• Off-site server hosting
• Software upgrade
• 3 new pilot sites
• Statewide rollout next 5 years

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Thank you!

• Lisa Koch, AICP
• Public Transit Manager
• lisak_at_ksdot.org
• 785-296-4907