Best Practices in Communicating About the Coronavirus Pandemic
Earlier this month we wrote about the role transit agencies can play in sharing information about COVID-19. Since then, the number of cases of the coronavirus has grown exponentially in the United States. Some states have issued stay-at-home orders for their residents, including our home state of California.
It’s hard to believe how much has changed in our daily lives in just a couple weeks.
This pandemic has far-reaching implications for the transit industry. Some transit providers have reduced their service, others have taken steps to decrease interactions between drivers and passengers, and some have completely canceled their service for the time being. (Check out last week’s New York Times piece on how COVID-19 has impacted larger agencies across the country.)
Regardless of what actions a transit agency takes in response to the pandemic, it’s important to communicate changes with riders so they can plan accordingly. In this post we’ll take a look at some best practices on updating riders, with a special focus on transit providers using GMV technology.
Action: Reducing Service
In light of COVID-19, many agencies across the country have reduced their service, often to weekend or holiday schedules. Connect Transit in Illinois, SporTran in Louisiana, and the City of Commerce in California are among the transit providers that have reduced their service. These agencies used GMV rider notifications tools to rapidly push out service change alerts to their websites, mobile apps, and text message subscribers.
Connect Transit announced its schedule change via its mobile rider app
Action: Limiting Interactions Between Drivers and Riders
To increase the space between drivers and riders, Gold Coast Transit District in California and University of Iowa’s CAMBUS ask riders to enter and exit using the back door. Both providers used our public service announcement tool to instantly share the message across their fleet. Click the play button below to hear an onboard audio announcement at the University of Iowa:
Attention riders: Please board and exit CAMBUS through the back doors. Riders needing assistance may board through the front doors.
Los Angeles Metro also introduced a rear door entry policy. To help inform riders of this change, Metro used our Messages tool to push the alert to digital signs across their system. That message was seamlessly made available as a spoken announcement for passengers who push the audio button at stops. Click the play button below to both see and hear the announcement.
The University of South Florida’s transit system has limited the number of riders allowed on their buses. Using our announcements and rider notifications tools, USF instantly shared the new policy alert to their website and text message subscribers.
A screenshot from USF transit system’s public website announcing the new rider policy
Key West Transit in Florida and the City of Coralville in Iowa have stopped collecting fares as an additional precaution. Using our Messages tool, Coralville Transit pushed an announcement about the change via GTFS Realtime to the Transit App. Here’s how the announcement looks in our software:
The view of Coralville’s GTFS Realtime alert in Sync Messages tool
Action: Suspending Service
Some transit providers have suspended service on particular routes or stops, or canceled their service entirely, in response to the pandemic. The City of Thousand Oaks used our Messages tool to announce it was suspending all service via GTFS Realtime. Here’s how it looks from the Transit App:
Thousand Oaks Transit pushed their service alert to the Transit App via GTFS Realtime
As the coronavirus pandemic evolves over the following weeks, transit agencies across the country will be forced to reevaluate their operations. Some will continue to operate, providing a vital service for their communities, while others may decrease or temporarily suspend their service. Others will incorporate new policies that aim to protect the health of their employees and riders.
Whatever actions your agency decides to take, it is important to keep your riders updated with the most current information. By giving you a glimpse of how our partner agencies are currently keeping their communities updated, we hope to provide inspiration and guidance for how your agency can better inform your riders.
Do you have any tips or examples for how your agency is communicating with your riders about policies or service changes during the coronavirus pandemic? Get in touch with us at updates@gmvsync.com.