This project assisted Hampton Roads Transit (HRT) in evaluating its Automatic Passenger Count (APC) system’s accuracy to achieve certification with the FTA. HRT sought to automate the time-consuming process of collecting National Transit Database (NTD) ridership data by utilizing its APCs. However, the agency’s APC data would need to be benchmarked against ridecheck results before this could happen.
Foursquare ITP developed an APC data cleaning process and compared the results to ridechecks. When discrepancies were found, Foursquare ITP led a process to review HRT’s maintenance and data collection processes to improve the result. HRT had the guidance it needed to hire a contractor to recalibrate its APC units and data reporting processes, ensuring it is on track to report NTD ridership figures accurately using its APC units.
Solutions and Outcomes
- Detailed analysis of challenges with current APC data collection.
- Roadmap to meeting FTA APC data quality standards.