Page 54 - U4SSC Simple ways to be smart

a city with a population of 2 million, 200 routes operated by 1000 buses with 5000 bus stops, using
a two-member team and with information about the schedule, routes and location of stations being
available, will take no more than a few months to learn how to use the platform and prepare, test and
publish the static data. Once the data is published by Google Transit, the benefits are immediate:
city residents, visitors, frequent and occasional passengers can use Google Maps to plan their trips.

This system is low cost. The city does not pay to publish the transit data. The main cost for the city
is to prepare and keep the GTFS files updated. The passengers can use the service for free, only
covering the cost of the Internet connection. The city does not pay for the ICT infrastructure and
servers to provide the service to the passengers, nor is it responsible for producing, distributing
and maintaining the app (Google Maps) used by passengers. Google Maps is free, well known
and used by more than a billion people every month. 86

Results

Public Transport Information Systems based on Google Transit are already used in more than
70 countries in Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, North and South Americas. London, Paris, Madrid,
87
Lisbon, Tokyo and New York are some of the cities that use the service.

The metropolitan area of Goiania in Brazil is an example. Five companies operate a bus transport
network covering 6576 km and 18 cities, with a population of more than 2.2 million. The system has
2
more than 1200 buses, 290 routes and 6400 bus stops. The public and private agents responsible
for the service are integrated in an organization named RMTC. In 2009, RMTC developed a Public
88
Transport Information System with many components, including information systems, a call centre,
terminal and station signage and a service to help passengers plan their trips. Google Transit was
89
used for the latter.

A Public Transport Information System benefits the city by:

• Saving time for passengers by easily providing information.

• Giving passengers information to choose the best route depending on their needs, for example:
fastest, least transfers, most scenic, least walking, wheelchair accessible, etc.

• Contributing to the effort of moving people from private cars to public transport.

Keys to success

It is important to keep the data up-to-date and publish all changes in the public transport network.
Google Transit files should be automatically generated by the public transport systems. All changes
will be published to the passengers with minimum effort. The same parameters used to operate
the network will also be used to inform the passengers, reducing errors.

42 U4SSC: Simple ways to be smart