Transit Technology Report Released

The Small Urban and Rural Transit Center (SURTC) has published the findings from a national survey on technology use by transit agencies serving small urban and rural communities. The survey, which was completed by 451 agencies in 45 states, collected data on agency use of information and communications technologies, transit-specific technology, and manager characteristics. This data was joined with financial and operating statistics from the Rural National Transit Database.

The survey asked questions about managers' familiarity with and agency use of various technologies, the cost of completed implementations, as well as plans for future implementation.

The study modeled the impacts of agency and manager characteristics on the adoption of Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL), Computer-Aided Scheduling and Dispatch software (CASD), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and Mobile Data Terminals (MDTs). Agency size measured by fleet size, budget, and trips delivered are significant factors that impact the adoption of technology by rural transit agencies. Manager education and experience, attendance at national conferences, interaction with technology vendors, and participating in technology training were also found to be significant.

The recently released report, Technology Adoption by Small Urban & Rural Transit Agencies, is available in electronic form on the SURTC website.