T3 Webinar Overview

Give Your Customers More Mobility Options!
Utilizing Technology in Coordinated Human Services Transportation Systems

Date:   Thursday, April 14, 2016
Time:  1:00 PM – 2:30 PM ET
Cost:  All T3 webinars are free of charge
PDH:  1.5   View PDH Policy

T3 Webinars are brought to you by the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Professional Capacity Building (PCB) Program of the U.S. Department of Transportation's (U.S. DOT) ITS Joint Program Office (JPO). References in this webinar to any specific commercial products, processes, or services, or the use of any trade, firm, or corporation name is for the information and convenience of the public, and does not constitute endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the U.S. DOT.

Background

This webinar will discuss key Mobility Services for All Americans (MSAA) priorities, such as system interoperability and common data format, and highlight important elements for planning and deploying Travel Management Coordination Centers (TMCCs) for coordinated human service transportation (HST) systems.

As the population ages, Americans are dependent on transportation services provided for seniors, veterans, persons with disabilities, and the economically disadvantaged. Transportation services are often fragmented, unreliable, and inefficiently operated, with a lack of coordination among service providers. In response, President George Bush signed the MSAA Executive Order in 2004. Since then, the U.S. DOT ITS JPO and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) have made progress to improve transportation services and simplify access to employment, healthcare, education and other community activities using ITS technology. ITS technology includes fleet scheduling, integrated fare payment and processing systems, and demand-response systems that enable door-to-door transportation services through a simplified, one-stop process. The integration of these ITS technologies has created both physical and virtual TMCCs that network all parties together.

Agenda

Carol Schweiger will describe the best practices in planning, designing and implementing technology for human service transportation.

Paula (Polly) Okunieff will review gaps and activities underway both internationally and in the U.S. to develop standards to enable seamless and accessible mobility services.

Lawrence Harman will report on a year-long effort by the FTA to build on the Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) project Standardizing Data for Mobility Management to create consensus on an approach to open data exchange (interoperability).

Jeff Becker will provide an overview of a case study describing the need for agency coordination, the application of trip exchange technology among different scheduling systems, and overcoming institutional barriers.

The webinar will conclude with an online question and answer session.

Target Audience

Anyone interested in ITS, transit, mobility management, mobility on demand, transportation planning and deployment, and human services transportation coordination.

Learning Objectives

• Learn the basic technologies that can facilitate human service transportation (HST).
• Gain an understanding of how to plan better for technology implementation in an HST environment.
• Gain a clearer understanding of the purpose, use, and importance of human services transportation data standardization and interoperability.
• Learn the organizations identifying and developing standards (particularly fare and payment) for HST.
• Learn how to employ a Mobility Coordinator and technology to exchange customer trips among the providers to support coordination.

Host

Charlene M. Wilder, Transportation Management Specialist, FTA, U.S. DOT (Washington, D.C.)

Ms. Wilder is a Transportation Management Specialist for the FTA, in Washington, D.C. She manages ITS Projects for the Office of Research, Demonstration, and Innovation. Her areas of expertise include open data guidelines for transit; rural ITS coordination; advanced technologies for persons with disabilities; and traveler information systems, including 511 and real-time information systems. She currently manages three ITS/JPO funded MSAA deployment planning projects awarded to the United Cerebral Palsy of San Luis Obispo, San Luis, California Atlanta Regional Commission, Atlanta, Georgia; and Via Mobility Services, Denver, Colorado. On Capitol Hill, Wilder served as a Congressional Fellow on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. She received the Secretary of Transportation's award for developing communities of best practices. She also received special recognition from the Department of Transportation and the Transportation Research Board for her expertise in older Americans' transportation issues. Wilder has a B.S Degree from Troy State University and an M.A. from Central Michigan University.

Presenters

Carol Schweiger, President of Schweiger Consulting, (Boston, Massachusetts)

Ms. Schweiger has over 36 years of experience, and is nationally and internationally recognized in transportation technology consulting. Her wide-ranging and in-depth expertise is in several specialty areas including systems engineering, technology strategies for public agencies, public transit technology, and traveler information strategies and systems. Schweiger has provided 45 transportation agencies with detailed technology technical assistance, and co-developed and was the lead instructor for five transit technology training courses for the National Transit Institute (NTI). She authored five Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Synthesis reports related to transit traveler information, and authored one and co-authored two full TCRP reports. She serves as Chairperson of New England ITS, and is a Charter Member of the Public Transportation Systems and Services (PTSS) Committee of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America), and a member of the Program Committee of the ITS World Congress, TRB ITS Committee and TRB Committee on Emerging and Innovative Public Transport and Technologies.

Paula (Polly) Okunieff, President GO Systems and Solutions, LLC (Boston, Massachusetts)

Ms. Okunieff is a Senior Solution Architect with over 33 years of experience as a systems, business, and data analyst with 25 of those years developing system and enterprise architectures, strategic plans, technical designs, and specifications to deploy transit and transportation technologies. Okunieff was a key contributor to the Camden County Workforce Investment Board's MSAA concept of operations and requirements grant. She has participated in intelligent transportation best practices and standards development activities since 1992, working with TCRP/NCHRP, APTA, NTCIP, SAE, IEEE, ITE, IETC, and ISO committees to develop training, technical, research and State-of-the-Art reports, and technical standards.

Lawrence J. Harman, Co-Director of the GeoGraphics Laboratory at Bridgewater State University (Bridgewater, Massachusetts)

Mr. Harman has more than 45 years of experience in transit and paratransit operations, planning, policy and research. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Earth Science and Education from Bridgewater State University and a Masters in Urban Planning from the University of Washington. He was a Fellow for Advanced Technology (geographic information systems and intelligent transportation systems) at the National Transit Institute at Rutgers University and completed the senior executive program at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. A Vietnam-Era veteran, he is a graduate of the U.S. Army Intelligence School's Imagery Interpretation and Intelligence Analysis courses. Currently, he is co-project manager/principal investigator for MSAA data standardization and interoperability project. His current research interest is in developing concepts of Smart Cities as a Service (SCaaS) in tribal, small urban and rural settings.

Jeff Becker, Senior Manager of Service Development, Regional Transportation District (RTD) (Denver, Colorado)

Mr. Becker has over 40 years as a practitioner developing and implementing both traditional and innovative modes of public transportation, including demand-responsive (DRT) or paratransit. The Denver RTD has a service area population of more than 2.8 million in 2,348 square miles and services include bus, light rail, shuttles, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) paratransit, general public demand responsive services (“Call-n-Ride”), vanpools, and others.