Over the past few weeks, many of you have shared details about what you are doing to keep essential transit operations flowing while maintaining a safe environment for riders and front line employees. Swiftly is committed to building community around shared learnings and best practices to help the transit industry emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic stronger and more unified.
On this page, you will find those learnings and best practices compiled into a series of articles. You can leverage this information to help drive safe and effective transit in your community.
Using Swiftly for Transit Operations during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Physical distancing is a top priority for everyone. We are learning from our partner agencies about the new ways teams are using Swiftly to make transit safer, whether in the office, in the field, or, increasingly, from home.
Operations
During this COVID-19 pandemic, operations teams have taken on the new responsibility of managing the fleet in a way that enables riders to follow physical distancing guidelines. Operations teams are using Swiftly to:
• Accurately monitor on-time performance to ensure that bus operators keep pace with scheduled timepoints now that traffic is much lighter
• Support operators on the front line by looking at granular schedule adherence data and finding opportunities to ask questions and offer coaching
• Ensure vehicle headway adherence so riders don’t crowd at bus stops
• See if additional trips may be needed to increase social distancing onboard buses
Customer Support
The role of customer support teams is to maintain open lines of communication with riders. More than ever, it’s critical to ensure safety and travel needs are met. Customer support teams are using Swiftly to:
• Check on service complaints or situations where overcrowding vehicles are reported
• See if additional trips may be needed to increase social distancing onboard buses
• Inform riders of changes to service so that they are able to plan accordingly
Safety and Risk Management
The role of safety and risk management is to ensure that the system allows for compliance with physical distancing requirements and that riders are aware and respecting those requirements. Safety and risk management teams are using Swiftly to:
• Verify vehicle location for ADA claims regarding wheelchair boarding
• Monitor vehicles and stops to ensure physical distancing
• Promote physical distancing and compliance with educational materials and enforcement
Service Planning and Scheduling
The role of service planning and scheduling is to adapt the network to serve the active communities (essential workers) and continuously adjust schedules to reflect public health shifts. Service planning and scheduling teams are using Swiftly to:
• Adjust schedules to better reflect current travel times
• Analyze how lighter traffic has impacted vehicle speeds, dwell times, and layovers
• Precisely determine before and after travel time differences
You may find the following resources useful:
Webinar Recording - Public Transit in the Time of COVID-19
Blog Article - How Are Public Transit Agencies Responding to COVID-19
Blog Article - Six Tips for Transit Agencies During COVID-19
Software products, like Swiftly, that facilitate efficient transit operations during COVID19 have been deemed essential and may qualify for government assisted purchasing.
This is new territory for all of us, but we are committed to supporting transit agencies through these challenging times. If you discover any new best practices, please share them with us and our broader community of partners by emailing us at [email protected]. If there is anything else that we can do to support you through these unprecedented times, including using Swiftly or product training, please tell us how we can help.