Summary:  The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) held its annual Sustainability & Multimodal Planning Workshop in Boston, Massachusetts this week, from July 28 – 31, 2019.  This workshop is the premier forum for advancing cutting-edge practices in sustainability, multimodal planning, and scheduling in public transportation with a focus on increasing efficiencies, resiliency, and integration. Transit professionals came to learn about livable and sustainable development, facilities planning, clean bus technologies, and route design and service planning for enhanced mobility. The workshop was packed with thought-provoking speakers, roundtable discussions, and local technical tours.

Moovit’s Account Executive Michael Funaro was at the event. Here are his top-5 insights.

1. Planners do more than just planning: Transit planning departments have always been faced with complex issues like scheduling and system designs. But, planners in agencies large and small are contending with issues of ridership decline, congestion, integrating new modes of transportation into existing systems, new technologies like electric buses and how this all fits together. Planners need to be multi-disciplinary in their approach to solving big-picture problems — while paying attention to the small details of a schedule.
2. Climate and Health are topics that impact everyone and Transit is at the centre of the transition to cleaner fuels: Governments and cities around the world are confronting climate change and negative health impacts due to pollution from carbon-based resources. It is clear that transit not only has the ability to make a huge impact to reducing emissions and improving the health of a community, but public transit agencies need to lead the way to a healthier, carbon-zero future.
3. Data is king: when it comes to designing systems that are more reliable, faster and more attractive to riders, agencies need accurate and appropriate data. And, too much data can overwhelm a transit agency. By leveraging on-time performance metrics agencies are adjusting schedules to make them more achievable, and in the end, more reliable. (Learn about Moovit’s data-driven MaaS solutions that are helping agencies and planners to understand mobility patterns, analyze on-time performance, and more.)
4. Transit Hubs are fantastic opportunities for connecting people to a wider mobility grid: Mobility Hubs have always provided a focal point in the transportation network that seamlessly integrates different modes of transportation. Rethinking how people access and use hubs with multi-modal support can create activity centres that maximize first–mile last-mile connectivity.
5. Electrification is challenging: While electric buses provide an incredible opportunity for a cleaner and better future, they are challenging planners to completely rethink their service networks to support inherent limitations to travel distance and charging strategies. Data is critical to the planning process to build an electric service that works!

Don’t miss the Moovit team, including Michael, next week at ACT’s International Conference in New York, New York! 

Stop by booth #505 to learn about our leading MaaS solutions and how we can guide you and your city throughout your mobility journey.