About PLAN Ridership Analysis
Every public transit agency in the United States is required to report on passenger miles and route productivity in accordance with regulations laid out by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) through methods prescribed by the National Transit Database (NTD).
Every transit agency can collect a large amount of data about its transit services. The real challenge is to organize the data into meaningful information. To receive federal funds, not only is it necessary to examine the data to measure performance, but also to report this data to the FTA and NTD.
More information about the FTA can be found in their website at: http://www.fta.dot.gov
Information on the National Transit Database can be found at: https://www.transit.dot.gov/ntd
- Gathering data directly from both current and past schedules.
- Importing and integrating data that has been collected in other ways (such as by hand, electronic faring, Automated Passenger Counters, and Electronic Ticket Machines) into one database.
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Matching ridership information to existing schedule information.
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Automatically generating NTD reports that are ready for submission.
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Generating reports on ridership statistics for future route planning and for internal budgets.
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Exporting results to other applications.
Whether or not your transit site is required to submit government reports, the results from Ridership Analysis can help you lower operating costs significantly by allowing you to identify quickly the trips that have the highest and lowest ridership and those with chronic schedule adherence problems. Financial benefits can be realized by targeting problem areas and making necessary scheduling adjustments.