Metro Magazine, September/October 2015
gions public transportation system became the first in the U S to adopt a delegated management and investment model It selected the French based conglomerate Transdev to assume almost all of the functions and operations that were previously the purview of New Orleans Regional Transit Authority RTA including all of the commercial risks even the legal financial insurance ones All that is except the ultimate responsibility Oversight of the system remains with the RTAs Board of Commissioners which monitors Transdevs service performance compliance with the authoritys policies and budget progress Both approaches represent a new paradigm of public transportation service planning delivery and operation aided by much richer real time data collection and analysis In this paradigm public transportation infrastructure is seen as a dynamically provided public utility but managed with big data in real time the kind of data use and management that make the new ride hailing services work WHITHER GOVERNMENT IN ALL THIS Despite calls for greater private involvement there has always been a role for government in public transport whether it was the royally chartered horse drawn coaches in London or Paris during the 17th Century the city licenses and franchises for electric street railways that were common in the 19th and 20th Centuries in this country or the gamut of current public private arrangements we have today all around the world Uber Lyft Bridj and the like are writing another chapter in that history They offer new services that can both fill the gaps between and often compete with traditional public transportation services but in ways current policy never envisioned Can public transportation learn to live cooperate and even learn a thing or two from these new ways of doing business Thus far the answer appears to be yes but as these services spread and they will what they and public transportation do next will shape cities not only in the near future but beyond TfL also uses real time data thoroughly and not only for great passenger information through its very good website and mobile applications It also uses the data to monitor performance on the concession contracts which also contain both incentives for exceptional performance new vehicles and other aspects of quality and penalties for poor performance Finally long term investment decisions are more accurately made because the data is dynamically collected collated and monitored in much the same way as ride hailing services do The idea is continuous improvement and nimble response to the latest changes in conditions New Orleans is the first city in the U S to try some of these concepts but with a single private operator In 2009 the re22 mETRO mAGAZINE SEPTEMBER OCTOBER 2015 metro magazine com THE UBER EFFECT Cliff Henke is an assistant VP and senior analyst with WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff Any views expressed herein are solely his own
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