Utilize In-house Personnel over Outside Consultants to Manage and Oversee the Implementation of New Transit Communication Systems.
Comprehensive Study in Cleveland Documents Best Practices on Upgrading Communication Systems on Transit Vehicles.
Cleveland, Ohio, United States
Advanced Transportation and Congestion Management Technologies Final Report
Summary Information
Public transit vehicles operated by the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA) are equipped with radios and computers to ensure communication to each operator along with vehicle location. As RTA's radio system was last updated in 2001, it was no longer supported by most vendors and many components could not be purchased/replaced, creating major safety issues for RTA.
Using funding granted through the Advanced Transportation and Congestion Management Technologies Deployment (ATCMTD) Program, RTA replaced and upgraded their communication and CAD/AVL system over a 14- month period (July 2019 – September 2020) to provide safe and reliable radio communication while enhancing technology for riders.
- Dedicate internal team members to technological deployments. RTA’s recommendation from this project was to manage projects internally when implementing new systems, which allowed the team members to understand the system thoroughly and ensure improved quality assurance and delivery. For example, a dedicated three-person team was used for this project. If an outside consultant had been hired, RTA staff would know less and would likely not be able to manage the system as effectively as they do today.
