EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The purpose of this document is to present the results of a review of the systems engineering processes used during the Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority's (CARTA) SmartBus Project. This review was part of the national evaluation of the SmartBus Project, a project that is being implemented in part with fiscal year (FY03) ITS Integration Program earmark funding and is being evaluated by the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office (ITS JPO) and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA).
BACKGROUND ON CARTA AND THE SMARTBUS PROJECT
Chattanooga, Tennessee is a city of about 170,000 people (about 500,000 in the metropolitan area) located near the Tennessee-Georgia border. CARTA serves this community by providing fixed-route bus service (16 routes), curb-to-curb transit for people with disabilities (Care-A-Van), a free electric shuttle in the downtown area, an incline railway up historic Lookout Mountain, several parking garages, and management for much of the on-street parking in the downtown area. It is a moderate-sized transit organization in a moderate-sized community.
The CARTA SmartBus project is a comprehensive transit ITS program for the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee. It involves deployment of a wide array of transit ITS technologies deployed over a long period of time, including:
- Data warehousing and reporting software to accumulate data from different CARTA applications and provide reports to support CARTA operations (completed in 2004).
- New operations management software to support fixed-route scheduling and demand response scheduling and dispatch (completed in 2006).
- Ticket vending machines (TVM) for the Incline Railway (completed in 2006).
- Network connectivity to CARTA vehicles via cellular Evolution-Data Optimized (EVDO) network, along with wireless public Internet access on CARTA buses (completed in 2007).
- A diagnostics maintenance system that collects vehicle diagnostic data (completed in 2006), systems to automatically collect the data each night (completed in 2008), and systems to deliver the data in real-time to CARTA maintenance personnel (scheduled for late 2010).
- A next stop automated announcement system, real-time arrival time estimation system, bus stop signs, and a website for real-time arrival times (completed in 2008). This included deployment of in-vehicle hardware (e.g., mobile data computers, GPS receivers, automated passenger counters), but without full integration of this hardware into working systems.
- New fareboxes and a revenue management system (completed in 2008).
- Automatic Passenger Counter (APC) central management software, integration of the APCs with that software, and calibration of the system (scheduled for 2009).
- Computer-Aided Dispatch/Automatic Vehicle Location (CAD/AVL) system, the deployment of flexible-route scheduling and dispatch management software and integration with the demand-response scheduling and dispatch management software (scheduled for 2009).
- Bus security systems, such as a covert alarm and on-board video surveillance (scheduled for 2010).
BACKGROUND ON THE EVALUATION
The goal of the evaluation is to determine the impacts of these various technologies in performing daily functions such as operations, scheduling, service planning, and maintenance and to gather and document any lessons learned by the project team throughout the deployment and evaluation process. One set of lessons learned relates to the systems engineering processes used by CARTA. This report describes that systems engineering process and the lessons learned during CARTA's ITS deployments.
CONCLUSIONS OF THE EVALUATION
Making the transition from an organization that made limited use of technology to one in which technology was an integral part of its operations was challenging for CARTA. There were a number of activities that appeared to be key to CARTA's successfully meeting these challenges:
- Documenting the long-term vision for ITS. CARTA developed documents that described its long-term vision for ITS, and these documents helped keep the agency on track in its deployments. The documents also helped ensure that long lead-time activities were completed in time to support future plans.
- Avoiding the temptation to do too much too fast. CARTA sequenced its deployments so that systems were deployed sequentially, avoiding deployment of dependent systems at the same time. For example, one reason the CARTA data warehouse was the first ITS deployment was that so many other systems would need to integrate with it. Deploying it first meant that it could be operating stably before these other integrations occurred.
- Being willing to accept schedule delays when needed to help manage deployment risks. When changes to CARTA's deployment schedule were needed, CARTA was willing to accept delays in order to control risks. For example, when the bus arrival time prediction system was deployed early to take advantage of an outside funding opportunity, CARTA delayed other deployment activities so as not to overburden its limited IT resources.
- Using a data warehouse. The presence of a data warehouse at CARTA simplified other deployments in two ways. First, the data warehouse provided reporting tools, which eliminated the need for sophisticated reporting tools in other CARTA applications. Second, applications could be integrated with the data warehouse, reducing the total number of interfaces that were required.
- Testing systems thoroughly before introducing them to operations. CARTA displayed a strong commitment to thoroughly testing all systems before accepting them as complete and introducing them to operations. CARTA found and corrected many problems during final testing. If these problems had occurred in an operational system, they could have caused operational problems that could have reduced the confidence of the public and CARTA management in the ITS plans.
As CARTA completes the last steps of its ITS deployment plans, it appears that CARTA's approach to these deployments has been a success. Most of the technologies the agency hoped to deploy in 2003 are now in place, with the final technologies scheduled for deployment by the end of 2010. Those whose jobs have been impacted by the technologies speak favorably of them. Following a systems engineering approach helped CARTA successfully deploy its ITS technologies and become a transit agency in which the careful application of technology improved operations across the agency.