School District Dispatch - Transit Management Center Functionality
Subsystem Description
The 'Transit Management Center' manages transit vehicle fleets and coordinates with other modes and transportation services. It provides operations, maintenance, customer information, planning and management functions for the transit property. It spans distinct central dispatch and garage management systems and supports the spectrum of fixed route, flexible route, paratransit services, transit rail, and bus rapid transit (BRT) service. The physical object's interfaces support communication between transit departments and with other operating entities such as emergency response services and traffic management systems.
Functional Object: Transit Center Environmental Monitoring
'Transit Center Environmental Monitoring' assimilates current and forecast road conditions and surface weather information from a variety of sources, including both weather service providers and vehicle probes. The collected environmental information is monitored and used to support transit operations.
Functional Object: Transit Center Fixed-Route Operations
'Transit Center Fixed–Route Operations' manages fixed route transit operations. It supports creation of schedules, blocks and runs for fixed and flexible route transit services. It allows fixed–route and flexible–route transit services to disseminate schedules and automatically updates customer service operator systems with the most current schedule information. It also supports automated dispatch of transit vehicles. Current vehicle schedule adherence and optimum scenarios for schedule adjustment are also provided. It also receives and processes transit vehicle loading data.
Functional Object: Transit Center Multi-Modal Coordination
'Transit Center Multi–Modal Coordination' supports transit service coordination between transit properties and coordinates with other surface and air transportation modes. As part of service coordination, it shares schedule and trip information, as well as transit transfer cluster (a collection of stop points, stations, or terminals where transfers can be made conveniently) and transfer point information between Multimodal Transportation Service Providers, Transit Agencies, and ISPs. An interface to Traffic Management also supports demand management strategies.
Functional Object: Transit Center Operator Assignment
'Transit Center Operator Assignment' automates and supports the assignment of transit vehicle operators to runs. It assigns operators to runs in a fair manner while minimizing labor and overtime services, considering operator preferences and qualifications, and automatically tracking and validating the number of work hours performed by each individual operator. It also provides an exception handling process for the operator assignment function to generate supplemental operator assignments when required by changes during the operating day.
Functional Object: Transit Center Security
'Transit Center Security' monitors transit vehicle operator or traveler activated alarms received from on–board a transit vehicle. It supports transit vehicle operator authentication and provides the capability to remotely disable a transit vehicle. It also includes the capability to alert operators and police to potential incidents identified by these security features.
Functional Object: Transit Center Vehicle Assignment
'Transit Center Vehicle Assignment' assigns individual transit vehicles to vehicle blocks and downloads this information to the transit vehicle. It also provides an exception handling process for the vehicle assignment function to generate new, supplemental vehicle assignments when required by changes during the operating day. It provides an inventory management function for the transit facility which stores functional attributes about each of the vehicles owned by the transit operator. These attributes permit the planning and assignment functions to match vehicles with routes based on suitability for the types of service required by the particular routes.
Functional Object: Transit Center Vehicle Tracking
'Transit Center Vehicle Tracking' monitors transit vehicle location. The location information is collected via a data communication link between the transit vehicles and the transit center. The location information is presented to the transit operator on a digitized map of the transit service area. The location data may be used to determine real time schedule adherence and update the transit system's schedule in real–time. The real–time schedule information is disseminated to other information providers, which furnish the information to travelers.
Functional Object: Transit Evacuation Support
'Transit Evacuation Support' manages transit resources to support evacuation and subsequent reentry of a population in the vicinity of a disaster or other emergency. It supports coordination of regional evacuation plans, identifying the transit role in a regional evacuation and identifying transit resources that would be used. During an evacuation, it coordinates the use of transit and school bus fleets, supporting evacuation of those with special needs and the general population. Transit service and fare schedules are adjusted and updated service and fare information is made available through traveler information systems.