Lyon County Area Transportation (LCAT): Browser-based Demand Response Management
Download PDF"NOVUS-DR is very easy to use. Once we set the system parameters to our liking, NOVUS-DR does the scheduling job, and I can focus on other tasks. This saves LCAT about two hours of manual scheduling each day. NOVUS-DR finds routing alternatives that we would have never thought of. It made us more efficient and increased ridership by 29 percent. Our riders are happy as well. Customer complaints went down by about 70 percent."
Ken Barrows, Transit Manager, LCAT, Lyon Department on Aging
Background
Lyon County Area Transportation (LCAT) is the public transportation provider for the City of Emporia, the county seat of Lyon County in Kansas. LCAT operates four demand response vehicles delivering up to 150 trips per day. In 2010 the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT), which contracts with almost one hundred 5311 providers, implemented Trapeze NOVUS demand response (DR) scheduling and dispatching system as the centralized structure to pull all the agencies together, helping Kansas to comply with the FTA’s Coordinated Transportation mandate. Agencies in Kansas such as LCAT are encouraged to join the statewide NOVUS network and implement the software as well.
Challenges
| Snapshot | |
|---|---|
| Type of service: | Demand Response and Fixed Route Transport |
| Number of Vehicles: | 4 demand response and 2 fixed route vehicles |
| DR Trips per Day: | 150 |
Prior to implementing Trapeze NOVUS-DR, LCAT had a manual scheduling system in place that was Excel based and worked with tracking charts. It was very time consuming to generate reports for KDOT and LCAT’s management.
The dispatchers had to do most of the routing manually. This system clearly wasn’t perfect and riders that had booked their trips were frequently “forgotten” and then filed complaints.
When KDOT decided to promote and fund the statewide use of NOVUS, LCAT was among the first agencies in Kansas to implement the Trapeze software.
Solution
NOVUS-DR is Trapeze’s demand response software solution. From call taking to dispatching, browser-based NOVUS-DR is an easy-to-use application for many aspects of LCAT’s demand response operations.
NOVUS-DR also offers reporting functions that make it easier for Transit Managers to produce performance and overview reports, as well as follow-up on client complaints. Ridership numbers and other performance indicators are automatically generated with the new system.
Results / Conclusion
Within the first month of the NOVUS-DR go live in April 2010, ridership at LCAT increased by 29 percent and remained at that level ever since. The system divides the LCAT service area into zones and picks up and drops off customers in the most effective manner. “NOVUS comes up with routes that we’d never thought of,” an LCAT dispatcher says. Thus the agency realizes significant savings on gas as well.
To further utilize NOVUS’ routing capabilities, LCAT widened the standard pickup window from five to 15 minutes, giving the system the opportunity to create even more efficient routes. Riders happily accepted the new pickup window policy when they noticed that the reliability of LCAT greatly increased. Complaints have gone down by as much as 70 percent.
LCAT plans to equip its vehicles with mobile computers in the near future, further streamlining their operations.
