Staying Relevant in the GIS World

1. Staying Relevant in the GIS World A Broad Look at GCRTA Mapping Applications and Challenges Samantha Erickson

2. Background • The RTA is Ohio’s largest transit property. • It is made up of • 64 fixed-bus routes • 1 heavy rail line • 2.5 light rail lines • 1 bus rapid transit line • Paratransit • 48.2 million passenger trips in 2012 • Service area 457 square miles, 1.4 million people

3. Funding - Operating • Receive $0 from the State of Ohio • Required to apply for Federal grants every year • Only rural transit properties receive state operating assistance • 1% of the county sales tax makes up about 70% of our operating budget • Passenger fares hover around 23%, bringing in $49.2 million in 2012

4. Funding - Capital • Capital funding budget in 2012 was $47.6 million • Ohio’s state funding for public transit equates to $0.92 per person. • Only 13 states rank lower • Of those, 10 have state populations under 5 million • Ohio population was 11.5 million in 2010.

6. Staying Relevant with Less • But authority-wide, TransitStat has saved us $48 million over five years. • Projects that make us more efficient • reduce costs • Only one project uses mapping as part of its analysis • 9 Divistions, 2 of which have ArcGIS • Two staff members with 10.1 licenses • Two staff members with 9.3 licenses • All four have job duties outside of mapping

7. Mapping Applications • Bus Stop Inventory • Bus Stop Reduction • Google Transit • New Bus Stop Signage • Computer Aided Dispatch/Records Management System (CAD/RMS)

8. Challenges • Culture: • Departments as their own silos • Projects, skills, staffing, budget • Staff: • Many job duties beyond mapping • Funding: • Change costs money

9. Bus Stop Inventory

10. Bus Stop Reduction Map and analysis by Heather Bates, Planner III at GCRTA

11. Google Transit Challenges:- Datum & Projection- Software Compatibility HASTUS – NAD 27 Google Map Inventoried stop (green arrow) using WGS84

12. New Signage

13. Changing Signage Systemwide • Requires coordination from multiple departments • Staffing to keep bus stop database current with what’s happening on the street • Haven’t figured this process out yet • New signs are coming to the streets whether we’re ready on the back end or not.

14. CAD/RMS Example Source: www. 911dispatch.com

15. Standardization Challenges • With two or even ten planners, it’s relatively easy to set naming standards • With hundreds of police officers, and multiple departments harder to enforce, especially over time • Example: • E. 79th St • E 79th • East 79th Street • E. 79

16. Now What?!

17. Goals • Continued and increased communication between departments • Google Transit: Update base map for the scheduling software • Keep up with bus-stop changes happening on the street • Ideally in a sustainable way • Making time: Developing a game plan to tackle geodatabases

18. Future Projects • Addressing safety of bus stops • Better real-time information • On signs • Online • Real technical support, or for GIS services to fall under an ITS umbrella • Increased use of mapping for analyses outside of the planning department

19. Contact Information • Samantha EricksonPlanner 3GCRTA(216) 781-4767serickson@gcrta.orgwww.riderta.org