IPMI Leadership Presentation Review
Passio recently had the chance to present at the IPMI Leadership Summit 2020. We wanted to ensure that everyone who saw our presentation left feeling encouraged and excited about the future of transit technology. Though times have been tough, and transit has gone through many changes in 2020, transit will always be essential! Mitch Skyer, President and Co-Founder of Passio Technologies spoke to represent Passio Technologies.
The main message of our presentation was “Pivoting”. While times of distress are always tricky, change to transit needs presents a unique opportunity to update, improve, and think of things differently. We wanted our audience to think about where we are headed as an industry and what new items we’ve never gotten the chance to test, like contact tracing, improved passenger counting, and new technologies that go along with these innovations.
Some of the big challenges of 2020 were: more vehicle cleanings, contact tracing, dynamic routing, mobile payments or free fare, service level adjustments, rider/driver safety, and other innovative solutions – all coming from the crisis COVID-19.
We discussed thinking differently and using resources where you can, like how we helped a client use their vehicles for emergency food deliveries. Some transit agencies used buses currently not being used to offer rides to medical care, function as mobile shelters, or deliver school supplies. In Japan, one company even formed their buses into a maze shape and sold tickets to enter the maze! We encouraged all of the presentation listeners to think of ways they could use their resources differently.
One of the most critical issues we covered is PPE (Personal Protective Equipment), which is being used on all transit until further notice in most states. Vehicles are also undergoing enhanced cleanings. When COVID-19 began, ridership plummeted, but increasing cleanings and communicating this change to riders could bring them back.
Many agencies went to a new model to allow for touchless payments where they are allowing payments using card swipes or mobile apps. Other agencies have temporarily suspended charges.
A huge change was the introduction of contact tracing, passenger counting but noting which passengers were boarding at each time, done using mag strips or RFID cards from riders. This way, if someone becomes sick, they can let the transit agency know, who will then alert the people on board the vehicle. Having this technology is increasingly important to protect against COVID-19. Using contact tracing, which Passio offers currently, ensures passengers are counted and allows for social distancing on-board by changing the number of passengers for each bus to a lower number. This is something new transit agencies can implement now.
A recently growing trend is micro-transit, which has been gaining popularity in the past few months. We encouraged those watching our presentation to keep this in mind and potentially offer micro-transit or supporting micro-transit use in their communities. For those with their own micro-transit, can riders bring them on-board like they would a bike?
Another chance to adapt is with route flexibility. Some agencies are implementing new technology, like ride requests, so fixed routes only stop when a ride is requested, cutting down on stop time! Passio offers this technology through an add on feature to our app, called Request & GO.
Watch our video of our presentation from the IPMI show to learn more!
