Enabling Bus Transit Service Quality Co-Monitoring Through Smartphone-Based Platform
The growing ubiquity of smartphones offers public transit agencies an opportunity to transform ways to measure, monitor, and manage service performance. The potential of a new tool is demonstrated for engaging customers in measuring satisfaction and co-monitoring [Editor’s note: This is the authors’...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Published: |
Transportation Research Board of the National Academies
2017
|
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/112777 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9162-6532 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1149-4144 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1929-7583 |
| _version_ | 1826205172625309696 |
|---|---|
| author | Zhao, Fang Qin, Zhengquan Pereira, Francisco Li, Corinna Lubin Zegras, Pericles C Shahid, Ayesha Ben-Akiva, Moshe E Zhao, Jinhua |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Zhao, Fang Qin, Zhengquan Pereira, Francisco Li, Corinna Lubin Zegras, Pericles C Shahid, Ayesha Ben-Akiva, Moshe E Zhao, Jinhua |
| author_sort | Zhao, Fang |
| collection | MIT |
| description | The growing ubiquity of smartphones offers public transit agencies an opportunity to transform ways to measure, monitor, and manage service performance. The potential of a new tool is demonstrated for engaging customers in measuring satisfaction and co-monitoring [Editor’s note: This is the authors’ word, meaning “agencies using public feedback to supplement official monitoring and regulation.”] bus service quality. The pilot project adapted a smartphone-based travel survey system, Future Mobility Sensing, to collect real-time customer feedback and objective operational measurements on specific bus trips. The system used a combination of GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and accelerometer data to track transit trips while soliciting users’ feedback on trip experience. Though not necessarily intended to replace traditional monitoring channels and processes, these data can complement official performance monitoring through a more real-time, customer-centric perspective. The pilot project operated publicly for 3 months on the Silver Line bus rapid transit in Boston, Massachusetts. Seventy-six participants completed the entrance survey; half of them actively participated and completed more than 500 questionnaires while on board either at the end of a trip, at the end of a day, or both. Participation was biased toward frequent Silver Line users, the majority of whom were white and of higher income. Indicative models of user-reported satisfaction reveal some interesting relationships, but the models can be improved by fusing the app-collected data with actual performance characteristics. Broader and more sustained user engagement remains a critical future challenge. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:08:34Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/112777 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:08:34Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Transportation Research Board of the National Academies |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1127772022-10-01T13:17:29Z Enabling Bus Transit Service Quality Co-Monitoring Through Smartphone-Based Platform Zhao, Fang Qin, Zhengquan Pereira, Francisco Li, Corinna Lubin Zegras, Pericles C Shahid, Ayesha Ben-Akiva, Moshe E Zhao, Jinhua Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Urban Studies and Planning Zegras, P. Christopher Li, Corinna Lubin Zegras, Pericles C Shahid, Ayesha Ben-Akiva, Moshe E Zhao, Jinhua The growing ubiquity of smartphones offers public transit agencies an opportunity to transform ways to measure, monitor, and manage service performance. The potential of a new tool is demonstrated for engaging customers in measuring satisfaction and co-monitoring [Editor’s note: This is the authors’ word, meaning “agencies using public feedback to supplement official monitoring and regulation.”] bus service quality. The pilot project adapted a smartphone-based travel survey system, Future Mobility Sensing, to collect real-time customer feedback and objective operational measurements on specific bus trips. The system used a combination of GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and accelerometer data to track transit trips while soliciting users’ feedback on trip experience. Though not necessarily intended to replace traditional monitoring channels and processes, these data can complement official performance monitoring through a more real-time, customer-centric perspective. The pilot project operated publicly for 3 months on the Silver Line bus rapid transit in Boston, Massachusetts. Seventy-six participants completed the entrance survey; half of them actively participated and completed more than 500 questionnaires while on board either at the end of a trip, at the end of a day, or both. Participation was biased toward frequent Silver Line users, the majority of whom were white and of higher income. Indicative models of user-reported satisfaction reveal some interesting relationships, but the models can be improved by fusing the app-collected data with actual performance characteristics. Broader and more sustained user engagement remains a critical future challenge. 2017-12-18T14:44:01Z 2017-12-18T14:44:01Z 2017 2017-12-14T20:38:31Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0361-1981 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/112777 Li, Corinna et al. “Enabling Bus Transit Service Quality Co-Monitoring Through Smartphone-Based Platform.” Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board 2649 (January 2017): 42–51 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9162-6532 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1149-4144 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1929-7583 http://dx.doi.org/10.3141/2649-05 Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf Transportation Research Board of the National Academies Zegras |
| spellingShingle | Zhao, Fang Qin, Zhengquan Pereira, Francisco Li, Corinna Lubin Zegras, Pericles C Shahid, Ayesha Ben-Akiva, Moshe E Zhao, Jinhua Enabling Bus Transit Service Quality Co-Monitoring Through Smartphone-Based Platform |
| title | Enabling Bus Transit Service Quality Co-Monitoring Through Smartphone-Based Platform |
| title_full | Enabling Bus Transit Service Quality Co-Monitoring Through Smartphone-Based Platform |
| title_fullStr | Enabling Bus Transit Service Quality Co-Monitoring Through Smartphone-Based Platform |
| title_full_unstemmed | Enabling Bus Transit Service Quality Co-Monitoring Through Smartphone-Based Platform |
| title_short | Enabling Bus Transit Service Quality Co-Monitoring Through Smartphone-Based Platform |
| title_sort | enabling bus transit service quality co monitoring through smartphone based platform |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/112777 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9162-6532 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1149-4144 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1929-7583 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT zhaofang enablingbustransitservicequalitycomonitoringthroughsmartphonebasedplatform AT qinzhengquan enablingbustransitservicequalitycomonitoringthroughsmartphonebasedplatform AT pereirafrancisco enablingbustransitservicequalitycomonitoringthroughsmartphonebasedplatform AT licorinnalubin enablingbustransitservicequalitycomonitoringthroughsmartphonebasedplatform AT zegraspericlesc enablingbustransitservicequalitycomonitoringthroughsmartphonebasedplatform AT shahidayesha enablingbustransitservicequalitycomonitoringthroughsmartphonebasedplatform AT benakivamoshee enablingbustransitservicequalitycomonitoringthroughsmartphonebasedplatform AT zhaojinhua enablingbustransitservicequalitycomonitoringthroughsmartphonebasedplatform |