Speaker: Steve Callas, Coordinator of Service and Performance Analysis within Tri-Met's Transportation Planning Department

Urban transit service providers are turning towards Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) technology in an effort to better manage bus operations in the face of growing traffic congestion and passenger demands for more reliable service. However, very few transit agencies are taking advantage of the large amounts of archived data that these systems provide.

Recently, Tri-Met, the regional transit agency in Portland, Oregon, installed a technologically advanced bus dispatch system (BDS) which utilizes a GPS based automatic vehicle location system. Besides providing real time information to dispatchers, the system is used to collect and archive an enormous amount of data related to bus operations. In addition, more than 60 percent of Tri-Met?s 700 buses are equipped with automatic passenger counters (APCs) which adds stop level boarding and alighting information.

The presentation focused on the various types of data Tri-Met is collecting and the unique and different ways the information is being used to improve transit operations and performance.

Steve Callas is the Coordinator of Service and Performance Analysis within Tri-Met?s Transportation Planning Department, where he is responsible for operations performance measurement and ridership analysis. Mr. Callas is also involved in various transit operations research projects in conjunction with TransNow and Portland State University.

Steve has a Master?s in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Iowa and has been with Tri-Met for about 4 years. Prior to joining Tri-Met, Mr. Callas worked as a consultant, specializing in transportation economics and planning.