Transactions Newsletter

Metropolitan Transportation Commission

Transit riders logged on to the TransitInfo Web site, located at www.transitinfo.org, an average of more than 3,600 times a day in 1998 to access route maps and schedules for more than four dozen public and private bus, train and ferry operators in the Bay Area and adjacent regions. And travelers dialed 817-1717, the regionwide number for TravInfo^TM, MTC's phone-based traveler information service, an average of 2,000 times a day last year.

TravInfo was launched as a federally funded field operational test in 1996, and transitioned to a regular MTC project in 1998, with a budget of $2.5 million this year. The easy-to-use caller interface -- a simple telephone call that accesses a voicemail system -- belies a sophisticated system for keeping tabs on traffic conditions. Developed by Caltrans in conjunction with MTC, the traffic monitoring system includes subpavement loop detectors along Bay Area freeways and strategically placed video cameras. Additional data is gleaned from the Freeway Service Patrol's roving tow trucks (see the SAFE section in this annual report), which are tracked via a global positioning system and serve as traffic probes, and from the California Highway Patrol's computer-aided dispatch system. The information-gathering network is slated for a number of upgrades in the coming months, which should improve the precision and timeliness of the TravInfo^TM reports.

In addition to providing traffic information, TravInfo connects callers with the phone information centers at more than two dozen public transit operators, and dispenses information about highway construction projects, carpooling, bicycling and more.

Thanks to private industry efforts to partner with MTC, TravInfo^TM traffic reports are now available on the World Wide Web, and increasingly, via a range of high-tech gear such as dashboard-mounted computers and handheld devices.

Now in its third year as an MTC project, the TransitInfo Web site, funded at $87,000 for 199899, is likewise taking a quantum leap, rolling out an interactive, online trip-planning feature in the spring of 1999.

-- Brenda Kahn