Connected Bus: Connected and Sustainable Mobility

Key Facts

• The Connected Bus is a landmark innovation and a key element of the Cisco Connected Urban Development (CUD) program—a public-private partnership focused on innovative use of information and communications technology (ICT) to make knowledge, people, traffic, and energy flow more efficiently. The connected bus is a physical instantiation of the Connected and Sustainable Mobility aspects of the Connected Urban Development (CUD) architecture.

• Pilot testing took place over a 12-month period in San Francisco, where the bus ran on one route. Feedback from citizen surveys, analysis from value cases, and data from test results of the bus’ features and functions were compiled. The “10 Townsend” line—which runs from the commuter train station through San Francisco’s Financial District, around the waterfront, and past several high schools— was the first SFMTA line selected for operational trials because it serves a segment of the population that owns wireless devices and would most likely use it on the bus. It also serves a heavily traveled tourist area, which was a good proving ground for real-time connection information displayed onboard.

  The connected bus intended to make public transportation convenient, comfortable, efficient, and reliable. The results of the pilot suggest that a connected infrastructure of this type would prove the appeal of public transport in San Francisco area and have a positive overall impact on the environment through a reduction in carbon emissions.

  Connected Public Transit (CPT)  is a set of information services that improves passengers’ experience through ubiquitous connectivity. Connected Public Transit can incorporate various “smart traveler” features that provide dynamic (changeable) guidance based on user profiles and context using real-time information. The Connected Bus is a 95 percent emissions-free hybrid vehicle that helps offset up to 55,000 car trips (270 tons of carbon emissions) each year. Key features include:

  • High-speed wireless Internet access for all passengers
  • “NextMuni” real-time travel information (location, routes, wait times, and more) via onboard touch screens 
  •  “Green Gauge” calculator that provides information on the environmental impact of The Connected Bus as it travels throughout San Francisco
• The project took 18 months to implement
• For the overall solution, the likely ROI is The cost/revenue attributes of the connected bus result in an NPV of $19,870 at a discount rate of 12 percent per bus. The impact of The Connected Bus technologies is 10-year cumulative revenue of $144,900 and a 10-year cumulative cost of $100,300. Proportional revenue contributions are shown in the following figure.

• Reduces emissions as more drivers turn to public transit, and as vehicles themselves run more efficiently. Emission-reduction factors fall into four categories:

  • Reduced dwell time: The amount of time a transit vehicle remains idling at a stop while passengers board, make inquiries of the operator, pay fares, and exit the vehicle.
  • Timely maintenance: A rigorous preventive maintenance program geared to each vehicle manufacturer, ensuring that transit vehicles stay in good repair and produce fewer emissions.
  • Efficient on-street operation: Efficient operation of the vehicle at the individual operator level will reduce emissions, as will efficient management of vehicles on each line of service.
  • Enhanced rider experience: By offering real-time information and enhanced safety and security to passengers, public transit becomes a more attractive option in San Francisco, a “Transit First” city.

  Enriches transit rider and operator experience, as defined by information accessibility, increased comfort, and green incentives. Connected Bus riders and operators will experience:

  • Prominent display of on-bus, real-time information, including status of connections at key transfer points. Allows riders to reach their destinations more reliably.
  • Real-time arrival information and passenger counts to help fleet managers ensure adequate capacity; addresses loading conditions and bus-to-bus transfers.
  • “Green” programs, which increase the reward for new riders who have switched from driving by offering data counts of environmental benefits per rider.
  • Online trackability of new, integrated data, allowing potential riders to follow select routes on the network, inviting them to switch to public transit with greater assurance.
  • New, publicly accessible data linkages, which offer innovative lifestyle benefits such as a parent tracking a child’s use of SFMTA by employing a mobile device to monitor a trip connection in real time, or a hotel concierge directing visitors to destinations with greater confidence.
    

  Helps the SFMTA comply with Federal Transit Administration (FTA) standards regarding regional and national interoperability:

  • Enables vendors to connect to one standard device, exclusive of vehicle manufacturer, for both bus and rail.
  • Increases operational effective¬ness because there will be fewer on-board devices and points of failure.
  • Enables on-board integration of systems such as APC (automatic passenger counter) and Transit Signal Priority to ensure that priority is given based on vehicle load to create a smarter vehicle.
  • Decreases technology upgrade costs—only one device (versus many) will require cyclical upgrades based on technological advancements.

  Improves reliability, as measured by schedule accuracy, operator availability, vehicle reliability, supervisor coverage, and congestion management:

  The Connected Bus on-board integration device address all five of these criteria:

  • Helps improve schedule accuracy by linking GPS to APC.
  • Addresses operator availability by using AVL (automatic vehicle location) to manage headways that are impacted by missed runs.
  • Increases vehicle reliability by tracking vehicle health and integrating resulting data to inform fleet deployment more effectively.
  • Provides the on-street supervisor with the technology to cover the system through NextMuni AVL/GPS data, vehicle health-monitoring data, APC, and other critical, real-time information.
  • Improves congestion management through integration of signal timing, cameras, and other traffic-monitoring devices.

  Increases transit operator effectiveness by enabling more effective communications, including:

  • Real-time display of key data, relieving the burden of information sharing between driver and rider.
  • Destinations, transfer points, and arrival times of connecting buses are all immediately evident to passengers.
• The actual (or likely) cost of the project is Delivering the specific functionality displayed on The Connected Bus requires a cumulative investment of US$144,500, or nearly $68,000 (NPV) over 10 years. This represents a 10-year total cost per passenger of 6.8 cents, compared with the operating cost of $2.38 per passenger over this same period for a standard bus.
• The primary sponsor for the project was Cisco’s Chairman and CEO John Chambers as a commitment to the Clinton Global Initiative, and as a core contribution to Cisco’s corporate social responsibility activities. Urban Development program has provided the leadership, direction and facilitation to make the pilot project successful.

What was the impact?

• Did you use a specific methodology or third party to calculate CO2e or KWh savings?

  A number of internationally recognized methodologies, Cisco derived and third party calculations are applied.

• Comments on energy savings

• 1450 t CO₂e has been saved on this project

• Notes about Carbon savings/calculations

  The environmental benefits of The Connected Bus are calculated in a simple manner that avoids some of the complexity of a detailed environmental impact analysis.
  
  Aggregate increased rider-ship per year is estimated at 15,375. Assuming that 5 percent of bus trips replaced a car trip, then 769 additional car trips were avoided. Compared with an average car trip of 6.3 miles (10 kilometers), the bus reduces carbon emissions by 1,537 metric tons. Subtracting the 87-metric-ton construction footprint, estimated in the value-case model, yields a net environmental benefit of 1,450 metric tons over 10 years.
• The project has independent verification for results

Making it Happen

• Barriers experienced during the initiation of the project

• What were the key lessons learnt?

  The Connected Bus pilot has been successful in terms of the measurement metrics stated earlier in this paper. There are, however, some practical considerations that must be addressed regarding the functioning and positioning of the touch screens for easy access by all riders, including disabled citizens, and protection against vandalism. The following lessons/points of note can be drawn from the study:
  
  Lesson 1: Also, heavy passenger loads and shorter rides were found to limit the use of Wi-Fi Internet access by bus riders.
  
  Lesson 2: San Francisco provided a challenging operating environment in   several ways. First, shorter rides compared to suburban express trains and buses  make Wi-Fi potentially less attractive.
  
  Lesson 3: Heavy passenger loads on SFMTA buses make it harder for riders to access touch screens or use laptop computers.
  
  Lesson 4: Vandalism to the touch screens is a significant concern.
  
  Lesson 5: When conducting a public transportation pilot like The Connected Bus, it is essential to have high-level endorsement from government leadership right from the start. In announcing The Connected Bus pilot, Mayor Newsom referred to the use of green technology to furnish passengers an “office on wheels” and provide amenities that would attract drivers.