Arlington County’s Transit ITS Program Needs Assessment and Planning Study Presented to ITS Virginia | July 17, 2015

Arlington County 2

Arlington County Transit Bureau Local Transit Operations Arlington Transit (ART) Plan, operate and manage the local ART bus system Manage the County’s passenger service facilities program, including the Shirlington Station and all bus shelters and stops within Arlington Paratransit Services (STAR) Manage STAR (Specialized Transit for Arlington Residents), the supplementary local and regional curb-to-curb service for eligible Arlington residents, including a call center, STAR on the web, and STAR Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system for booking and scheduling services 3

Shirlington Bus Station 4

Goal: Develop and deploy advanced technology to solve on-street bus safety issues and provide accurate and timely information to both operations staff and transit customers.  Launched Transit ITS Program in 2010  Received TSA grant to develop Transit Security Plan  Supports local bus service and bus facilities  Need future on-going funding to expand local and regional technology systems  Need future funding to implement security systems Transit ITS and Security Program

Study Purpose Ten-year Transit ITS Strategic Plan for transit technology improvements and deployments –Arlington bus video system –Other bus on-board systems –Arlington bus operations and maintenance management –Bus stop real time information –Traveler information systems –Off-board payment systems –Transit Signal Priority (TSP) –Arlington paratransit operations

Strategic Plan Development Strategic Plan Inventory of existing systems and workflows User needs workshop and report Study of nationwide best practices Study and Plan Development

Transit ITS Inventory Conducted Summer 2014 Presents existing conditions of Arlington’s transit technology applications Reviews technology planned for near-term projects (e.g. Crystal City Potomac Yard Transitway)

Shirlington Bus Station 9

ART Bus Communications 10

User Needs Assessment User Needs Workshop Fall 2014 Surveyed internal stakeholders –Transit bus operations & maintenance contractor –Transit Bureau operations staff –Traffic Engineering & Operations –Commuter Services Bureau –Paratransit call center contractor –Transit capital projects staff Report describes expressed needs of users for improving business flows and technology upgrades

Best Practices Study Conducted fall 2014 / winter 2015 Evaluated national best practices in technology for transit and where technology is heading Identified where Arlington is a leader and where there is room for improvement Included interviews with several leading agencies and literature review of nationwide best practices

Nationwide Best Practices On-board cameras Transit Signal Priority Bus arrival information systems and displays E-ink display technology Dynamic/on-demand services (Bridj, Orlando FlexBus, Kutsuplus, Reveal) Business Intelligence/Data Analytics

Strategic Plan Identifies and prioritizes projects short term (FY16-FY20) and long term (FY21-FY25) Project descriptions with high-level scope of work Documented need for project and Arlington’s current practice Identifies all stakeholders involved and external considerations Preliminary capital and O&M cost estimates for each short term project Useful life and replacement plan Sequencing plan Identification of potential funding sources

Strategic Plan Priority Projects On-board cameras (bus video system) Upgrade paratransit call center infrastructure Transit Signal Priority Transitway off-vehicle fare collection Market research on real-time information technology for bus stops

Next Steps  Implement and expand Bus Stop Scoring Tool  Finalize task reports and strategic plan this summer  Present to County executive managers  Procure bus video system in fall of 2015  Incorporate into Arlington’s six-year Transit Development Plan (major update started this month)  Seek funding approval for new projects during biennial update of Arlington’s ten-year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP)

The End...of presentation Thank you for listening! Bee Buergler Arlington County Division of Transportation 2100 Clarendon Blvd., Suite 900 Arlington, VA

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