Integrated National Transit Database Analysis System – Rural/Tribal NTD Module

June 24, 2015

U.S. Department of TransportationFederal Transit Administration

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Agenda

• Rob Tassinari – Senior Technical Director - National RTAP

• David L. Gray, Jr. – Regional Planning Manager – South Carolina DOT (SCDOT)

• Albert Gan, Ph.D. – Professor – Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering – Florida International University (FIU)

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History

• National RTAP Statement of Work– Rural NTD accessibility – post spreadsheet on website

• INTDAS presentation by Albert Gan• Agreement with FIU - Rural/Tribal module• Maintenance – Annual Update

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Agency Perspective

South Carolina Department of

Transportation

Transit Data Uses

Current and Future

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Agency Perspective

Current Uses of Transit Data• Collection and use of transit data by SCDOT

centers around three principal activities

–Comply with the National Transit Database reporting requirements

–Populate the allocation formula utilized by the agency to suballocate 5311 funds

–Create the agency’s annual report on transit activity

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Agency Perspective

• Use 1: NTD Data Reporting

–The NTD was established by Congress to be the Nation’s primary source for information and statistics on the transit systems of the United States. Recipients or beneficiaries of grants from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) under the Urbanized Area Formula Program (§5307) or Other than Urbanized Area (Rural) Formula Program (§5311) are required by statute to submit data to the NTD.

–The legislative requirement for the NTD is found in Title 49 U.S.C. 5335(a)

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Agency Reporting Requirements

–Under the NTD reporting requirements, SCDOT is obliged to collect data about individual public transportation providers in South Carolina

• Number of revenue vehicles operated by the providers

• Expenditures for operations and capital activities

• Sources of revenue received to pay for the expenditures

• Service data such as passenger trips, revenue miles vehicles traveled and revenue hours vehicles operated

• Safety data such as accidents, injuries and fatalities

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Agency Perspective

• Use 2: Allocation of 5311 Funds –Transit data is utilized in a funding formula which incorporates 6

measures to suballocate of Federal funds to sub-recipients

–Three of the measures are collected for the NTD reporting process

–Measures used• Amount of 5311 Federal funding each sub-recipient received in the previous

fiscal year (35% of allocation calculation)

• Number of passenger trips made in the previous fiscal year (15% of allocation calculation)

• Number of vehicle revenue miles traveled in the previous fiscal year (20% of allocation calculation)

• Number of vehicle the revenue hours operated in the previous fiscal year (20% of allocation calculation)

• Cost per passenger trip in the previous fiscal year (5% of allocation calculation)

• Population of rural service area (5% of allocation calculation)  

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Agency Perspective

• Allocation of 5311 Funds (continued)

‒The allocation formula is used to insure fair and equitable distribution of 5311 funds

‒The allocation formula has been in use since 2011 and is currently under evaluation to insure continued fair and equitable distribution of 5311 funds

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Agency Perspective

• Use 3: Annual Report–Transit Data is used by SCDOT to compile the agency’s yearly transit report (Transit Trends).

–Report focuses both on state-wide transit activities as well as activities of individual transit agencies

• Factors measured• Number of vehicles

• Number of Passenger Trips

• Vehicle Revenue Miles and Hours

• Revenues and expenses

• Costs per Passenger Trip, Revenue Mile and Revenue Hour

• Passenger Trips per Vehicle Revenue Mile and Revenue Hour

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Agency Perspective

• Annual Report (continued)‒Transit data utilized in the annual report is data collected for NTD reporting process, specifically

• Passenger Trips• Vehicle Revenue Miles• Vehicle Revenue Hours• Revenues• Expenses

– Report is available online at http://www.scdot.org/getting/publicTransit.aspx

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Agency Perspective

• Other Uses of Transit Data–Responses to transit related questions posed by the Legislature

–Long term planning and programming activities

–Distribute to transit providers for their own analytical use

–Provide for use by the general public

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Agency Perspective

• Future of Transit Data–Efficiency and effectiveness evaluations

• Transit data will be used in peer to peer comparisons to determine how South Carolina is faring in relation to other states

• Data points to be used will include

» Number of Revenue Vehicles

» Revenues and Expenses

» Passenger Trips

» Vehicle Revenue Miles and Hours

» Safety Data (Accidents, Injuries and Fatalities)

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Agency Perspective

• Efficiency and Effectiveness Evaluations

–Transit data to be utilized in the evaluations is data which is collected for NTD reporting

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Agency Perspective

• Use of NTD Data by SCDOT is two-fold–NTD data is measurable

• Awaiting performance measure standards from FTA

• NTD data provides current measures for transit performance which can be applied uniformly by all states

– NTD data is confirmed• NTD fully analyzes transit data at a national,

state and local level and certifies the data as accurate

• Eliminates uncertainty as to the validity of the data

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Agency Perspective

• Role of INTDAS–SCDOT sees INTDAS as a One-Stop Shop for NTD data needs

• Data in INDTAS is available for both transit providers and state transportation agencies

• Data is timely • Data layout is uniform for all states and for the

transit providers in each state• Data can be manipulated to generate reports

which can provide meaningful results for comparative analysis

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Questions

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Contact Information

U.S. Department of TransportationFederal Transit Administration

David L. Gray, Jr.(803) 737-0738

graydl@scdot.org www.scdot.org

Rob Tassinari(781) 404-5024

rtassinari@nationalrtap.org

www.nationalrtap.org

Albert Gan(305) 348-3116gana@fiu.eduwww.ftis.org