Why the quotes around “gets” in the title?  Because Nashville is not only buying a transit GPS system, the “get” what the technology is all about … their citizens.

I’ve posted more than once about the propensity for US mass transit operators … especially city-operated bus entities … to appear actively rider-hostile.  Most cities operate their transit as a “necessary evil”, leaving the ridership a clear impression that they are “poor folk” who really ought to be driving a car and saving the city all the work and expense of providing bus transit.  I’m very glad to see that Nashville Metropolitan Transit Authority (Nashville MTA) is bucking the trend.  Props to Nashville, it’s certainly much higher on my list of places to live or start a business after reading this news.

This is the way to do it, in my view.  Start with a Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) application, track the busses to keep them on a schedule that meets the needs or riders rather than an inflexible paper schedule that often has the busses bunched up in one area while riders stand in the rain, waiting, and integrate paratransit service with the regular busses.

$7.3 million dollars spread over 24 may sound like an insurmountable hurdle to your operation, but let’s do a little back of the envelope analysis here:

  • 199 fixed route buses.  Based on my own experience with vehicle and labor operating costs the MTA will save not less than $120 per month per bus.  That’s over half a million right there.
  • 25 “white fleet” supervisory and support vehicles.  At least $100 per month, each, so another $60K or so.
  • 12 (est) Paratransit vans … easily $250 a month on these because of the increases in efficiency of the CAD system as well as the AVL(GPS Tracking) benefits.  Total here: another three-quarters of  a million saved. 

According to the way I figure it, in the two-year roll-out period the MTA will save back a million or more.  Further savings will accrue as the accounting systems and fare collection software is integrated.  I’m confident hat even though this is a top-end, full-service implementation, the city of Nashville’s payback (ROI) will be less than 5 years … even less if the price of fuel goes up (and how much chance of that is there?) … and what an improvement to an already progressive city.

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