Ridecheck Plus automates the entry, manipulation and reporting of ride check data from onboard surveys. The savings in staff resources can be significant, since many agencies survey several bus trips each day. Using boarding and alighting counts, the software computes ridership for the system, for individual routes and for other cross sections of service. The software tracks other performance indicators, such as ontime performance, passenger miles, vehicle speeds and maximum loads. Ridecheck Plus does NTD ridership reporting for fixed-route service.

Ridecheck Plus is an easy-to-use software -- menu items or push buttons show screens or execute routines. The onscreen forms have check boxes, radio buttons and drop-down list boxes to select choices. In some cases, the user types a specific value.

Ridecheck Plus displays results by a combination of a report and a filter. The report presents information in a specific format. The filter determines the report's underlying records -- anything from all records to only records for weekday service in the AM Peak traveling inbound during the week of April 5th.

Everything Starts Here

The main screen leads to all features.

Initial Setup

When Ridecheck Plus is first installed, agency staff enter information about routes, vehicles, patterns, schedules and a few other items, such as the criteria for ontime performance. The software's import feature is a time saver if information is available in electronic files or another system.

Prepare Survey

There are several ways to create blank survey forms. In one approach, a supervisor selects the schedule, route, direction and trip's start time on the onscreen survey form (below). Ridecheck Plus retrieves the trip information -- a list of stops from the pattern table and arrival times from the schedule table. The supervisor prints a blank survey form for this trip and others in the day's field survey activities.

Conduct Survey

A checker rides the vehicle and records the actual arrival time at timepoints, along with the number of boardings and alightings at all stops, during a trip.

Enter Data

The user recalls the Ridecheck Plus blank survey form which was printed a few days ago, then adds the field data. Here's one survey form with completed information,

Set Filter

Ridecheck Plus allows the user to build a filter by marking checkboxes, selecting items from drop-down list boxes or typing specific values. The most common filter criteria are route (#12), service type (Express), time period (AM Peak) and date range (September 1-31). However, the filter can have nearly any criteria for which values are collected or computed. For example, a filter might return only bus trips which fall below 85% ontime, or trips in which maximum loading is less than five persons. There are many, many filters which a planner might devise to expose good or bad performance in a transit system. Once created, any individual on the system can use the filter.

Generate A Report

Pick a report from many choices in a drop-down list. A report has a specific format, but the current filter controls the data in the report. The following report covers the AM Peak period during weekday service,

Agency Analysis & Reporting

One report is illustrated above, but Ridecheck Plus has many more. The content of each report is controlled by the user-defined filter.

FTA Reporting

In addition to handling an agency's internal needs, Ridecheck Plus uses an approved sampling method to satisfy the mandatory ridership reporting requirements of the Federal Transit Agency.

Geographic Analysis

Most of the software's reports have tabular or chart format. Ridecheck Plus also can show ridership data on a geographic map. It's a good way to see information at the stop level, or accumulated by city, county, traffic analysis zone and census tract.

System-wide Survey

Agencies periodically survey of every trip in a route or the entire system. Ridecheck Plus is ideally suited for these major undertakings.

Open System

Ridecheck Plus is an open system in that it freely exchanges information with other systems.

Other Interesting Facts

Ridecheck Plus runs on workstations running Windows NT/2000/XP. The database resides on a file server so that many planners, managers and other staff can maintain and use the information. Ridecheck Plus comes with printed documentation and context-sensitive online help. A fixed fee covers,

• Software Licensing
• Installation
• Staff Training
• Telephone Support
• Maintenance Upgrades

RSM Services offers professional services in conjunction with software licensing, such as the conversion and loading of pre-existing ridecheck data; the initial setup of route, patterns and schedules; development of custom reports; and addition of custom features.