Innovations in Transit Performance Measurement - Transit Performance Challenge

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KenCervenka
Innovations in Transit Performance Measurement - Transit Performance Challenge

Hello to the TMIP Forum Readers,

I am posting the following message (prepared by Amy Van Doren) at the request of the chairs for the TRB Committee on Transit Management & Performance (Amy Van Doren) and the Joint Subcommittee on Transformative Trends in Transit Data (Catherine Lawson).
Best wishes to all on whatever you might do, this sounds most interesting!
Ken Cervenka
FTA Office of Planning

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Be a part of the first ever TRB Transit Performance Measurement Challenge!

Submissions are due August 31, 2018. Data and details can be found at:

https://github.com/trb-innovations/transit-performance-challenge

The TRB Committee on Transit Management & Performance and the Joint Subcommittee on Transformative Trends in Transit Data are cosponsors.

The contest aims to advance the use of data by transit agencies to inform decisions, and encourage young people to participate in TRB. Participants are encouraged to develop innovative approaches to analyzing data and communicating results.

Thank you to the contest organizers and contest data-providers: Lou Cripps, Rachel VerBoort, Chris Pangilinan, Catherine Lawson, Rachel Dungca, Vy Phan-Hoang, and Katie Filardo!

Amy

See the GitHub site above for the links to resources mentioned below: This repository will contain contest guidelines and data for the TRB Innovations in Transit Performance Measurement Challenge. Contestants can use this repository to download the data.

Email submission to transitperformancechallenge@gmail.com by August 31, 2018.

Competition Objectives - The contest aims to advance the use of data by transit agencies to inform decisions and encourage young people to participate in TRB. Participants are encouraged to develop innovate approaches to analyzing data and communicating results.

Data Description - Contestants have a variety of options for data. Contestants may select to utilize data from within the agency he/she works. Alternatively, contestants are welcome to utilize publicly-available data via API/GTFS feeds, data provided on this contest's GitHub site, or from other challenges.

-Metro Transit (Minneapolis)

-Denver RTD (Colorado)

-Go to the web link above for the datasets from the 2013 Urban Data Challenge featuring San Francisco, Zurich, and Geneva.

-Go to the web link above for publicly available General Transit Feed Specifications (GTFS) data.

What to Submit - An innovative performance product.

Submissions can be an online dashboard, app, storyboard, PowerPoint, report or something else. Participants are encouraged to use interactive visualization tools, but are not required to do so. The submitter must ensure that the performance product is fully-functional and viewable using common software or a free reader.

A narrative write-up (no more than 6 pages total) that answers the following questions:

• What problem does the analysis seek to address?

• Who is your audience?

• What data source was used and why? How often should the data be updated?

• What analysis methods were applied?

• How would this product help the transit agency?

• How would you implement your performance product at scale?

Results and Awards - Selected participants will be notified by Sept. 28, 2018 and invited to present at the Jan. 2019 TRB Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.

Judging Criteria - Entries will be judged based on the following criteria:

Usefulness - Clearly identifies problem to be solved

• Meets customer need (customer can be defined as transit riders or internal transit agency customers)

• Technical

• Sound analysis approach

• Accuracy of results

• Accessibility

• Fully-functioning

• Attractive

• Easy to use

• Bonus: open source

• Resources

1. Wondering what problem to examine? Look to the Transit Cooperative Research Program and American Public Transportation Association for examples of research needs and current research.

2. Curious how to get started with General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) data? Check out the World Bank Open Learning Campus online course Introduction to the General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) and Informal Transit System Mapping. See the website link.

3. Not sure where to get started with data visualization? Take a look at TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Web-Only Document 226: Data Visualization Methods for Transportation Agencies.