Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA): Processing APC, Farebox, & Other Data
Download PDF"We manage a significant amount of information on a regular basis. One of our goals is to efficiently process all the information we integrate. The introduction of Trapeze APC Gateway takes us a step closer in achieving a fully integrated system. Gateway’s proven algorithm boosted our confidence in the APC/ridership data."
Joonie Tolosa, Manager Operations Analysis, Reporting & Systems, VTA
Background
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) is an independent special district that provides sustainable, accessible, community-focused transportation options for Santa Clara County. With a population of over 1.8 million, it is the most populous county in Northern California’s Bay Area. As the county’s congestion management agency, VTA is responsible for countywide transportation planning, including congestion management, design and construction of specific highway, pedestrian, and bicycle improvement projects, as well as promotion of transit oriented development. VTA operates three light rail lines, 70 bus lines, and paratransit service. The fiscal year 2011 ridership counts by Gateway show system (bus and light rail) boardings at 41.4 million.
Challenges
Before installing Trapeze APC Gateway, about one third of VTA’s bus and light rail vehicles were equipped with third party Automatic Passenger Counters (APC). VTA used an in-house software tool, developed using Microsoft Access, to process ridership and passenger miles. This software was inefficient for a number of reasons:
| Snapshot | |
|---|---|
| Type of service: | Public and Demand Response Transport |
| Number of Lines: | 3 Light Rail Lines, 70 Bus Lines, Demand Response Service |
| System Ridership (2011): | 41.4 million (bus & light rail) |
- No documentation of software code
- No back-up to system administrator
- Hard to track un-sampled trips
- Data was not centralized: Multiple Access files, Outdated Queries
In addition, the maintenance of this software was cumbersome and complicated. Because there were no standardized data validations the software relied heavily “on users doing the right thing.”
However, an agency such as VTA needs accurate ridership numbers to secure funding and effectively plan its service delivery. Therefore, it became obvious to VTA that it needed an APC solution with proven algorithms to produce centralized and accurate data; its maintenance needed to be simple and able to identify un-sampled trips.
Solution
VTA implemented Trapeze APC Gateway in 2010, after VTA staff and Trapeze specialists identified the critical features important to transit agencies. The APC Gateway is a web service that runs in the background waiting to process APC, Farebox, or Handheld Ride/Point Check data. The system can be configured to collect data from any number of systems simultaneously.
The Gateway looks for information to process. It follows these steps:
- Loading the data.
- Validating the data trying to match it to the schedule contained in FX.
- Load balancing of data by executing an algorithm that resolves negative loads due to inconsistencies in APC counts.
- Writing data into PLAN, Trapeze’s Ridership Analysis and Reporting System.
PLAN generates final output and fully customizable reports that are essential for a number of decision-making processes from executive decisions like increasing service to securing federal funding.
Any data that does not match the schedule or contains APC counts outside of user-defined thresholds is held for user review. This ensures that only valid data is loaded into PLAN.
Results / Conclusion
In addition to solving all of the issues with the previous process, the Gateway’s load balancing algorithm was 98 percent accurate when compared to manually checked data. VTA staff now can focus on analyzing ridership data rather than collecting it.
As a requirement of National Transit Database (NTD) reporting, the VTA is audited annually by an external financial auditor. The same auditor reviewed VTA’s APC data, ridership and passenger miles procedures, and load balancing methodology. The audit concluded with favorable findings. Thus, VTA feels confident with the data and is able to provide accurate ridership and passenger miles numbers to its management, the Federal Transit Administration’s NTD and the public.
