Research on transit wait time convinces Florida county to invest $12.6 million in bus locator system

*********************************
There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
*********************************

External News Details

Broward County, Florida, approved by unanimous vote the allocation of $12.6 million for a bus locator and dispatcher system. Research has shown that giving passengers an accurate forecast makes them feel better about the entire transit experience, said Kari Edison Watkins, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. It can be more important to riders than increasing the frequency or timeliness of buses, for example. Watkins was part of a university research team that created an app called OneBusAway, now in use in Tampa, Seattle and Atlanta. She said she found that passengers waiting for buses feel a warped sense of time. "What happens is — and this is typical in all waiting situations, like when you're waiting in the doctor's office — you feel like you're waiting longer than you actually are," Watkins said "[But] when you have this information, it brings your perception of that wait in line with how long you're actually waiting."

Additional Information

Groups

School of City & Regional Planning

Categories
No categories were selected.
Keywords
broward county, bus locator, Kari Watkins, OneBusAway
Status
  • Created By: Kyle James
  • Workflow Status: Published
  • Created On: Mar 4, 2014 - 6:19am
  • Last Updated: Oct 7, 2016 - 10:26pm