THE EFFECT OF SOURCE DATE AUTOMATION ON PARATRANSIT EFFICIENCY

The purpose of this research was to investigate the use of statistical process control methods to monitor the effect of an automated passenger data collection technology on transit performance. Control charts were constructed to evaluate process consistency in a small urban transit system. While performance was consistent prior to the technology implementation, operating data exhibited an upward trend after the technology was introduced, indicating improved performance. Comparison of control charting results with traditional analysis of variance results revealed that the control charting methodology detected performance changes more rapidly. This finding illustrates that control-charting techniques are well suited to monitoring the effects of new technologies and other improvements.