Industry Survey Illustrates Frustrations Transit Agencies Have with Providers of Transit Prioritization Technology

Officials frustrated by providers’ lack of cross-sharing of data to improve transit network performance

Washington DC – TRB 2022 Annual Conference – LYT, a leader in intelligent connected traffic technology solutions, announced today results of a recent industry study to better understand how local municipal officials and transit network decision makers are leveraging transit prioritization technology and the opportunity for sharing critical data for systems improvements.

LYT collected feedback from an online survey it commissioned in early December 2021 where it presented questions to more than 3,000 industry officials about transit system networks and prioritization technologies currently being utilized. According to the survey results, of those communities leveraging transit prioritization technologies the majority of respondents said they’re seeing growing improvements in on-time performance of their transit network.

Many communities who have yet to implement transit prioritization technologies said they are considering, but 27% are looking for the right technology provider; 26% want to make sure it is budgeted correctly; and 15% are seeking private partners to help finance.

“Finding the right partner who can implement the right transit prioritization system is paramount to the success of every community’s transportation network,” said Timothy Menard, CEO and Founder of LYT. “The identification of a partner who has a successful track record for technology implementation and success using sharing of data is even more important than finding budget in many cases.”

Those communities that are currently running transit prioritization technologies indicated they are experiencing a handful of frustrations. Seventy-one percent (71%) of respondents said their current electronic data provider does not allow for the integration of transit vehicle data with other systems. It is possible that this is taking place because 60% say their current Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) or other electronic data provider rely on hardware that is proprietary to their company and not available from other manufacturers.

This is problematic, especially since 90% of respondents and community officials believe they own their transit vehicle data, not the provider. Furthermore, 89% say they are frustrated that their current provider does not allow for the cross-sharing of data.

Read more about the industry survey here.