ITS Element: RoadRUNNER Paratransit Dispatch Center

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Description: The dispatch function for all RoadRUNNER paratransit or demand response transit vehicles. Now includes a CAD/AVL system.
Status: Existing
Stakeholder: RoadRUNNER Transit
Mapping: Emergency Management
Transit Management
Other Emergency Management

Interfaces:

City of Las Cruces Maintenance Dispatch
City of Las Cruces Public Information System
City of Las Cruces Traffic Management Center
Dona Ana County Engineering Services Dispatch
Dona Ana County Flood Commission Water Level Monitoring Systems
Dona Ana County Public Information System
Dona Ana County Traffic Operations Center
Dona Ana County/City of Las Cruces Emergency Operations Center (EOC)
Mesilla Valley MPO Data Warehouse
MVRDA Communications Center
NM DPS District 4 Dispatch Center
NMDOT District 1 Maintenance Office
NMDOT District 1 Public Information Office
NMDOT District 1 Public Transportation Management System (PTMS)
NMDOT NMRoads Admin
NMSU Parking System
NMSU Traffic Operations Center
NMSU Website
Other Transit Dispatch
Private Sector Traveler Information Services
RoadRUNNER Fixed Route Dispatch System
RoadRUNNER Paratransit Vehicles
RoadRUNNER Transit Information Center
RoadRUNNER Transit Website
South Central RTD Operations Center
Service Packages: AD1 - ITS Data Mart - NMDOT Public Transportation Management System (PTMS)
AD2 - ITS Data Warehouse - Las Cruces MPO Data Warehouse (1 of 2)
APTS01 - Transit Vehicle Tracking - RoadRUNNER
APTS03 - Demand Response Transit Operations - RoadRUNNER Paratransit (Dial-A-Ride)
APTS05 - Transit Security - RoadRUNNER Paratransit
APTS05 - Transit Security - RoadRUNNER Paratransit
APTS06 - Transit Fleet Management - RoadRUNNER
APTS07 - Multi-modal Coordination - Other Transit
APTS07 - Multi-modal Coordination - South Central RTD Operations
APTS07 - Multi-modal Coordination - RoadRUNNER Paratransit
APTS07 - Multi-modal Coordination - RoadRUNNER Fixed Route
APTS08 - Transit Traveler Information - RoadRUNNER Paratransit Operations
APTS08 - Transit Traveler Information - Aggie Shuttle
APTS10 - Transit Passenger Counting - RoadRUNNER
ATIS01 - Broadcast Traveler Information - New Mexico State University
ATIS01 - Broadcast Traveler Information - NMDOT District 1 (2 of 3) – Inputs
ATIS01 - Broadcast Traveler Information - Dona Ana County (1 of 3) – Inputs
ATIS01 - Broadcast Traveler Information - City of Las Cruces (1 of 3) – Inputs
ATIS02 - Interactive Traveler Information - NMDOT (1 of 2)
ATMS06 - Traffic Information Dissemination - New Mexico State University
ATMS06 - Traffic Information Dissemination - Dona Ana County (2 of 2)
ATMS06 - Traffic Information Dissemination - NMDOT (2 of 2)
ATMS06 - Traffic Information Dissemination - City of Las Cruces (2 of 2)
ATMS16 - Parking Facility Management - NMSU Parking System
EM06 - Wide-Area Alert - Amber / Silver Alert (2 of 3)
EM06 - Wide-Area Alert - General Wide Area Alerts
EM07 - Early Warning System - Dona Ana County Flood Commission Water Level Monitoring
EM09 - Evacuation and Reentry Management - Dona Ana County EOC (2 of 2)
MC04 - Weather Information Processing and Distribution - NMDOT (2 of 2)
MC04 - Weather Information Processing and Distribution - City of Las Cruces (2 of 2)
MC10 - Maintenance and Construction Activity Coordination - Activity Coordination - NMDOT (3 of 3)
MC10 - Maintenance and Construction Activity Coordination - Dona Ana County (2 of 2)
MC10 - Maintenance and Construction Activity Coordination - City of Las Cruces (2 of 2)
Functional Requirements:

Transit Center Fare Management

  • The center shall manage the actual value of transit fares for each segment of each regular transit route, including the transmission of the information to transit vehicles and transit stops or stations.
  • The center shall provide the capability for a system operator to manage the transit fares and control the exchange of transit fare information.
  • The center shall process the financial requests from the transit vehicles or roadside and manage an interface to a Financial Institution.
  • The center shall support the payment of transit fare transactions using data provided by the traveler cards / payment instruments.
  • The center shall be capable of establishing emergency fare structures to override all other fares during disasters, states of emergency, or evacuations.
  • The center shall maintain a list of invalid traveler credit identities or bad tag lists that can be forwarded to transit vehicles and transit stops or stations.
  • The center shall collect fare statistics data to implement variable and flexible fare structures.
  • The center shall exchange fare and load information with other transit management centers, including potential Centralized Payments facilities.
  • The center shall provide transit fare information to other centers, including traveler information providers upon request.

Transit Center Information Services

  • The center shall provide travelers using public transportation with traffic and advisory information upon request. Such information may include transit routes, schedules, transfer options, fares, real-time schedule adherence, current incidents, weather conditions, and special events.
  • The center shall provide transit information to the media including details of deviations from schedule of regular transit services.
  • The center shall exchange transit schedules, real-time arrival information, fare schedules, and general transit service information with other transit organizations to support transit traveler information systems.
  • The center shall provide transit service information to traveler information service providers including routes, schedules, schedule adherence, and fare information as well as transit service information during evacuation.
  • The center shall broadcast transit advisory data, including alerts and advisories pertaining to major emergencies, or man made disasters.

Transit Center Multi-Modal Coordination

  • The center shall coordinate schedules and services between transit agencies, traffic management, maintenance and construction operations, parking management, and other surface or air transportation modes.
  • The center shall share transfer cluster and transfer point information with multimodal transportation service providers, other transit agencies, and traveler information service providers. A transfer cluster is a collection of stop points, stations, or terminals where transfers can be made conveniently.
  • The center shall accept requests from traffic management to change routes and schedules as part of the implementation of demand management strategies.
  • The center shall provide transit operations personnel with the capability to control and monitor transit service coordination activities.

Transit Center Paratransit Operations

  • The center shall process trip requests for demand responsive transit services, i.e. paratransit. Sources of the requests may include traveler information service providers.
  • The center shall monitor the operational status of the demand response vehicles including status of passenger pick-up and drop-off.
  • The center shall generate demand response transit (including paratransit) routes and schedules based on such factors as parameters input by the system operator, what other demand responsive transit schedules have been planned, the availability and location of vehicles, the relevance of any fixed transit routes and schedules, road network information, and incident information.
  • The center shall dispatch demand response (paratransit) transit vehicles.
  • The center shall exchange information with Maintenance and Construction Operations concerning work zones, roadway conditions, asset restrictions, work plans, etc.
  • The center shall disseminate up-to-date schedules and route information to other centers for demand responsive transit services (paratransit).
  • The center shall collect the log of passenger boardings and alightings from the paratransit vehicles.

Transit Center Security

  • The center shall monitor transit vehicle operational data to determine if the transit vehicle is off-route and assess whether a security incident is occurring.
  • The center shall receive reports of emergencies on-board transit vehicles entered directly be the transit vehicle operator or from a traveler through interfaces such as panic buttons or alarm switches.
  • The center shall exchange transit incident information along with other service data with other transit agencies.
  • The center shall coordinate the response to security incidents involving transit with other agencies including Emergency Management, other transit agencies, media, traffic management, and traveler information service providers.

Transit Center Vehicle Tracking

  • The center shall monitor the locations of all transit vehicles within its network.
  • The center shall determine adherence of transit vehicles to their assigned schedule.
  • The center shall support an interface with a map update provider, or other appropriate data sources, through which updates of digitized map data can be obtained and used as a background for transit tracking and dispatch.
  • The center shall provide transit operational data to traveler information service providers.

Transit Garage Maintenance

  • The center shall collect operational and maintenance data from transit vehicles.
  • The center shall monitor the condition of a transit vehicle to analyze brake, drive train, sensors, fuel, steering, tire, processor, communications equipment, and transit vehicle mileage to identify mileage based maintenance, out-of-specification or imminent failure conditions.
  • The center shall generate transit vehicle maintenance schedules that identify the maintenance or repair to be performed and when the work is to be done.
  • The center shall generate transit vehicle availability listings, current and forecast, to support transit vehicle assignment planning based, in part, on the transit vehicle maintenance schedule.
  • The center shall assign technicians to a transit vehicle maintenance schedule, based upon such factors as personnel eligibility, work assignments, preferences and seniority.
  • The center shall verify that the transit vehicle maintenance activities were performed correctly, using the transit vehicle's status, the maintenance personnel's work assignment, and the transit maintenance schedules.
  • The center shall generate a time-stamped maintenance log of all maintenance activities performed on a transit vehicle.
  • The center shall provide transit operations personnel with the capability to update transit vehicle maintenance information and receive reports on all transit vehicle operations data.

Transit Vehicle Operator Assignment

  • The center shall maintain records of a transit vehicle operator's performance. This may be done utilizing standardized performance evaluation criteria set forth by governmental regulations and transit operating company policies, assessing the transit vehicle operator's driving history, and assessing comments from the transit vehicle operator's supervisor(s) as well as noting any moving violations or accidents, supervisor comments, government regulations, and company policies.
  • The center shall assess the transit vehicle operator's availability based on previous work assignments, accumulated hours, plus health and vacation commitments.
  • The center shall assign transit vehicle operators to transit schedules based on their eligibility, route preferences, seniority, and transit vehicle availability.
  • The center shall provide an interface through which the transit vehicle operator information can be maintained - either from the transit vehicle operator, center personnel, or other functions.

Transit Data Collection

  • The center shall collect transit management data such as transit fares and passenger use, transit services, paratransit operations, transit vehicle maintenance data, etc.
  • The center shall assign quality control metrics and meta-data to be stored along with the data. Meta-data may include attributes that describe the source and quality of the data and the conditions surrounding the collection of the data.
  • The center shall receive and respond to requests from ITS Archives for either a catalog of the transit data or for the data itself.
  • The center shall be able to produce sample products of the data available.

Transit Environmental Monitoring

  • The center shall assimilate current and forecast road conditions and surface weather information to more effectively manage transit operations.
  • The center shall collect current and forecast road and weather information from weather service providers.

Center Secure Area Surveillance

  • The center shall remotely monitor video images and audio surveillance data collected in traveler secure areas, which include transit stations, transit stops, rest areas, park and ride lots, and other fixed sites along travel routes (e.g., emergency pull-off areas and travel information centers). The data may be raw or pre-processed in the field.
  • The center shall remotely monitor video images and audio surveillance data collected on-board transit vehicles. The data may be raw or pre-processed in the field.
  • The center shall exchange surveillance data with other emergency centers.
  • The center shall identify potential security threats based on collected security surveillance data.
  • The center shall verify potential security threats by correlating security surveillance data from multiple sources.
  • The center shall remotely control security surveillance devices in traveler secure areas, which include transit stations, transit stops, rest areas, park and ride lots, and other fixed sites along travel routes (e.g., emergency pull-off areas and travel information centers).
  • The center shall remotely control security surveillance devices on-board transit vehicles.

Transit Evacuation Support

  • The center shall manage the use of transit resources to support evacuation and subsequent reentry of a population in the vicinity of a disaster or other emergency.
  • The center shall coordinate regional evacuation plans with Emergency Management - identifying the transit role in an evacuation and the transit resources that would be used.
  • The center shall coordinate the use of transit and school bus fleets during an evacuation, supporting evacuation of those with special needs and the general population.
  • The center shall adjust and update transit service and fare schedules and provide that information to other agencies as they coordinate evacuations.

Transit Center Passenger Counting

  • The center shall collect passenger count information from each transit vehicle.

Transit Transportation Operations Data Collection

  • The center shall collect real-time information on the state of the regional transportation system including current traffic and road conditions, weather conditions, special event and incident information.

Last updated: 08-08-14