Kurt Raschke, a frequent collaborator on Mobility Lab technology programs, and Chris Barnes of FixWMATA.com (on the right) were leaving a session at TransportationCamp DC on how to improve real-time transit information when Mobility Lab TV‘s cameras caught up with them.
The video is no longer available, but here’s what they discussed:
Kurt was concerned about transit agencies losing faithful customers when their real-time bus and train arrival information is incorrect, thus leaving riders potential disgruntled and stranded.
Chris reiterated the need for real-time screens to be accurate. Bad information actually happens quite frequently, and it threatens the loyalty of transit riders.
The two agree that it’s much better to tell riders absolutely no information than supplying them with the wrong information. They said people have misplaced high-confidence levels when they look at their “fancy electronics” that tell them a very specific time that they need to get to their transit stops.
Kurt said the data is very noisy and Chris agreed that the data is rarely up to the standards of the often high-tech real-time information screens that depend on the data. They agreed that people should be demanding better and more open data from transit agencies.
Video by Kaiman Bros.