With more capital funding available for transit systems in the U.S., many agencies are considering the implementation of technology to increase the efficiency of operations and to better serve customers. However, funding to perform a comprehensive technology needs assessment is not always available. Further, transit agency resources are often limited, and in smaller agencies, technical expertise may be lacking. Thus, a technology needs assessment is often not performed, resulting in the implementation of unnecessary or non-integrated technology, or taking the "do-nothing" approach. A needs assessment is crucial to the identification of the appropriate technologies that will address current and future transit agency goals. It can be performed using a framework that is described in this paper. The framework consists of five steps that range from stating and/or examining the current and future agency goals to developing a strategic technology plan that consists of ranked technology recommendations, cost and benefit information, and a deployment schedule. For the covering abstract see ITRD E114174.
Samenvatting