Efficient Collection of Ridership and On- Time Performance Data - Init

Automatic Passenger Counting
Efficient Collection of Ridership and On-Time Performance Data
Introduction
1 Introduction
Reliable ridership data is not only important for government reporting but also necessary to help
better plan public transit services. The costs and efforts for manual passenger counting are extremely
high, the sampling plans are often not representative and the results are inaccurate. Automatic
Passenger Counting (APC) collects highly accurate ridership data and no manual ride
checkers are needed. APC is often integrated into an Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) system,
however also available as a stand alone system. This stand alone version allows transit agencies
who don’t have an AVL system to benefit from the advantages APC offers.
Metro in St. Louis is using APC as a standalone system on 40 buses and 87 LRV’s. In particular,
APC data was a critical component in the service reduction analysis in 2004 when approximately
$2 million dollars per year were saved through the service reduction without significantly
impacting overall ridership. In order to manually collect, analyze and manage the
route data which Metro receives from the Automatic Passenger Counting System, the agency
would have to spend a minimum of $700,000 per year. Metro measures on-time at every time
point for arrival and departure. In addition, the data is stored in a shared network drive so operations
can review how an operator is performing by printing the history and going over with the
operator how to improve the schedule adherence.
1.1 Technical Overview
Infrared sensors, mounted above each door, combine passive and active technology to achieve
highest accuracy. The sensors are connected to an on-board computer which retrieves and stores
the counts together with GPS location. As soon as the vehicle arrives in the garage area the collected
data is uploaded wireless LAN from the vehicles to a central server. A unique algorithm
which does not require any manual intervention matches the passenger counts to the schedule. A
projection feature extrapolates sample data to the full service. It should be specifically noted that
no driver interaction is required (“black box” solution). The turnkey APC system works from
end to end fully automated! All data is subsequently available in database for ad-hoc and automatically
scheduled statistical reports. Results are presented in tables, graphs and in a graphical
information system (GIS). NTD reporting is integrated.
1.2 Partnership
INIT has more than 6500 sensors installed in North America and Canada on buses and Light Rail
Vehicles. The APC system has been developed in conjunction with INIT´s cooperation partner
IRIS Infrared & Intelligent Sensors GmbH, Berlin (INIT AG is major shareholder of IRIS
GmbH).
Andreas Rakebrandt 05-08-02
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