METRO Magazine Logo
MenuMENU
SearchSEARCH

The dangers of ‘distracted commuting’

Over the past year, SEPTA officials have responded to a few track fall incidents each month. Surveillance cameras often show people — some talking or texting on their phones or otherwise distracted — walking past the yellow warning strip and landing into the track area. To decrease these incidents, SEPTA is making distracted commuting the focus of its second annual “Make the Safe Choice” Safety Day.

Read More →

Advancing women in transportation: Closing the gap

With President Obama’s recent bills regarding gender equality in the workplace, it’s hard to understand why gaps regarding pay, position, and opportunity for women still exist and why, in some industries such as transportation, gaps regarding position and opportunity are wider than in others.

Read More →
Safety Cornerby Louie MaielloMay 9, 2014

Training bus documentation...Focus on the facts

Going hand in hand with a standardized curriculum should be a standardized way of documenting student performance. When putting pen to paper, be sure an instructor’s documentation can be clearly understood by others who may need to refer back to it at a future date. Proper documentation is critical in the case of a student operator who may attempt to dispute a dismissal and may want to protest and pursue some type of legal options to challenge an instructor’s final evaluation.

Read More →
Ad Loading...
Green Viewsby Pamela BurnsApril 22, 2014

Innovative transit agency helps clear the air in Dallas-Fort Worth

Based on its population of more than 6.5 million people, Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) is the fourth largest metropolitan area in the country. Based on land area, it’s the second largest. Regional planners are always looking toward alternative modes of transportation to efficiently and effectively move residents to their destinations. This is particularly important considering that 10 counties in the DFW region are rated by the EPA as non-attainment areas for ground-level ozone.

Read More →
Transit Dispatchesby Heather RedfernApril 18, 2014

50 years of public transit milestones and memories

In the public transit world, 1964 marked the world’s first high-speed rail network, driverless train and California breaking ground on the BART system. It was an important year for public transportation in Philadelphia, too. On Feb. 18, 1964, the organizational meeting that established what is now the nation's sixth largest transportation agency —SEPTA — was held.

Read More →
Transit Dispatchesby Scott BelcherApril 14, 2014

Transit tech's future showcased at ITS World Congress

The Intelligent Transport Systems World Congress only occurs in the Americas once every three years and this Sept. 7 to 11 our industry returns to its origins. Five months from now in Detroit, 10,000 of the world’s high tech transportation leaders will gather to discuss and showcase the technologies that are driving the future of transportation.

Read More →
Ad Loading...
Transit Dispatchesby Paul MackieApril 7, 2014

Apple Transportation Program Stuck in Past

For years, Steve Jobs and company seem to have been our reliable guides to new technology and a better tomorrow. However, Apple’s decision to build a mammoth new headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. – miles from public transportation and adequate housing – amounts to a corporate denunciation of sustainability.

Read More →
Safety Cornerby Louie MaielloApril 3, 2014

Driver training: Avoid confusion between basic skills and route instruction

The "Training Bus Instructor" (TBI) spends hours diligently working with a new hire candidate to provide basic skills training. Through this process, the required skills and knowledge successfully transfers to the student operator and they are released to a "Route Familiarization Operator" (RFO) that will help them learn the routes.

Read More →
Transit Dispatchesby Zack ShubkagelApril 1, 2014

When branding new transit services, consider users first

The decision to add a new transit service can be energizing for transit agencies and communities alike. At the same time, however, this type of decision introduces a host of new questions your agency will need to address, including “What should the new service be named? What will the logo and branding look like? How will we reach consensus with all stakeholders? And, most importantly, “How will we attract and inform people who will want to use the system, so that the new line will be a success?”

Read More →
Ad Loading...
Transit Dispatchesby Heather RedfernMarch 21, 2014

Winter wreaks havoc, leaves transit weary

The winter of 2014 was relentless, with its deep freezes, ice storms, record snowfall, torrential rain and mudslides. The end of the season will be welcomed by transportation organizations across the country, especially in Philadelphia, where SEPTA’s service was impacted by 16 storms and weeks of extremely frigid temperatures.

Read More →
Transit Dispatchesby Paul MackieMarch 18, 2014

What If We Sold Transit Fares Like Cell-Phone Minutes?

How many cell-phone minutes do you pay for in a month? Or gigabytes of data? Are you on a family plan? Do you get a group discount from work? What does this even have to do with transit? If we think of a transit trip like we do a cell-phone minute (or megabyte) we start to realize that there are many ways to package our usage.

Read More →
Safety Cornerby Barak IsraelMarch 14, 2014

New tech puts mobile surveillance in the fast lane

APTA pegs annual bus ridership in the U.S. and Canada at around 5.4 billion. It goes without saying that transit agencies strive to keep passengers safe and secure, but with large fleets to manage and millions of annual riders things can and do go wrong. That’s why onboard video surveillance is so essential.

Read More →