Mass Transit / Public Transport

GIS helps transit operators make safe, reliable decisions based on real information. GIS can be used to determine actual walking distances-not as-the-crow-flies estimates. GIS can improve the accuracy of estimating ridership and revenue levels based on neighborhood accessibility to new or existing routes, patterns, and stops.

Pedestrian walking times.

GIS can be used to manage and analyze critical information such as

  • Route planning and analysis
  • Bus dispatch and emergency response
  • Automatic vehicle location and tracking
  • Paratransit scheduling and routing
  • Bus stop and facility inventory
  • Rail system facility management
  • Track, power, communications, and signal maintenance
  • Accident reporting and analysis
  • Demographic analysis and route restructuring
  • Ridership analysis and reporting
  • Transportation planning and modeling

Learn More

GIS and Paratransit-Map-Based Solutions Respond with Efficiency to Paratransit Operations Demands
MassTransit, September/October 2006
[PDF-378 KB, 4 pages]

Best Practices for Using Geographic Data in Transit: A Location Referencing Guidebook
This Guidebook was developed at the request of the transit industry. It provides best practices for both transit managers and technical staff with respect to planning, implementing and using geographic data in transit. The Guidebook discusses issues and best practices for defining and using geographic locations of bus stops, routes, and other map data that are needed for successfully implementing Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) and GIS, as well as for obtaining operational efficiencies.

Visit Portland's TriMet, an online, interactive, map-based customer information system.

See how King County, Washington has organized its data with data from other local jurisdictions and state agencies to create a seamless regional data set for better planning and coordination of transportation activities.

Read GIS Provides Customer Satisfaction for Hong Kong Bus Company to learn about the company's new Digital Map Passenger Enquiry System (DMPES) that is based on ESRI software.
-by Jim Baumann, Directions Magazine

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