AlphaVu launches new metric for understanding public opinion of public transit

The National Transit LCB™ is the first in a portfolio of metrics that will be released over the summer of 2017 covering ports, airports, electricity, water, and pipeline infrastructure.

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July 13, 2017

AlphaVu launches new metric for understanding public opinion of public transit — The chart visualizes the trend in National Transit LCB over the past two weeks, segmented by market size--Metropolis, Urban, Suburban, Rural, and Micro. Each point on the graph corresponds to the LCB of each market size segment on that day. Upward trends in LCB are often a result of positive public service announcements, holidays, and service improvements, all conversations that result in significantly higher levels of positive engagement. Other changes in LCB, like a downward trend, signify an increase in negative conversations, usually regarding service complaints or community displeasure with capital construction projects, while a plateau represents an unchanging level of engagement and frequency within a given period of time.

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The chart visualizes the trend in National Transit LCB over the past two weeks, segmented by market size--Metropolis, Urban, Suburban, Rural, and Micro. Each point on the graph corresponds to the LCB of each market size segment on that day. Upward trends in LCB are often a result of positive public service announcements, holidays, and service improvements, all conversations that result in significantly higher levels of positive engagement. Other changes in LCB, like a downward trend, signify an increase in negative conversations, usually regarding service complaints or community displeasure with capital construction projects, while a plateau represents an unchanging level of engagement and frequency within a given period of time.

AlphaVu, a leader in social listening, data mining, and public opinion research in the transit and infrastructure industries, introduced National Transit LCB™, a comprehensive metric designed to provide leaders with real-time, actionable insight into public opinion around public transportation safety, operations, and capital construction projects. The National Transit LCB™ is the first in a portfolio of metrics that will be released over the summer of 2017 covering ports, airports, electricity, water, and pipeline infrastructure.

AlphaVu's National Transit LCB™ metric measures the frequency of individuals' engagement on social media with transit agencies across the country and combines that data with audience sentiment, relative to a defined list of specific topics. The National Transit LCB™ can be segmented by a wide range of adjustable variables, including region, industry, market size, and financing.

"Transit agencies, construction companies, project management firms, and private equity firms need actionable data on how the public perceives transportation infrastructure. The National Transit LCB™ gives them an immediate window into public opinion so they can form the best strategies to build, finance, and manage America's bus and rail systems," said Scott Wilkinson, President of AlphaVu.

The chart above visualizes the trend in National Transit LCB over the past two weeks, segmented by regional division. Included are five of ten total regional division segments--New England, East North Central, South Atlantic, West South Central, and Pacific. While LCB for four of the regional divisions was generally consistent, the trend in New England's LCB saw more dramatic spikes in the same time period. When users engage with New England transit agencies, their engagement expresses higher levels of positive sentiment resulting in more significant changes in LCB.

Traditional public opinion polling still relies heavily on phone surveys and other outdated methodologies that are ill-suited to today's digital age. By contrast, AlphaVu's LCB measures the conversation right where it's happening and among those most heavily involved, using proprietary algorithms to synthesize vast amounts of data from social media and digital channels. When cross-referenced with voter rolls, Census data, and other third-party data sets, the result is a granular portrait of public opinion that far exceeds the traditional polls in depth, detail, and scale.

The LCB adds a critical new feature to AlphaVu's expanding toolset. From this consolidated metric, AlphaVu can dig deeper into the specific drivers of public sentiment all the way down to the individual influencers shaping the conversation in individual communities across the country.

Topics:metrics Paratransit Bus Management Rail Technology