International Transportation (67) 2 | 2015 29 Urban mobility and quality of-life supported by IT Planning, scheduling, operational control, passenger information, IT system, Latin America The viability and economic performance of cities depends on the availability and efficiency of public transport. The example of Santiago de Cali in Colombia shows how modern IT systems can contribute to making mobility systems in urban regions future-proof. Within just a few years, IVU Traffic Technologies AG has built up a comprehensive system for planning and scheduling of buses and drivers, operational control, passenger information and billing in Santiago de Cali. The project has revolutionized transport in the city and has been recognized with the UITP Award. Author: Claudia Feix S antiago de Cali is a typical Latin American metropolis: around 2.5 million inhabitants, heavy road traffic and, until recently, no regulated public transport. Anyone traveling by foot who wanted to cover longer stretches within the city had to take a taxi or one of the more than ten thousand minibuses plying for business according to a system that was completely incomprehensible to those accustomed to European standards. Routes, bus stops and timetables? No chance! Instead, the Caleños were prepared to simply stand at the curb, raising an arm to signal to passing minibuses that they wanted a ride. A sign on the windshield showed the destination, thus indicating the general direction the journey would be taking. If passengers were near their destination or at a major intersection where they could change to another bus, they signaled to the driver that they wanted to get off, and the bus stopped (figure 1). Congestion, accidents and traffic jams were part of everyday life. Nobody was able to say in advance when they would reach their destination - the main objective was simply to arrive. Not only did this make journeys within and across the city unpredictable, it was highly inefficient as well. No real control existed over when, where and how many buses were on the road. This resulted in routes subject to high demand being served by many more vehicles than was necessary. Meanwhile, there was a shortage of capacity elsewhere. New IT infrastructure for operational control The administration in Cali decided to take action in order to ease the traffic burden in the city and reduce the associated air pollution. They initiated a large-scale project called “MIO para todos”, creating an entirely new public transport infrastructure. Since 2009, modern buses have been operating a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system along the main traffic arteries of the city, running on dedicated bus lanes with fixed stops. The UTR&T consortium was responsible for the construction and operation of this BRT system, called the Masivo Integrado de Occidente (MIO = Western Mass Integrated). The consortium takes care of the ticket outlets, control and communications Photo: David Alejandro Rendón/ Wikipedia Local Public Transport BEST PRACTICE International Transportation (67) 2 | 2015 30 BEST PRACTICE Local Public Transport systems, passenger information and fleet management. UTR&T is committed to sustainable passenger transport on the basis of smart IT systems and cutting-edge technologies. They commissioned IVU Traffic Technologies AG to deliver systems for planning, scheduling and operational control of the entire fleet, equipping the vehicles with on-board computers and providing systems for passenger information at bus stops and on the buses themselves. Crucial to this decision was the provider’s ability to procure everything from a single source. The integrated standard system called IVU.suite met the Colombians’ requirements perfectly because it comprises all the software and hardware components required to control the entire operation of a bus company, thus allowing the rapid realization of the project. On this basis it was possible to implement the system in Cali in just a few months and put it into operation on time. Design and operation of the system Planning and scheduling Using the IVU.plan module, the transport providers in Cali are now creating the first systematic timetables, vehicle schedules and driver rosters for public transport in their city - a novelty for both managers and employees, but essential for the stable operation of a modern BRT. Depending on the day and time, the planners define different cycle times according to requirements. Connection planning makes it possible to set up appropriate transfer times at traffic junctions so that passengers do not have unnecessary waits. Another prerequisite for a functioning BRT are coordinated vehicle schedules and crew rosters that are precisely matched to the timetable. These can also be created and saved in IVU.plan. This allows the integrated planning of vehicle and crew schedules so that all resources can be employed as- efficiently as possible. Sophisticated optimization routines are also available for optimum exploitation of the existing potential. Finally, the system transfers the finished plans to the IVU.vehicle and IVU. crew dispatch modules, which manage the- daily dispatching of vehicles and personnel. In Cali, in contrast to other cities, the vehicles are distributed over all existing bus routes. As a consequence, there is no fixed assignment of a bus operator to a particular route, for example. This allows the available resources to be utilized as effectively as possible. In combination with the optimization functions offered by IVU.plan, this has resulted in Cali requiring only 1,000 vehicles for the public transport system to run smoothly. This compares with the 2,700 vehicles that would normally be required according to the rule of thumb that states that 1,000 vehicles are needed per 1 million residents. Fleet management For Cali, one far-reaching innovation involved the control of the ongoing operation. In order to make sure that the timetable was adhered to and the buses departed on time, the municipal transport authority, Metrocali, established a central control room that now maintains a constant overview of the current operating situation and the status of the individual vehicles. For this, the IVU.box on-board computer (figure 2), the IVU.cockpit on-board system and the IVU.fleet control center software are used in combination. Each bus is equipped with its own onboard computer that controls the entire vehicle equipment periphery. The devices ▲ Figure 2: On-board unit IVU.box.touch Source: IVU Traffic Technologies ◀ Figure 1: The old buses that made up what used to be the city’s transport system. Photo: David Alejandro Rendón/ Wikipedia BACKGROUND INfORMATION A textbook example of modernization At the 59th World Congress 2011 in Dubai, UITP honored the "MIO para todos" project with the "Research and Knowledge" Award. The judges praised the system as a model for sustainable development of a public transport network in a region that is characterized by excessive private transport, traffic overload and an increase in accident rates. The following year, the Colombian Parliament honored IVU Traffic Technologies AG for their outstanding contribution to the implementation of the new transport system with the Grand Cross of Alexander von Humboldt. International Transportation (67) 2 | 2015 31 Local Public Transport BEST PRACTICE feature a number of interfaces to common analogue and digital positioning and communication systems as well as links to the passenger information systems in the vehicles. The heart of the system is the IVU. cockpit operating software. It collects all data generated during the journey, shows the timetable situation on the driver’s display, informs the passengers about the next stop and ensures that there is voice and data communication with the control center. This means that the dispatcher in the control center knows where a vehicle is located at any point of time and can intervene if necessary. With the new buses, breakdowns are an exceptional event today, and accidents or traffic jams are also becoming a non-issue, thanks to the dedicated BRT bus lane (figure 3). However, in case there are disruptions to operations, automatic scheduling functions help find solutions quickly and, for example, ensure that connections can still be made. Passenger information and controlling Closely linked to this is the dynamic realtime passenger information function - a revolution for the Caleños, who had been accustomed to taking the buses as they came. Today, the current bus departure times can be read off the displays at the bus stops or accessed on the Internet by smartphone. For this the Colombians use IVU. realtime, which is connected directly to the control center and provides the data via standardized interfaces. On top of that, the MIO online trip planner uses IVU.journey to calculate the optimal connection from door to door. And last but not least, IVU.control has been implemented as a powerful system for the comprehensive evaluation and analysis of the transportation service. Interacting with the IVU.fleet control center software, it captures how many kilometers a bus has actually been driven, and thus makes it possible to accurately divide up the revenue, according to a flexible key, between the individual operating companies. Statistics on punctuality, regularity, connection quality, outages and numerous other parameters provide detailed information on the performance of the BRT and enable the authorities to operate a targeted quality management system. Conclusion With the comprehensive modernization of its local public transport system, Santiago de Cali has taken on a pioneering role, both on the South American continent and on the international level. Thanks to the consistent use of IT systems, the authorities are now able to comprehensively control the public transport system and flexibly adapt it to current demand. Rides are now on time, passengers receive constantly updated information and the operators are remunerated according to performance rather than with a lump sum - overall, the entire system is now much more efficient and sustainable than previously. This also benefits the city. The current tally of 900 buses has replaced around 5,000 of the old minibuses. Every day MIO reliably transports around 600,000 passengers to their destinations. Over just a few years since the introduction of the system, the number and density of traffic jams has declined noticeably, and the number of road deaths has fallen by almost 70 percent. And there has been a measurable decrease in air pollution as well. In other words: The quality of life has improved, the threat of gridlock has been averted. ■ Claudia Feix, Dr. Area Manager Latin America, Bogotá, IVU Traffic Technologies AG claudia.feix@ivu.de Figure 3: MIO buses pass the traffic jams in separate lanes. Photo: MIO International Transportation 1/ 2016 Green and smart Sustainable Transport - Digital Mobility • Release date: 12 May 2016 • Submission deadline for articles: 07 April 2016 Contact: Eberhard Buhl, Managing Editor, eberhard.buhl@dvvmedia.com