Q: Does Ridecheck Plus do NTD reporting?
A: Yes, either checker and APC data is used by Ridecheck Plus to estimate boardings and passenger miles for a fiscal year. The system follows FTA Circular 2710.1A for checker data. For automtic passenger counter data, Ridecheck Plus does NTD Reporting via data mining, and RSM Services supplies a qualified statistician to certify the methodology.
Q: What types of surveys does Ridecheck Plus support?
A: Ridechecks, bus pointchecks, rail pointchecks, AVLchecks, farechecks and parkchecks.
Q: Does Ridecheck Plus do rail pointchecks where several checkers stand on a platform?
A: Yes. When using handheld devices with our software, each checker handles multiple rail cars. The lead checker enters train number, arrive time and depart time. Each checker enters ons, offs and leaving load for their cars. The work from several checkers is merged by Ridecheck Plus into one station pointcheck for each passing train.
Q: What is a parkcheck?
A: It a survey to periodically determine utilization of parking spaces in the agency's lots or garages. Ridecheck Plus prints paper forms, or a checker can use tablet devices with our software. It is common to record vehicles by some attribute, like the county-of-origin on the license plate.
Q: When is Microsoft Access used for data storage?
A: Access is quite suitable for lesser amounts of data as collected only by checkers.
Q: When do you recommend Oracle or SQL Server for data storage?
A: An enterprise database is necessary for the great amount of data provided by APCs. The two schemas for Oracle and SQL Server are tuned for efficient data retrieval, including partitioning of data by signup and automatic rebuilding of indexes. The enterprise schemas substantial PL/SQL or T/SQL code to process APC data each evening.
Q: Why is Ridecheck Plus integrated with Trapeze FX and Hastus?
A: There are two reasons. First, Ridecheck Plus needs transit system information (routes, directions, stops, timepoints, patterns, scheduled trips, blocks, runs, garages, etc) to build blank surveys for checkers. Second, Ridecheck Plus spots questionable or incomplete APC data by comparison against schedule information. It just makes sense to import system information from these popular scheduling systems.
Q: Can I get schedule information into Ridecheck Plus if my agency does not have a scheduling system?
A: Yes. A data entry clerk can key in transit system information. Also, one can import routes, stops, patterns, scheduled trips and vehicles from an Access, Excel and ASCII text files.
Q: How much cleaning of APC data does Ridecheck Plus do?
A: It's somewhat up to the customer. Ridecheck Plus has over fifty business rules which the agency can individually enable or disable, and set a threshold for corrective action. Most business rules are quite logical. For example, if a bus counts 300 boardings and 100 alightings in a day's work, then something is wrong with the data. Rules are intended to keep questionable and incomplete from the planners, schedulers and decision makers.
Q: Will I ever know the reason why Ridecheck Plus rejects APC data?
A: Yes. Ridecheck Plus has a variety of reports on discarded data. The system retains such APC data in the original form in a separate table. All this is useful is correcting issues, such a faulty equipment or an out-of-date stop inventory.
Q: Can Ridecheck Plus be used to reduce operating expense and make my agency more efficient?
A: Absolutely yes. It's the most quoted reason by customers in using our system. Ridecheck Plus identifies under performing routes, trips and segments of trips. Other reports compare actual and scheduled running times, so as to lead to a more efficient schedule. One report lists actual and scheduled pullout and pullin times which, again, in a quest to reduce non-productive labor time.
Q: Does staff need to know SQL or database language to retrieve data?
A: No. Ridecheck Plus is intended for all staff, even those without knowledge of databases. A user builds a filter by point-n-click to retrieive, for example, surveys for route #1, weekday service and AM peak time period. It's a straight-forword approach to bring ridership analysis to staff at all skill levels.
Q: Does the Ridecheck Plus handheld software incorporate GPS tracking?
A: Yes. A screen displays stops in travel order. The handheld software automatically sets the cursor to the next stop as the vehicle comes within 200 feet. For stops without official coordinates, Ridecheck Plus enters the actual latitude and longitude.
Q: Is Ridecheck Plus an open system?
A: Yes. A Ridecheck Plus Adminstrator can import various information. Any user can filter and export survey data to Access, Excel and ASCII text files, as well as routes, stops, patterns, scheduled trips and vehicles.
Q: Does RSM Services provide ongoing support and maintenance?
A: Yes. One year of support and maintenance is provided with all projects and, thereafter, is available in one-year increments. Some agencies contract for three or five years of support. Maintenance provides periodic application and database updates to keep an agency current with technology changes and new features.
Q: Can Ridecheck Plus handle CAD/AVL data?
A: Yes. Ridecheck Plus processes data from Automatic Vehicle Location equipment, and provides an assortment of reports on running times and ontime adherence.
Q: Can Ridecheck Plus accept data from multiple vendors?
A: Yes. At one agency, Ridecheck Plus concurrently processes APC data from three vendors.
Q: Does Ridecheck Plus give a geographical presentation of ridership?
A: Yes. The GIS Module overlays ESRI's popular ArcMap product, and adds menu items to the existing ArcMap menu bar. A user sees boardings and alightings by stop, city, county, traffic analysis zone and census tract. Other measures include load and ontime adherence. Ridecheck Plus doesn't use a batch export of data to ArcMap. Rather, one selects a user-defined filter to make a direct query to the Access, Oracle or SQL Server database.
Q: Can Ridecheck Plus be delivered over the web?
A: Yes. A few customers serve up Ridecheck Plus over the web where users have the Internet Explorer browser. Most customers do a client-server delivery of the system. The application's appearance and functionality is identical with the two delivery methods, except web delivery also provides dashboards of key measures on the initial webpage.
