New York Sub-Regional ITS Architecture

Element Expanded Functional Requirements: MTA NYCT Paratransit Command Center

Functional Area: Transit Center Paratransit Operations
  1. The center shall process trip requests for demand responsive transit services, i.e. paratransit. Sources of the requests may include traveler information service providers.
  2. The center shall monitor the operational status of the demand response vehicles including status of passenger pick-up and drop-off.
  3. The center shall generate demand response transit (including paratransit) routes and schedules based on such factors as parameters input by the system operator, what other demand responsive transit schedules have been planned, the availability and location of vehicles, the relevance of any fixed transit routes and schedules, road network information, and incident information.
  4. The center shall dispatch demand response (paratransit) transit vehicles.
  5. The center shall exchange information with Maintenance and Construction Operations concerning work zones, roadway conditions, asset restrictions, work plans, etc.
  6. The center shall disseminate up-to-date schedules and route information to other centers for demand responsive transit services (paratransit).
  7. The center shall collect the log of passenger boardings and alightings from the paratransit vehicles.
Functional Area: Transit Center Vehicle Tracking
  1. The center shall monitor the locations of all transit vehicles within its network.
  2. The center shall determine adherence of transit vehicles to their assigned schedule.
  3. The center shall support an interface with a map update provider, or other appropriate data sources, through which updates of digitized map data can be obtained and used as a background for transit tracking and dispatch.
  4. The center shall provide transit operational data to traveler information service providers.
  5. The center shall provide collected transit probe data to traffic management centers and traveler information service providers for use in measuring current traffic conditions.
Functional Area: Transit Vehicle Operator Assignment
  1. The center shall maintain records of a transit vehicle operator's performance. This may be done utilizing standardized performance evaluation criteria set forth by governmental regulations and transit operating company policies, assessing the transit vehicle operator's driving history, and assessing comments from the transit vehicle operator's supervisor(s) as well as noting any moving violations or accidents, supervisor comments, government regulations, and company policies.
  2. The center shall assess the transit vehicle operator's availability based on previous work assignments, accumulated hours, plus health and vacation commitments.
  3. The center shall assign transit vehicle operators to transit schedules based on their eligibility, route preferences, seniority, and transit vehicle availability.
  4. The center shall provide an interface through which the transit vehicle operator information can be maintained - either from the transit vehicle operator, center personnel, or other functions.
  5. The center shall generate supplemental vehicle operator assignments as required due to change events that occur during the operating day.
Functional Area: Transit Data Collection
  1. The center shall collect transit management data such as transit fares and passenger use, transit services, paratransit operations, transit vehicle maintenance data, etc.
  2. The center shall assign quality control metrics and meta-data to be stored along with the data. Meta-data may include attributes that describe the source and quality of the data and the conditions surrounding the collection of the data.
  3. The center shall receive and respond to requests from ITS Archives for either a catalog of the transit data or for the data itself.
  4. The center shall be able to produce sample products of the data available.