Aaron Gooze is another ITE @ GT student finishing his MS degree this week. Here’s a short description of his thesis.
The usage of real-time transit information has been expanding in the past few years as more and more agencies have come to realize the benefits to not only their operations but to the well-being of their riders. The expansion has been aided by the rapid increase in mobile application technology and the ability for transit agencies to deploy real-time information in an open data environment. My research evaluated the users of OneBusAway, a real-time mobile application deployed in Seattle since 2008. While riders conveyed an overall increase in their levels of satisfaction and ridership due to the mobile application, issues emerged regarding the accuracy of the real-time prediction data. A large portion of the research sought to answer a simple question: when is a prediction an error and how do riders react? On average, riders expected a bus to arrive within a 4 to 5 minute window of the predicted time before they perceived the information as incorrect. Of note was the difference between various rider groups, as those who rode more often had a higher tolerance for errors with the predictions in comparison to infrequent riders. While a significant portion of riders stated that they rode less due to the errors, a Transit Ambassador program emerged as a process to crowdsource information in order to diminish the negative effects. This program showcased the potential of leveraging the passion of the rider community to not just improve the transit system, but to enhance the relationship between agencies and riders alike.