See the whole picture: Accelerating the journey to sustainability with data literacy and trust
In our industry, the work we do every day has a real impact. Public transportation is among the biggest levers we can pull to build better cities and a more sustainable world. For far too long, our industry has struggled to achieve excellence, and yet we keep on trying.
So what keeps us coming back? Why are we here?
We are all here to improve our public transportation service, wherever it is.
Why do we want to do that?
We want to improve our cities and regions.
Why do we want to do that?
We want to make our cities more liveable, and reduce the amount of carbon entering the atmosphere.
Effective, accessible public transportation is recognised as one of the key elements of liveable cities. On top of liveability, NGOs and governments around the world have committed to some serious carbon reduction goals:
We, the public transport industry, can actively accelerate this process and create a more sustainable world for everyone. Public transport can decarbonise and decongest, leading to a more sustainable world.
We know that in reality not all public transport systems are excellent. That’s why we have adopted this as Snapper’s vision:
We create excellent experiences in public transport that accelerate the journey towards a more sustainable world.
If we do that well, with shared ambition and collaboration, together we all accelerate the journey toward a more sustainable world.
From Vision to Reality
In our conversations with transport authorities and operators, we hear time and again that data quality and availability are significant pain points.
Consider this:
This doesn't only impact us as public transport professionals, our passengers feel the pain as well.
Transport Focus surveys consistently reflect low levels of passenger satisfaction with the punctuality and reliability of the network. Satisfaction decreases even further with information on vehicle capacity.
You are not alone. Our research with transport operators and authorities tells us that they feel frustrated that they can’t make the progress that they need to.
They feel frustrated because they are dedicated professionals who are trying to make their service, their region and the planet better for everyone.
Sometimes the criticism can sting – people don’t want to do the work, they don’t care, they are out of touch in their ivory tower, or they don’t have the skills to get the job done. It turns out nothing could be further from the truth.
Our research shows that people do want to do the work, they care deeply and are committed to this sector. Just think about you and your colleagues who have committed their lives and careers to make public transport excellent.
There are three essential elements to creating an excellent public transport experience. You need to see:
And for that, you need to see the whole picture.
Understanding Data Literacy's Role
Let’s dig into this further. Our industry has an abundance of data coming from more sources than we can imagine. So do we have a skill gap when it comes to understanding and working with that data?
Fundamentally, data literacy is the ability to:
These are all skills that we see demonstrated time and again in the sector.
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So where is the pain?
We believe it is in the data itself.
It is impossible to make informed decisions and good progress when you can’t see the whole picture, or can’t trust the picture you’ve been given. We see mounting frustration, mistrust, and an inability to make progress, especially for simple changes.
What causes the picture to be incomplete, or worse - incorrect?
Consistently, operators and authorities tell us they want to broaden the population of people who see network performance information in their organisation. They want greater confidence in data quality and accuracy and faster and easier reporting processes.
Finding a Path Forward
This is not a new problem and we’re not the first to try to solve it. Historically, operators and authorities have had multiple options available to them.
Ultimately these systems don’t evolve and don’t leverage the full capability of your public transport network. The quality of their results is inconsistent, which makes them hard to trust and rely on. They are one-off and expensive, requiring significant investment to execute a bespoke solution that will be outdated before it is even implemented.
That’s why you can’t see the whole picture.
That's why it takes a long time to move to an environment of continuously improving the network.
That’s why we can’t make public transport excellent.
That’s why we are moving too slowly towards a sustainable future.
It is time to change that.
You’ve told us that what you need is:
Introducing our Transit Intelligence Suite
Snapper's Transit Intelligence Suite makes your network performance visible, helping you understand current performance and uncover incremental improvement opportunities.
The Transit Intelligence Suite leverages real-time information (RTI), ticketing, and other data sets to create a single, reliable source of truth. The modular tools can be mixed and matched with your existing system to complement and extend your toolkit, not replace it.
The Transit Intelligence Suite builds on experience with our partners at Greater Wellington Regional Council and on the challenges we see across the industry. Everything from changing customer demand and fare changes, to fluctuating supply, driver shortages, and coverage for ad-hoc services. The ability to respond to change swiftly and accurately is invaluable to operators and authorities globally, and we want to bring these benefits to everyone.
Snapper Analytics, our insights and analysis tool, helps you understand the largest drivers of KPI performance across routes and trips. User-friendly interfaces make data accessible for everyone from operational users to customer service and executive leadership.
The Driver App is a lightweight tool for creating heartbeats in real time, ready to be shared alongside existing RTI data feeds across your network for happier passengers and better operational data. The Driver App also enables passenger counting and payment terminal integration.
Snapper Live View is a companion tool for the Driver App, giving operators visibility over the current state and location of vehicles across the network. Operators can instantly validate the accuracy of their RTI data collection in Live View, building confidence in their data.
We are thrilled that the Transit Intelligence Suite has already been celebrated with Transport Ticketing Awards. The data processing platform underpinning the Transit Intelligence Suite received the 2022 Transport Ticketing Enabler award, while the predecessor for our analytics tool won the 2021 Most Innovative Customer Serving Operator award.
Where to next?
The Transit Intelligence Suite is constantly being expanded and improved. We're taking customer feedback and research to add new features and capabilities to our tools.
We have several customers already using the Transit Intelligence Suite to extend their networks and improve customer experiences in public transport. Plus, we're working with an exciting group of partners to help more authorities and operators achieve excellence.
We're always on the lookout for partners on the journey toward a more sustainable world. If you have a data feed and a passion for excellence, we would love to work with you to generate actionable insights to improve your network.
See the whole picture, tell the story of your network, and make it better.
This article was first delivered as a presentation by Miki Szikszai at Transport Ticketing Global 2022 in London. Miki Szikszai is an experienced executive and director, specialising in commercialising sustainable services in transit and mobile. He is the CEO of Snapper Services.