Transit Stories with Pantonium

A well-designed fixed route is one that is accessible, convenient, and takes riders to the places they want to go. Having an understanding of how riders travel around their city is essential for transit agencies to design great fixed routes. Rider origin-destination data generated by on-demand service is the best source for these insights.  

Our operations team at Pantonium has helped numerous customers transform their transit systems by using on-demand travel data to produce optimal fixed routes.  

We spoke with Chris Childs, a key member of our operations team, and discussed: 

• How origin-destination data is generated by on-demand service 
• How we analyze and generate travel insights from the data 
• How we use insights to design optimal routes

Once a city deploys an on-demand transit system they begin collecting valuable data about where and when people are using public transit, city-wide travel patterns, and societal impacts. Cities gain the ability to better design their overall transit network to best achieve not only their transportation goals but also improve the quality of life for residents.

Belleville, Ontario is one city that utilized data to continually morph their transit service to consistently achieve their operational and service objectives.  

We hosted Belleville's Manager of Transit Operations, Paul Buck, to discuss their journey from evening-only ODT to a hybrid system of complementary ODT and fixed route services.

In this session, Khun Yee Fung, Pantonium’s co-founder and CTO, discusses the role routing algorithms play on-demand transit software platforms. Whether an on-demand transit system will be convenient to use for the rider and efficient to operate for the transit agency depends in large part on the routing algorithm chosen and implemented in the system.  

By understanding the inherent characteristics of the more common categories of routing algorithms, you will be able to better understand how, and how well, the various on-demand transit systems on the market will work for you.

Our last webinar session defined Macrotransit and how it differs from other on-demand approaches. In this episode, our Head of Sales, Jeremy Eves, reviews the application of Macrotransit to rural/regional transportation scenarios.

He will cover functional capabilities through sample use cases of how Pantonium can provide a single platform, on-demand technology approach for intercity, rural, and One-Click-One-Call deployments.

Are all on-demand transit software platforms created equal? Join us as we explore the differences between Microtransit and our own Macrotransit approach by reviewing existing deployments and the published outcomes.  

For those transit team members who are exploring on-demand transit options, this was a great opportunity to learn the intricacies of the different options.   

Stay tuned until the Q&A at the end where Jeremy answers questions from all the attendees!

On-Demand transit has been gaining in popularity and maturity as an innovative solution that Transit Agencies can use to address various challenges in operating public transportation services. This popularity has led to an increase in the number of technology providers, new terminology, and varied experiences which can create a cloud of confusion for those that are trying to assess how best to approach an on-demand transit solution.  

Pantonium brought together a panel of Transit Professionals to discuss the lessons they've learned from their own On-Demand Transit RFP experiences (from planning to deployment) and how they can be designed to encourage innovation and generate the best outcomes for your agency. 

Featuring:

- Sam Trebilcock, Transportation Planner at City of Sioux Falls

- Stephen Hunt, Principal Planner at Valley Regional Transit

With public transit facing enormous funding and operational challenges for 2021, there will be a surge of new funding from all levels of government to help with the recovery.  

We discuss with three policy experts to discuss this important question: How can policy incentivize public transit to avoid making service cuts as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic and not return to “business as usual”?

Guests:

– Drew Fagan, Professor, Public Policy, University of Toronto

– Mariya Frost, Director, Coles Center for Transportation

– Eric J. Miller, Director, UTTRI, University of Toronto

Recently the provincial government of Ontario announced that they want municipal transit agencies to look into replacing "low performing" fixed routes with private microtransit services. This garnered a surge of responses from transit advocates and sparked numerous discussions about outsourcing municipal transit.  

Pantonium hosted a discussion between three transit agencies from around North America to discuss different models of transit privatization, from the fully owned municipal transit model to the fully outsourced transit service, and everything in between.  

Learning Objectives:  

How can transit agencies operate sustainably alongside new political and economic realities 

In different circumstances, how can on-demand service be used to support all types of transit

Guests:

Michael Mousley, Manager of Transit, City of Stratford 

Joel Gardner, Executive Director, Ozark Regional Transit 

Ettore Iannacito, Transit Service Manager, St. Albert Transit

There have been hundreds of on-demand transit projects deployed around the world, but are transit agencies designing them for success? Pantonium’s team will discuss various approaches to designing an on-demand transit service based on our experiences deploying projects around North America and our observations from other similar projects.

Luke Mellor,  Milos Dobrijevic, and Jeremy Eves from Pantonium will discuss their recommendations for transit professionals considering new transit options.

Covered Topics

• On-Demand Transit vs Microtransit vs Paratransit
• Making a service area that grows ridership
• Implications of design choices on productivity and cost
• Outcomes and metrics to consider
• Case Studies: Stratford Transit and Ozark Regional Transit
• Questions

The City of Belleville introduced on-demand transit for their evening service in September of 2018. After a year in service, and 3,000 registered users, a research team from the University of Toronto conducted a survey to better understand the social benefits of on-demand transit service.

Professor Steven Farber, Department of Human Geography, and Shauna Brail, Director and Associate Professor, Urban Studies Program, join us to discuss the social and economic outcomes uncovered in their report.